This Saturday, May 18, Skate And Surf Festival will kick off at Six Flags Great Adventure New Jersey with dozens of the scene’s biggest names. A number of the UTG staff will be on hand for the event, and from the feedback we have been seeing on Twitter it sounds like a lot of you will be as well. If that’s the case, then you’re probably currently have a mini panic attack while trying to solve the biggest question you will face that day:

WHO AM I GOING TO SEE?

We already gave you our day one preview. Our day two preview takes up five acts – not all music, artists, or bands – spread throughout the whole day. We’ll be skipping some of the more expected things, though you shouldn’t miss out on them, either. These left-off-the-list items include Saves the Day doing a fan voted set, Glassjaw doing their first show since last year’s Worship and Tribute anniversary shows at New York City’s Irving Plaza, and the first show for the RX Bandits’ reunion that’s happening this year. So what are the five acts you should keep your eyes peeled for?

1. Brooklyn Rocksteady

No, this film isn’t about that awful No Doubt album. No, this is a movie that covers the history of Brooklyn’s ska/rocksteady community from 1981 until now. Director Samuel Gursky’s documentary has been in the works for over two years now, and has evolved with the times. We plan to interview Samuel, but more than that: the documentary covers the evolution of a scene in a place most people now associate with “hipsters” and Ray-Ban sunglasses. The music is still there, there is still a now, and this full length feature will give us an honest look into its success and its struggle. A film during a music festival will always stand out, too.

2. This Good Robot

What’s your favorite pop/punk band playing Skate & Surf? Okay. So what’s your favorite emo band playing Skate & Surf? Alright. Now what’s your favorite science fiction indie hard rock band that has some punk edge playing Skate & Surf? Wait, what? This Good Robot stand out from their peers at this festival. In a weekend full of acts that stem from the punk scene in one way or another, This Good Robot will seem practically like a progressive rock band. The song above, “We Don’t Just Rock, Together We Roll” is their hardest punk song, but several others belong more with the indie rock scene than the Skate and Surf group. The Long Island natives take the Ford Focus stage at 7:30, putting them up against Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, but for anyone who’s tired of the four chord suburban hip/hop of “Thrift Shop,” you’ll find me rocking out to the weekend’s strangest act on a smaller stage. Whether this band takes off or not, I can’t say; what I can promise you is that they are as outstanding as any other great band this weekend, and as different as it gets in 2013.

3. Hostage Calm

The Beatles-punk (can I call them that? Is that a thing?) rockers go on the Ford Focus stage at 3:25. While this may be seem early to some people, those people are forgetting what a kick this band is on. Fresh off their tour with The Wonder Years and an album that we gave a perfect score to, this is a band that’s in the process of taking off and is in the process of becoming a must-see act. Their fresh mixture of pop music and punk music in a way that I really don’t want to refer to as “pop/punk” is something to behold, and with their live act so tight that they’re now even performing the dense harmony of “Patriot” live makes them one of the bands you may overlook at this year’s Skate & Surf Festival, but shouldn’t.

4. The Poet Gregory Schwartz

If you’re unfamiliar, “The Poet Gregory Schwartz” isn’t a hip/hop artist giving himself an impressive MC title or a band of people pretending to be one person. It’s Gregory Schwartz, a New Jersey poet who the Asbury Park Press once proclaimed to be a “rock & roll poet”. With no set time listed, it’s our guess that he’ll be moseying around the merch stands and booths, grabbing your attention with a prolific spoken word. A crazy weekend calls for the unusual activities; keep your eyes peeled for this man ranting and raving with his modern take of poetry.

5. Daylight

Skate & Surf is largely a “scene” festival, relying on upcoming pop/punk and emo acts and bands from the early 2000s emergence of post-hardcore to bring its draw and make its mainstay. Hell, the original Skate & Surf helped make some of those early 2000s acts. And a few years ago, Daylight would’ve been just another name in the sea of “pop/punk and emo acts”. But after the release of this year’s Jar, an odd ode to Nirvana-esque grunge with some pop/punk and emo elements thrown in, they’re a stand out act that doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the bill musically. But that’s a good thing: in the world where everyone is writing chugging power chord punk riffs and trying to make us sing along to a chorus we’ve all heard before, Daylight is trying to break that mold and give you something new. Their live show, mastered over a crazy amount of touring, including a tour with Hrvrd and some upcoming dates with The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die. Road tested and different sounding means one thing to me: don’t overlook this act, playing 4:55 to 5:25 at the Ford Fusion Stage on Sunday.

Written by: Dan Bogosian (Twitter)

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Dan Bogosian

I finished school with a music theory degree. Before I finished school, I was a janitor. You really should apologize to all the janitors you've ever had. You hurt them. Seriously. You did.

But, now that we've cleared that up and you called your high school janitor, know that I quit being a janitor to pursue writing about music. So here I am, and here you are, and hey how are you?

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