Last Night's Show 1/16/26- Friendship Mountain, Egg Harbor, NJ

 

1/17/26  

    Last night I performed at Friendship Mountain in scenic Egg Harbor New Jersey in support of Plutonian Burrito's Winter tour. The entire day was a fucking doozie. Most of the things that could have went wrong did and I spent the entire night until my set an anxious mess. Against all of that I had a wonderful evening with old and new friends and a reminder of why I love to play house shows. 

     I first met Plutonian Burrito at Friendship Mountain nearly a decade ago. Tomato Face was asked to play this show and having no prior knowledge of the space or the bands we jumped in head first. The show was great and ever since I have had a good rapport with both Scott and Charles and we've played various shows together since. When I saw they were coming back to the mountain I jumped on a chance to play with them there again. 

    The day started out like a typical Friday; at work. I do a 7-3 shift and while I hate waking up early, it was the most with it in the morning I've been all week. Everything was running smoothly: I had a plan to pack up after work, go get some new merch printed, head off to the show and maybe stop at a comic shop on the way. About an hour into my shift my phones screen decided to stop working all together. 

    My phone over the past few weeks has been super glitchy and was acting like a feather was rapidly brushing up against it. Programs would shut down, switch to to other apps, the works. I was able to manage dealing with it but the screen finally decided to give out. I could see any notifications being sent to me but I was helpless to respond. 

    This would be an issue for the show because I run all of my backing tracks off of my phone. No phone= no show. So I spent the next few hours racking my brain to come up with a workaround. I settled on burning my backing tracks onto a cd and playing it off a newly acquired CD alarm clock I picked up thrifting. It's the same model I used in middle/ high school and thought it would be nifty to own own again. Regardless of the fix, I realized I had a bunch of other stuff I needed to get done before leaving (like trying to get my phone fixed) and the anxiety was sitting in my gut to the point I needed to leave work early and get working. 

    I burnt the cd, wrapped up a few loose ends, pack the car and got the fuck out of there. The first stop was the apple store at the mall. The unenthusiastic employee was pretty blunt about how they couldn't fix the screen because the back was cracked and they didn't fix the backs. Apparently no one does? And it's expensive to do??! So defeated and with boba tea in hand, I left the mall to go to the only other place that I know fixes phones in the city...and they were closed -__-

    So with that I tracked to the local office max to print some covers for physical editions of Tomato Jake Plays The Eggs and TFJ vol. 1! The Eggs is a beautiful 3.5" mini disc the came out perfect and TFJ is a big ol  CD where the label was too big. I ended up cutting off large chunks of text but I think it kind of worked in the spirit of the aesthetic. 

 

The Goods 

    The aesthetic in question is a replication from one of the wildest albums I've ever heard titled New Harmony by Shiva. The best way to describe the album is "noise reverb love songs". It's a tough album to get through but one I recommend you audibly work up the tolerance to endure. I have no love for the man as he was charged with animal abuse for not using horse shoes for his horse and feeding it peppers, but the album is truly a unique outside artist experience.

Shiva Unplugged

    SO! With everything ready to go I embarked on the long trek to Egg Harbor, NJ. It's an interesting area; very flat, forested and isolated. The address I put into my partners GPS was the same one from 10 years ago and since my phone wasn't working we hoped for the best. Luckily it was the same house! 

    The first act was Malcolm Tent, a geriatric accordion punk three piece. I really enjoyed their set. The music sounded like unplugged devo and the lyrics were competent with almost elementary level rhyming. He was not about that punk rock time coz at least 4 times he tried to start his set and would just play or tell a story while everyone was mingling. Also, I was having a very difficult time finding his material online as there is another Malcolm Tent who has that name on lock down on the internet. You can listen to his music here and his facebook is here.

    Next Plutonian Burrito performed. They are an experimental/ improve noise/ thrash duo from Panama City Beach, FL and New Orleans respectively. Their sets are always a blast. Scott makes some amazing visuals and noise contraptions. There's a great podcast you can listen to to get an in depth look at Scott's career here. There was this huge dude screaming and going nuts and trying to start a mosh it with the 7 other people in the kitchen and it was tense at first but turned out all right. 

     Next was me! The cd player kind of sucked to perform with. It kept skipping. Also at some point I lost the thumb drive where my visuals resided so I had to play in the boring kitchen lighting after Plutonian killed it with their visuals. All and all I kept up pretty well despite everything going against me. a big lifesaver was my newly acquired bass amp (a slightly worn Fender Rumble 500). I was able to run the cd player through the amp and had it sounding with my bass. Also I don't think that PA could have handled my bass running through it. 

     Finally Gluck Gluck ended the night. The residential noise duo kept things heavy, noisy but dancable. I don't have much to mention coz they were just solid af. They seem to have a good deal of material so check them out here. 

    Afterwards I stayed way too late catching up with everyone. I love how folks my age are still engaging with DIY culture. I think it's super important that these spaces keep happening. The way to fight against these technocrats and "industry gatekeepers" is to return the focus to the physical realm, and preferably a space that doesn't rely on musicians labor to sustain it's operating ability. All it takes if your presence and a few bucks for the touring band and we can vastly alter a musical landscape that has been in decline for decades.

That's all I have to say for now (whoosh!). I'll be hitting the road soon. Hopefully I'll see you if you're down south. Get hype.