It’s a hot, humid night along the boardwalk of the Jersey Shore. Asbury Park, long a summer haunt of teens, young families with kids, and couples of seemingly every age walking hand in hand, is jumping on a Saturday night. Music — is that doo wop? — mingles with laughter and ice cream or pizza orders, as the music of street musicians blend together in the warm night air. Toward the end of the boardwalk sits the Convention Hall, built in the late 1920s, and people are filtering in to listen to “surf” music. Hawaiian shirts, pompadours, bee-hive hairdos with head wraps, killer floral ’50s dresses, and flat tops, pork pie hats and tattoos are on display. As the music starts, so does the dancing, accompanied by an unfettered joy. But make no mistake; this is not a snapshot of 1960s America, but rather 2018 America, as the 8th Annual Asbury Park Surf Music Festival comes alive.

Instrumental surf music grew from the late ’50s and early ’60s instrumental rock and roll trend, led by Link Wray, Duane Eddy and “the band that launched 1000 bands,” The Ventures. Defined by their sound — a “wet” reverb-drenched guitar tone — Dick Dale (“Miserlou”), The Chantays (“Pipeline”), and The Surfaris (“Wipeout”) spearheaded the ’60s California surf sound that was not associated with the vocals of the Beach Boys. But it wouldn’t last. “Bob Dalley wrote a book about 20 years ago called Surfin’ Guitars, and he tried to interview every band he could find” says Frankie and The Poolboys’ leader Ferenc Dobronyi. “It was pre-internet, so it was quite a chore. Most of the bands were completely obscure, and just a few had members who went on to a bigger musical career. But, the thing almost every band had in common were the reasons they broke up. One was Vietnam, with band members getting drafted. The biggest, however, was Beatlemania.”

The Beatles killed surf music,” continues Dobronyi. “At that point, instrumental music had absolutely no traction, and in a teen girl-dominated business like music, you had to do vocals.” Croatian-born Ivan Pongracic, lead guitarist of The Madeira agrees,“That is the commonly-accepted explanation behind the sudden demise of surf music around ’64-’65. The Beatles were a phenomenon in the US, no doubt about that, and seemed incredibly exotic with their accents, haircuts, strange sense of humor, and, of course, utterly remarkable songs. They really changed things overnight in the US, and instrumental acts didn’t stand a chance. Let’s face it, NONE of them were even remotely as talented or captivating as the Beatles.”

Frankie De La Torre, leader of The Volcanics, offered up a quick history of surf music explained ironically in “waves.” The “first wave” was, of course, the early 1960s, and the “second wave” started in the ’80s. The rest is up for discussion. Some say the “third wave” started in the early ’90s. After that, it really gets hazy. If you ask me and I had to make an argument, I’d say there was a “fourth wave” and we are now in the “fifth wave,” with the Hi-Tide record label leading the way. You can kind of “nerd out” with this discussion similar to a superhero fan fight. For me personally Thor can beat Superman easily.”

Not surprisingly, the musicians in this current wave came upon the music in many a time-tested fashion: older siblings, radio, movies, via other bands they admired and, of course, in the garage.

James Bacchi of Tikiyaki 5.0 recalls, “My sister had the Surfaris’ ‘Wipe Out’ on 45 and I used to play her records when I was like 4 or 5 years old. That was my introduction to surf music.” “I remember the hits from when I was a kid, but I made a connection through Johnny Thunders doing a version of ‘Pipeline,’” says Dobronyi, “And then hearing the song in the movie The Wanderers.” Bacchi also points out that surf music got a huge bump and perhaps had its largest appeal after Pulp Fiction, which featured Dick Dale’s 1962 hit “Miserlou” to great effect. Director Quentin Tarantino would employ two additional surf tunes in the film: The Revels “Commanche” brings the sound to the notorious S&M dungeon/gimp scene, and, as the movie ends on a jump cut to a black screen and the credits roll, Tarantino cues up The Lively Ones’ “Surf Rider.

Nicole Damoff, guitarist for Toronto’s The Surfrajettes, is also indebted to that movie as her introduction to surf: “I personally stumbled across surf music when I was a teenager through the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, and as a kid learning the guitar at that time, that music really appealed to me because it’s so guitar-driven. And there is a really good surf music scene in Toronto where we’re based out of, so we were inspired by watching those bands and wanted to start our own.”

The Volcanics’ Delatorre took the garage route and entered the scene partly out of necessity: “Growing up, my friends and I were always into music. We wanted to learn how to play instruments and, after we spent all our money buying our guitars and amps, none of us had enough money left to buy a PA, mics, stands, etc. Also, none of us knew how or were brave enough to sing. As a result, we started playing instrumentals and surf.” Frankie and the Poolboys’ leader has a similar tale: “In college, I was learning how to play guitar so I picked up a surf ‘greatest hits” LP from the library to figure out the melodies. In bands, we’d play an instrumental to fill out the set, but in 1990 I couldn’t find a good singer to work with so I decided to start a surf band.”

Ah, the dreaded “all-instrumental” angle. Unlike the aforementioned vocal surf music of the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and others, some find instrumental surf music harder to differentiate, and digest. “There is a very special kind of person attracted to surf and instrumental music,” says Dobronyi. “Not having vocals is a big turnoff for most people, and every surf band has been asked at one time, ‘When does the singer show up?’” The Madeira’s Pongrancic picks up the thread: “The obstacle to more mass acceptance is that lack of vocals and lyrics. But I’ll often simply point out that classical music doesn’t have singers or lyrics, and yet many people still appreciate it and love it. Listening to both classical and surf music requires a shift in one’s mental approach, and often potential listeners aren’t willing to go through the trouble.” Dobronyi agrees: “Surf fans tend to let the music into their head and see the imagery conjured– they are listening very closely!” Damoff sees it more simply: “I think one of the main reasons that surf appeals to people is that it’s feel-good music. Listening to it instantly transports you to a beach.” “You can throw on a surf album driving up the Pacific Coast highway and just dream away” echoes Delatorre.

Regardless of wave, surf music continues to evolve and attract new audiences. “Surf music was never allowed to naturally evolve, and basically disappeared in 1963 or so, just as it was developing out of infancy,” says Dobronyi. “When surf music came back in the ’80s, the original guys had gone on to pop, jazz, blues, hippie jam bands. But the younger guys who led the revival infused their own influences — punk, metal, ska.” Pongracic agrees that the music has changed “massively….the diversity of surf music today is simply vast.” Bacchi breaks it down even further: “In one respect it hasn’t changed all that much, in that it is primarily instrumental guitar music, with a good amount of reverb, and, for the most part, twangy clean(ish) guitars. However, in the 2nd and 3rd wave (especially), bands have pushed it in many directions. To the casual listener, much of it sounds alike, but to the more discerning ear, those differences are more apparent.” Or, as Dobronyi says, they’ve mutated: “A band might be described in a hyphenated way: heavy-surf, punk-surf, math-surf, trad-surf, depending on what influences the members bring to their sound.” Wait. Math surf?

Lorenzo Valdambrini, a key figure in modern surf music with the band Surfer Joe, as well as the festival bearing that name, is in total agreement. “I see a lot of contamination of traditional surf music with different styles. The genre has evolved into something way more complex and big. Technology and new instruments have provided new experimental possibilities and artists have started mixing this all up wi