The band Bertha will perform in Asbury Park, Sept. 14-15.
Formed in reaction to the 2023 Tennessee Adult Entertainment Act, an anti-drag bill, the Nashville-based Grateful Dead cover band Bertha will perform in the early afternoon of the second day of the Sept. 14-15 Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park. This will be their first appearance in New Jersey.
(UPDATE: Bertha also will perform at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, Sept. 14.)
The group, which describes itself as a Grateful Drag band, has performed mostly in its home state so far, and many of its shows have been benefits for LGBTQIA+ causes. On its website gratefuldrag.com, it describes itself as “an all-star collective of queer and allied East Nashville talent coming together in wigs and full face for a good cause.”
Group member Melody Walker told yahoo.com that the band embraces “gender diversity, sexual diversity, anyone who’s, like, a misfit who hasn’t felt accepted in the Dead community, and who’s also into drag and pop music and the Dead … It’s a place to celebrate and find joy.”
Walker also told Rolling Stone, “It’s honoring the fact that there have always been queer Deadheads, there have always been so many women in the scene, but maybe they haven’t been uplifted and celebrated the way they should be.”
Check out, below, a video of the band performing “One More Saturday Night” (from Grateful Dead band member Bob Weir’s 1972 solo album Ace, though it was performed at Grateful Dead shows before and after then). Other songs in the band’s repertoire include “Truckin’,” “Scarlet Begonias,” “Shakedown Street,” “Deal,” “Cassidy,” “Jack Straw,” “The Golden Road (to Unlimited Devotion),” “Touch of Grey,” “Stella Blue” and, of course, “Bertha.”
Other Sea.Hear.Now performers will include Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Noah Kahan, The Black Crowes, The Trey Anastasio Band and The Gaslight Anthem. Check out the complete schedule HERE.
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