Calendar

Every month H.A.G.S., Asbury Park's longest running comedy show, features several up-and-coming comics that have been featured on MTV, COMEDY CENTRAL, BUZZFEED, NBC, and clubs/festivals around the country, as well as a featured band to open the show up! Opening the show is always a music act you should be throwing money at. Prizes from Asbury's own Rebel Supply Company and whatever JC and Joe find.

Forming after a series of basement practices in New Jersey circa 2011 before relocating to Philadelphia, psychedelic quintet Ruby the Hatchet brought together doomy, evil hard rock with occult-flavored psychedelia for a witchy brew of dazzled and ominous wild rock sounds. The band featured guitarist Johnny Scarps, drummer Owen Stewart, bassist Mike Parise, and keyboard player Sean Hur, and was trademarked by the howling, dynamic vocals of Jillian Taylor. In addition to constant gigging, the band had a prolific recording schedule as well, releasing a self-titled EP in 2011 and their debut full-length Ouroboros the next year. In 2014 they released several versions of a single entitled The Eliminator, including a limited-edition release packaged in a wooden box filled with random ephemera. All of this made way for the band's 2015 effort Valley of the Snake, a deeper dive into the band's increasingly gritty stoner rock-influenced sound. Two years later they dropped Planetary Space Child via Teepee Records.

On sale Friday, May 31st at 10am.

Spanning the better part of a decade, the creative evolution between Jeff Gorman and Jake Cochran is far from ordinary. The duo ran an organic farm in the Shenandoah Valley, toured the mid-Atlantic by bicycle, and lived in small communities while pursuing modes of alternative education. Their eclectic background is mirrored in Illiterate Light's sound and lyricism, floating between postmodern confusion and vibrant, life-affirming optimism.

Formed in the summer of 2015, the band transcend expectations of typical rock music through their limitations as a duo. Gorman elevates his gritty guitar melodies and honest lyricism by stomping out thunderous synth bass with his feet as Cochran layers lush vocal harmony and explodes with body convulsing energy around his minimalist standing drum kit. Gorman and Cochran's incessant writing, commanding live performance, and near constant touring promise a bright future as they finish their debut album with Vance Powell (Jack White, Kings of Leon, Chris Stapleton) and Adrian Olsen (Foxygen, Natalie Prass). Their recent EP, "Sweet Beast," is the first taste of what's to come from Illiterate Light.

America's Funnyman Neil Hamburger is the hardest working comedian in existence, performing up to 399 shows a year internationally to critical acclaim and audience bewilderment. He has toured as the hand-picked opener for Tenacious D, Tim & Eric, and Faith No More, appeared on TV shows ranging from Fox News' Red Eye to Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and worked extensively with Tom Green on his internet talk show. Among his dozen or so albums and DVDs is the new LP release, Hot February Night.

"A phlegm-filled sack of putrid self-loathing, Neil Hamburger is the perfect satire of a slick, professional nightclub comedian. If you've ever suspected that behind the glossy veneer of fake bonhomie of those perma-smile acts lies an ugly, embittered, grotesque soul - well Hamburger is that demon made flesh. In some living Sisyphean hell, every night he dons his tuxedo, greases down his hair and ploughs through the vile set that disgusts even him, just so he can earn a three-piece chicken dinner. His contempt for his own pitiful existence is surpassed only for his contempt for the audience who compel him trudge through his despicable cavalcade of jokes. And my, these gags are certainly not for the faint of heart, as he plumbs the depths of depravity for the sake of a laugh." - Chortle (UK)

"Hamburger is the clapped-out husk of a decorous Southern gentleman, now coughing in painful hacks, suppurating filth through his tuxedo, and her to tip a slurry of abuse all over celebrity and modern life... a combination of malignance and desiccated vaudeville." - The Guardian (UK)

"Neil Hamburger remains the greatest comedian I've seen the greater majority of an audience walk out on... No one was leaving their seats this evening though, as this peerless performer shocked and delighted in equal measure... On the road for 12 years with scarcely a day off, Hamburger is a condemned showbiz lag, doomed to perform his antagonistic anti-comedy to potential hostility forever." - The Scotsman (UK)

"A brilliantly awful persona of an old-school, C-list funnyman - the kind with an ill-fitting tuxedo and an enormous, greasy combover - on a very bad night. Neil Hamburger toys with an audience's expectations (and patience), and indeed his act is a kind of rude commentary on stand-up comedy altogether." - New York Times

A seated no talking during the performances, Asbury Cafe show.