Nothing but love for Jersey at Bleachers’ iconic Shadow of the City festival, featuring Real Estate, Toadies, Grace Ives, and Bike Routes
ASBURY PARK, New Jersey – After it was postponed for three months, the eighth annual Shadow of the City returned to the Stone Pony Summer Stage on Friday, August 28. As Jack Antonoff and Bleachers’ signature music festival, the lineup included Real Estate, Toadies, Grace Ives, Bike Routes, and headliner Bleachers at the iconic venue. Antonoff, lead singer of Bleachers, established this Jersey Shore event as a love letter to his home state, which is viewed as a “shadow” of its bustling neighbor, New York City.
In May, Bleachers released their fifth studio album, everyone for ten minutes, which references Apple’s AirDrop feature—it allows people with Apple products to wirelessly share content with fellow users around them for ten minutes. In response, the subtext of the record name then became “Bleachers Forever,” which upholds that although people can connect with anyone for just ten minutes, the Bleachers family is destined to stay connected forever. The day following the record’s release was set to be the official album release party—Shadow’s original date—and the start of their 2026 tour titled Bleachers Forever.
Fans gathered in the early afternoon to make the most of what Shadow offered: a look at Antonoff’s childhood bedroom, a photo booth with a Bleachers Forever theme, t-shirt screen printing, and booths for various organizations. One of which was The Ally Coalition; founded in 2013 by Antonoff and his sister, it’s committed to bettering the lives of LGBTQ+ youth through entertainment industry connections to ultimately provide support to local organizations directly serving these youth.
Commencing on stage was Bike Routes, an emo-leaning indie rock project by South Jersey singer-songwriter David Osterhout. He opened with Homeward Bound, a fitting number for Shadow, which also opens his most recent album Prairie released in June. The “no place like home” track embraces the Jersey-loving theme of the festival without a doubt. He also played other Prairie songs such as Delicate, There It Goes, and Ripley. The crowd was fully immersed in the music as they clapped and danced along to the high-energy punk numbers.
Grace Ives followed with a pop-centric set, making sure she hit all the corners of the platform while singing. She arrived in blue sparkly heels, which she had to remove soon after to allow for maximum movement. Ives performed tracks from her latest album Girlfriend released in March, including Avalanche, Dance With Me, Trouble, and My Mans. During her closer Stupid Bitches, which was a danceable hit for fans, she thanked the New Jersey crowd for listening to her set while jumping to the beat drops.
The third set featured Toadies, a four-piece American rock band originally formed in Texas in 1989. Their record The Charmer was scheduled to be released in 2024, but upon the passing of Steve Albini—who helped record this album—it was delayed by two years. Now, this stage was one of many venues where Toadies celebrated its release. The set included many Charmer tunes, such as Ash’s Theme, Damage, I Walk A Line, and Long Time, along with numbers from Rubberneck, which just reached its thirty-second anniversary. A highlight towards the end was a cover of I Put A Spell On You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, with the crowd devotedly singing along.
The penultimate performance was by Real Estate, an indie rock group formed in New Jersey seventeen years ago—now based in Brooklyn, New York. Frontman Martin Courtney joked about how wild it was that, despite their Garden State origins, the band had never played this quintessential stage before Shadow. They played tracks from their records ranging from 2011’s Days to 2024’s Daniel, alongside some new songs. Even while ending Say No More early, Real Estate had the fans excited and engaged as they played, especially in anticipation of the final set of the night.
After the sun set behind the stage, it was finally time for the artist of the hour. Bleachers walked on stage to Frank Sinatra’s My Way booming out of the speakers, followed by a seamless transition to sideways, marking the start of their set. Antonoff brought various guests to accompany the six-piece band on stage, with the most notable being one of the biggest stars in the eyes of Jersey fans: Bruce Springsteen.
The legendary collaboration began with a cover of Jersey Girl by Tom Waits, and immediately afterwards, the band and Springsteen sang Bleachers’ Chinatown just like how the studio version was recorded. The audience was over the moon about this appearance, especially during this track; its lyrics include a reference to the festival concept: “I'll take you out of the city / Honey, right into the shadow / Because I wanna find tomorrow / Yeah, I wanna find tomorrow with you, baby,” bringing listeners from New York to New Jersey during the course of the tune.
One could argue that nothing exudes more love for the Garden State than Antonoff, Bleachers, and Springsteen playing together on the Asbury Park Stone Pony Summer Stage. That fondness was shared by the many artists on stage and crowd members from start to finish; it was a night that Jersey fans will remember forever—Bleachers Forever.
