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Credit: Charles Reagan (from the Sea Hear Now Instagram)
Shorter In Person
I attended a ton of incredible concerts in 2024, but by far the most memorable was Sea Hear Now: the 5th year of the festival held on the beach in Asbury Park, NJ. It’s a fest has been mentioned on plenty of best of lists and even in a Netflix doc, but what I pulled from that weekend was more than just 2 days of great music. I happened into a revelation about music, and art in general, that injected me with hope and creative inspiration.
Asbury is the music center of New Jersey, the home of Bruce Springsteen, one of the greatest beach towns in the world, and coincidentally also where I live. Yet, even with all of that going for any Asbury music festival, I’m typically not a big Sea Hear Now fan. Over the past few years, the owners of the festival have booked superstar headliners (Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Killers) supported with only a thin lineup of touring artists and local openers. Despite the top heavy lineups of years’ past, the fest has made buckets of money by over-selling tickets, cutting amenities for non-VIPs, and charging exorbitant prices for everything. Good music, incredible location, but at a cost (financial and mental) that has had me listening from outside the fences more years than not. However, this year was something different.
In 2024, the price for a two-day wristband was bearable, because headlining day 2 was Asbury’s golden boy himself, Bruce Springsteen, playing for 3 hours in front of the legendary Stone Pony. That is on top of day 1 headliner Noah Kahan, and a packed lineup which included Jersey icons Cool & and the Gang (2024 Rock n Roll hall of fame inductee), Gaslight Anthem, and Joe P, as well as artists as diverse in sound as Norah Jones, the Hives, the Black Crowes, and Action Bronson. With a once in a lifetime lineup like that, I had to go no matter the cost, which again, was too high. As you may have heard, the festival was a massive success. There was incredible weather, mountains of merch sales, and exceptional performances, in particular from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, featuring appearances from Clarence Clemons’ nephew (Jake Clemmons) and Bruce’s wife (Patti Scialfa). But the most valuable experience that I had during the fest wasn’t what I expected.
After 2 days of sets in the sun, I found my spot in the sea 35,000 ecstatic fans stretched over a mile long stretch of beach for Sunday night’s Springsteen spectacular. From the moment the stage lights turned on, the crowd was dancing, and Bruce was on fire. A few songs in, the ocean winds picked up, and from the back of Bruce’s famous noggin, his cowlick stood straight up. Despite his shorter hair these days, those strands still had enough to work with to create a silly peacock look. As a fellow hair-sticker-upper, I can relate to how frustratingly hard to fix this can be, and how embarrassing it is to realize that everyone has been looking at your Alfalfa hairstyle. For a hair related mishap, in the middle of an epic and emotional homecoming performance is as bad as timing can get, yet Bruce admirably soldiered on.
Eventually Bruce’s hair found its place as the winds slowed, but then about a third of the way into the set, the video screens went black. With such a large crowd, these screens had been supplying at least 75% of the attendees (myself included) with their only visual on the Boss. The music remained, but with the screens out for over 15 minutes, and the sound being hampered by the nearby waves, the crowd grew restless. Some people began to leave, a stain on a perfect night, like a hair sticking up in the midst of an iconic performance. Luckily after some time, as abrupt as they cut out, the screens returned, and the crowded roared to life, singing along at a volume that more than compensated for the waves and straining sound system.
On the walk home, I thought about the incredible performance I had witnessed, flaws and all, and it reminded me of the common anecdote that famous people are “shorter in person”. This is the phenomenon that many assume actors and artists are big physically because of their large talent or personality, but in reality, they are usually pretty small. Fans come off from these encounters realizing that their idol is just a normal person, similar to me seeing Bruce with his hair misbehaving. In part, these experiences are deflating. We all want to believe that there are super humans out there that can achieve the important things, while we can sit and watch them go, but even phenomenal artists are imperfect people like us. For every aspect of life that they excel at, there is something else that they are average at or worse, even if it’s just their height or their hair. If inspirational creators are human, that does make them less than a superhero, but it also reminds us fans that, like us, they are flawed yet capable. This is an empowering realization, and one that makes their work even more relatable.
However, the fan’s experience is not the only side to this interaction, art exposing the creator is a two-way street. When a performer is on stage, they and their art are up for examination, along with their limitations as an artist and a person, which are held within their work. In any performance there will be missed notes, poor timing, creative missteps, and gear malfunctions. The song, film, or other artwork itself will likely also divulge the creator’s own failures, pains, heartbreak, and weaknesses, further proving their inadequacies and humanity. As Van Gogh (played by William Dafoe) says in the film At Eternity’s Gate, “I paint with my qualities and my faults”. Not only is the process of creating difficult in its own right, but it’s also excruciating to show that art to the world, and admit your own imperfections and inadequacies, and perhaps even to have even more previously unknown ones pointed out to you by the audience.
This swirl of frustration, self-doubt, and embarrassment is a feeling that I knew even an entertainment veteran like Bruce must have felt to some extent as his screens cut out and his hair wouldn’t cooperate. It’s also a feeling that I relate to myself even more so than the fan side of this equation. I have been a writer and creative person my entire life, and there’s nothing I’d rather spend my time doing. I’m constantly working on creative projects in my free time, which led to the creation of this site, and all sorts of other art, but even during my day job as a lawyer, I work with artists strategizing how they can create more effectively and reach their audience. Despite all that, for me creating is still painful, and particularly publishing work and displaying it to the world is exceptionally difficult. This is the reason it has taken me so long to post this article and return to writing about the music world regularly. I struggle with my imperfect brain and the imperfect art it produces, and the frustration of falling short of my ideal. My screens cut out and my hair sticks up, literally and figuratively, which has been a major challenge, but Bruce’s performance reminded me why it is important to create and display work even when it’s imperfect and at times painful.
Art is a human expression, and humans are as flawed and imperfect as the world that we live in, so if art is going to reflect the human experience and be relatable to other humans, then of course it shouldn’t be flawless and perfect. I struggle with the errors in my work as many other artists do, but we should try instead to embrace creating imperfect work that reminds our audiences of our shared humanity. I would have taken so much less from that fest if Bruce’s hair hadn’t stood up. That’s something I am trying to keep in mind throughout the year.
I’ll be back throughout the year with more Hendo’s Headspace articles about all different topics, as frequently as I can. Some of them might be more imperfect than others. Below I have included a list of a bunch of my favorite releases of 2024, as well as a few of my favorite releases by artists that I work with. Have a nice start to your 2025. – Hendo
My 8 Favorite Releases of 2024 (that I didn’t work on):
Half Waif – See You At The Maypole
Vince Staples – Dark Times
Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood
GloRilla – Ehhthang Ehhthang
Ekko Astral – pink balloons
Latto – Sugar Honey Iced Tea
This Is Lorelei – Box for Buddy, Box for Star
Joey Valance & Brae – No Hands
My 8 Favorite Releases of 2024 (from H Cole Law Clients):
MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks
Oso Oso – life till bones
Bloomsday – Heart of the Artichoke
Carpool – My Life In Subtitles
Balance and Composure- With you in spirit
Cliffdiver – Birdwatching
Heart To Gold – Free Help
Ben Quad – Ephemera
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