Jon Stewart spent part of his Thanksgiving weekend working behind a drum kit as his band, Church and State™, performed at the historic Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
The band was part of a solidly local bill on Friday, Nov. 28, providing support for Status Green, longtime Asbury Park indie rock favorites, who were celebrating their 20th anniversary. (The show also featured a performance from two-piece, Yawn Mower.) Church and State™ have played several gigs around New Jersey this year, but the Stone Pony show was by far their biggest to-date. And while the group have yet to release any music, you can hear a couple of their originals in videos that have surfaced from the Stone Pony gig.
Stewart started playing the drums after retiring from The Daily Show for the first time in 2015; his teacher was Andy Bova, a musician, producer, and owner of Simple Sound Studio in Oceanport, New Jersey. Later, Stewart and Bova founded Church and State™ with a few other local musicians, including Bova’s dad, Jim, on bass; and singer/guitarist Rick Barry.
Despite having such a big name drummer, Church and State™ have maintained a pretty low profile so far. The first gig documented on their Instagram at the moment took place back in April, while in June they performed at the North to Shore Festival (where Stewart also did double duty with a stand-up set). In September, they played a show at the Navesink Library, and in October they popped up at a weekly show Barry was hosting at a bar on the Asbury Park boardwalk.
After that show, Stewart spoke with the Asbury Park Press about the group, saying of Barry, “He’s the artist and I just sit in the back and go boom bap, boom boom bap. That’s alI I do — he’s the man.”
With Stewart’s duties hosting The Daily Show once a week, as well as helming The Weekly Show podcast, the band is only able to rehearse once a week, and their live performances will likely remain sporadic. Still, he raved about how much playing in Church and State™ means to him: “I can only work one day a week, but it’s awesome. I can’t tell you how much these guys have brought to my life. It’s just such a joy to play with them every week.”
