Front Row Pics: The Empty Hearts @ The Saint at Asbury Park, NJ
The Empty Hearts, a new legitimate and charismatic supergroup featuring founding members of Blondie, The Cars and The Romantics, is just wrapping a coast to coast US tour and we were lucky enough to cover their December 5 show at The Saint at Asbury Park, just a few days before the tour’s final stop on December 8 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in NYC. More about the band to follow, but first things first ~ here are photos of The Empty Hearts, with openers The Way Out and Casino Sundae, rockin’ The Saint and lighting up Asbury Park…Enjoy!
The Empty Hearts
Casino Sundae
The Way Out
The album
The Empty Hearts lineup is Romantics singer/guitarist Wally Palmar (who also contributes his harmonica playing), Cars guitarist Elliot Easton, Blondie drummer (and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer) Clem Burke, and Chesterfield Kings bassist Andy Babiuk. The band’s self-titled debut album, which was released in worldwide in August on 429 Records, deftly weaves together influences from classic 1950s rock ‘n’ roll, British Invasion era groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks, and the garage-punk sounds of the late ’70s into one hell of a lively collection of tunes, spotlighting each musician’s skill and unique style. It was produced by Ramones collaborator Ed Stasium and features musical contributions from Faces and Small Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan; it is available via iTunes and Amazon. This is an album you would regret not purchasing, it’s that good.
If you missed The Empty Hearts on this tour, first, don’t make the same mistake next time, as their show is amazing from start to finish ~ exactly what you’d expect from such talented, experienced, musicians whose love for music and performing is contagious ~ and second, check out The Huffington Post’s premiere of the video for “90 Miles An Hour Down A Dead End Street,” the lead track off the album, and the band playing in-studio (and doing an informal interview) with Heidi and Frank of 95.5 KLOS here.
Also find out additional information about the band, the members’ individual histories, and more via the links below:
facebook.com/Theemptyheartsband
To view more of Jeff’s photography, please visit jeffcrespiROCKS.