Ghost Light gave fans a weekend surprise on Friday with the release of A Night In Asbury Park live album. The live release revisits the band’s full May 17th, 2019 performance at Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
This latest live album from the five-piece rock outfit follows the release of Cervantes (Live) back in May, which caught the band at the famed Denver venue on March 30th, 2019. Throughout the pandemic, guitarist Tom Hamilton, as well as Holly Bowling, have both pursued solo outlets with the former reuniting with his high school band for a livestream, and the latter releasing a new collection of Grateful Dead covers.
A Night In Asbury Park finds Ghost Light at the tail end of their spring tour as they are red hot from months of playing together out on the road. Even with 13 unique songs played throughout the evening, the band is still able to take a good number of tracks out for some extended rides, including the opening “Nickels & Dimes”, “Keep Your Hands To Yourselves”, and a noteworthy “Fever Dreams” that the band just can’t let go of, reprising it for the penultimate number. According to singer/guitarist Raina Mullen, the show was in jeopardy due to a back injury sustained by Hamilton which forced them to postpone their performance at Connecticut’s Space Ballroom.
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“The Asbury Park show was sort of a comeback show because Tommy had hurt his back and we had to reschedule a few of the previous shows,” Mullen said. “He was still in a ton of pain and was walking with a cane but he got up there and ripped it apart. I was worried for him and I think that we all put in our best efforts to try to keep his spirits up. Helping each other out is a big part of being in our band and I feel like we really came together on this one and did some really interesting and exciting things on stage that night.”
Hamilton added of the experience, “That night on the drive home after the show I spent the entire Jersey Turnpike thinking about the jam out of Fever Dreams. We had only been playing together for a year and it was [bassist] Dan [Africano]’s first tour as a member. That jam and the decisions that were made, that was a band. When I saw that we had the multitrack available for that show, it was a no-brainer to get this out there.”
Stream Ghost Light A Night In Asbury Park via the Spotify player below or on streaming services here.
Ghost Light – A Night In Asbury Park (05.17.19)