Longtime Asbury promoter Kyle Brendle still loves the town that rock built

By:  | March 1, 2025 |  | 

By Ryan Loughlin

If you’ve ever been to Asbury Park to check out a local band over the last 40 years or so, it’s likely you have Kyle Brendle to thank for it.

A staple of the Jersey Shore music scene, Brendle has been booking acts at popular venues at the shore since the ’80s and has continued to be one of the driving forces for keeping music alive and well in Asbury Park today, where he serves as a house agent for legendary venues like the Stone Pony and the Wonder Bar.

Brendle grew up in the North Jersey suburb of Closter, but his grandparents lived in Spring Lake, making the Jersey Shore a second home to him as a kid. By the mid-’80s, Brendle’s whole family had migrated to Monmouth County, where he became entrenched in the vibrant music scene of the time period, when clubs like The Fast Lane, The Stone Pony and others were packing them in shoulder-to-shoulder every week.

“My introduction to the Asbury Park music scene was as a patron and a music lover,” Brendle recalls. “Asbury was loaded with live music [at places like] The Fast Lane, Park Place, Stone Pony, Mrs. Jay’s. There were way more stages back then. I was just running the streets and getting my fill of all the music. I fell in with a guy named Jack Hurley from Spring Lake who was running shows and he was my first professional introduction to the Stone Pony in the summer of 1982. I started helping out as a stagehand and booking bands to do showcases. Back then, the place was open 7 days a week, so there was plenty to do!”

Brendle continued to work as a promoter at the Stone Pony through the busiest days of the ’80s, when Springsteen sightings became practically a weekly occurrence and almost every night at the club seemed to feel like a major event. But eventually, as Asbury Park began to spiral downward in the ’90s, it ultimately led to the club scene in town having to pivot its business model to survive.

“There were a lot less of the tours and national acts back then. The weekdays were ruled by cover bands — and it was packed, even on a Monday night! That slowly changed when Asbury started to decline in the 90s and it became harder to maintain. We had to drop down to four days a week and tours and bigger acts became part of the schedule.”

The town’s demise in the ’90s brought about hard times and drove most businesses out, but incredibly, music remained even during the darkest years in the town’s history.

“It was a ghost town. There was nothing there,” he remembers. “The boardwalk was all warped, and there were no other businesses open. You came to a show, you ran inside and when the show was over, you fled. And that was it. But Asbury Park was always the focal point of entertainment and music at the Jersey Shore, and that never changed.”

What ultimately changed was Asbury itself. The revitalization of the town, which began in the early part of the new millennium, led to businesses and visitors returning en masse, as the once vacant streets now became packed with folks looking to enjoy the historic nightlife that made the town famous. While the current rebirth has its detractors — mostly nostalgic locals that pine for the past — Brendle is certainly not one of them.

“Asbury Park is as vibrant as ever in every respect. Just take a stroll down Cookman Avenue, Ocean Avenue or the Boardwalk. I don’t agree with [the detractors] at all. For the people who complain a lot, that’s what they do. They are just complainers,” he says with a laugh.

Brendle has good reasons to laugh off the naysayers too. The schedule of upcoming shows at the clubs he promotes is packed with a diverse lineup of artists, with everything from top drawing cover and tribute acts to local original bands and national touring acts. But as busy as a place like the Stone Pony gets on a great night, nothing is a sure thing in the live music industry, and Brendle has to be selective about what shows he books.

“One of the reasons we have survived for 50 years at the Stone Pony is because we are very discerning. There are no built-in crowds at large venues anymore.”

And that means a band headlining the Pony needs to have a strong following of fans that can fill the place. But there are still opportunities for smaller bands and local acts to get their foot in the door, either by working as an opening act, or playing at the Pony’s sister venue down the street, the Wonder Bar.

“The Pony has evolved as a full-on concert venue, but we can do local acts and smaller bands at the Wonder Bar,” Brendle notes.

Of course, the most famous local act to regularly hop onstage at both the Stone Pony and the Wonder Bar is Bruce Springsteen. Brendle has been lucky enough to have rubbed elbows with The Boss on a number of occasions.

“Anytime he plays here, it’s just great. He brings such energy and excitement to the room,” he says.

Springsteen isn’t the only one filling Asbury with energy and excitement. Brendle’s passion for clubs and the music scene he fell in love with years ago is as enthusiastic and pure today as it was when he first started working in this town.

“The Stone Pony is still that place where anyone can go and see some great music and have a beer and forget their troubles. Once you walk through those doors, we are all the same person. And it’s great to see so many people smiling ear to ear. That’s why I am in this business, to see those smiles on people’s faces.”