Fantastic Cat
with The Bones of J.R. Jones

Fantastic Cat returns to Asbury Park for a headline show at the Pony!

Hailed by Rolling Stone as “the supergroup you need to know,” Fantastic Cat released their debut, The Very Best of Fantastic Cat, in 2022. The collection earned the vocal-trading, instrument-swapping collective their national TV debut, sold out headline dates around the U.S. and Europe, a performance at the Sundance Film Festival, and a song in the Paramount+ series Tulsa King. In 2023, the velvet-suited four-piece teamed up with all-star producer Butch Walker for a 50th anniversary take on Band on the Run,” which reportedly prompted Paul McCartney to question his entire life’s work.

Individually, each member of Fantastic Cat boasts their own impressive resume along with appearances everywhere from the New York Times and the Tiny Desk to Bonnaroo and Cayamo. NPR said Anthony D’Amato “sings and writes in the tradition of Bruce Springsteen or Josh Ritter.” Paste declared Don DiLego’s latest album a “stunner.” Rolling Stone called Brian Dunne’s new record “the sleeper album of the year” and praised Mike Montali’s band, Hollis Brown, as “the soundtrack for a late-night drive through the American heartland.”

Where the band’s debut showcased the quartet as individual songwriters, their latest, Now That’s What I Call Fantastic Cat, finds the group writing collectively for the first time, leaning into their respective strengths to craft an alternately poignant and absurdist portrait of a modern world populated by disgraced heroes, disenchanted dreamers, and dead end jobs. The songs are at once hopeful and mordant, reckoning with a reality less shiny than it once seemed by refusing to succumb to the weight of disillusionment, and the performances are relentlessly buoyant to match, fueled by infectious hooks, lush harmonies, and gleefully unpredictable arrangements. Think CSNY if none of them were famous, or The Traveling Wilburys if none of them were famous, or the Eagles if they really didn’t get along.

“A wildly satisfying collection of folk-rock, country, Americana, and good old rock & roll…equal doses of Dylan and Springsteen,” says Rolling Stone

Door 7:00, Show 8:00 to 11:30
Tickets: $30 Adv  plus applicable surcharges/ $35 dos