Best summer pop music concerts at the Shore: from Asbury Park to Cape May (plus a lot of concerts in Atlantic City)

This summer’s busy music schedule at the Shore is without any oversize Atlantic City beach concerts for the second year running. But there’s plenty of action in casino showrooms, Cape May concert series, clubs in Asbury Park, and on the A.C. Boardwalk.

And if it’s a toes-in-the-sand music festival you seek, the Barefoot Country Music Fest is happening in Wildwood from June 19-22 and Sea. Hear. Now is back on the Asbury beach on Sept. 13-14.

This spring 2025 edition of the Cape May Jazz Festival sneaks in before Memorial Day, from May 16-18.

The headliners begin with Philly pianist Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band featuring Lisa Fischer, the longtime Rolling Stones touring vocalist featured on last year’s Grammy-nominated Walk a Mile in My Shoe. Philly vocalist Paul Jost, another Evans collaborator, is also on the Convention Hall bill, so expect a guest appearance.

On Saturday, top billing goes to Terence Blanchard, the New Orleans trumpeter and Spike Lee collaborator whose opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones was the first by a Black composer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera.

Then on Sunday it’s Samara Joy, the Bronx-born, Philly-connected vocalist frequently compared to Sarah Vaughan, who won a best new artist Grammy in 2023. Also on the bill: trombonist Glen David Andrew, harp sensation Brandee Younger, and trumpeter Brandon Woody.

Atlantic City casinos are busy with marquee headliners most weekends.

This month, shock rock progenitor Alice Cooper ― who is reuniting with the original members of the group that backed him in the 1970s on a new album titled The Revenge of Alice Cooper, due in July ― plays Ovation Hall at Ocean Resort on May 24. Sister rockers Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart are at Hard Rock Live May 31.

Ledisi, the New Orleans-born R&B singer who sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before the Eagles won the Super Bowl, plays Caesars on June 6. Marsha Ambrosius, the British R&B singer who was formerly one half of Floetry, opens. That same night, Khalid plays the Hard Rock as part of the North to Shore Festival.

Josh Homme brings the Queens of the Stone Age to the Hard Rock on June 13, and middle-of-the-road producer David Foster plays Caesars on June 14, with his wife, Katharine McPhee, and trumpeter Chris Botti also in tow.

Sheffield, England, heavy metal band Def Leppard pour sugar on the Borgata Event Center on June 28. That same Saturday, Jackson Browne plays the Hard Rock.

The UPenn grads of the Disco Biscuits do the Music Box at the Borgata July 4 and 5. Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish plays the Hard Rock on July 12, and headliners at Ocean’s Ovation Hall include Michael Franti & Spearhead on July 18, Gin Blossoms July 19, Daryl Hall July 25, and Ashanti on Aug. 1.

Last summer, the Black Keys canceled a tour that would have brought them to the Wells Fargo Center in Philly. This year, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney are back, playing the cozier Borgata Event Center on Aug. 9.

They’ll have crosstown competition that night from the Avett Brothers, the North Carolina band whose shipwreck musical Swept Away had a Broadway run last year. They play the Hard Rock.

Bostons long-standing punk band Dropkick Murphys teams with Bad Religion at Ovation Hall Aug. 15. Steve Miller plays the Hard Rock on Aug. 22, and Hank Azaria, the actor and vocal chameleon who voices many Simpsons characters, brings Springsteen tribute EZ Street Band to the Music Box on Aug. 23.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters’ “Radio Soul” tour, focusing on Costello’s early output, plays the Borgata Sept. 19. Mexican cumbia sonidera band Los Ángeles Azules is at the Hard Rock on Sept. 20.

Country singer Kane Brown takes his the “High Road Tour” to Boardwalk Hall on May 17. The Who plays Boardwalk Hall on Aug. 23. And Mexican norteño band Los Tigres Del Norte is at Boardwalk Hall on Sept. 20.

Anchor Rock Club, the New York Avenue venue by the Boardwalk, has an active summer schedule.

Mammoth WVH, fronted by Wolfgang Van Halen, plays a free show on May 15. New Brunswick emo band Tokyo Rose plays May 17. New York skate-punks Murphy’s Law play May 30, and indie band Balance and Composure is up on June 6. Philly drag star Martha Graham Cracker does the Anchor on July 5 and veteran Philly punks Dead Milkmen play July 12.

On July 19, the Anchor will cross-promote the Making Waves festival with Philly’s Making Time DJ and impresario David Pianka, who promises “a Making Time TRANSCENDENTAL futuristic sound experience on the New York Ave. beach,” followed by late night adventures inside the Anchor.

On the way to Atlantic City, Beardfest happens in the Pinelands Reserve outside Hammonton from June 26-30. Break out the tie-dye, learn how to juggle, and check out Sug Daniels, Fawziyya Heart, Snacktime, Tauk, Minka, and Zion Marley and the Bearspace.

Also, the Lizzy Rose Music Room in Tuckerton presents a clutch of cool shows, including John Gorka June 4, Chris Smither on June 27, Poppa Chubby July 18, and Griffin House Sept. 10.

Schedules are not yet available for the annual free concert series the Chicken Bone Beach jazz shows at Kennedy Plaza on the A.C. Boardwalk, or this year’s roots music series held at Somers Point Beach.

There’s plenty of action in Asbury Park. As part of the North to Shore Festival, Steel Pulse plays at the Stone Pony on June 19, Larkin Poe is at Asbury Lanes on June 22. The Shadow of the City festival featuring Jack Antonoff’s Bleachers is on June 28, and George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic with Living Colour play June 29, both at the Stone Pony Summer Stage.

Texas bluesman Gary Clark Jr. plays the Stone Pony Summer stage on July 5. The intriguing team up of 1990s alt-rock guitar heroes Dinosaur Jr. and indie rocker Snail Mail play the Pony July 19.

The O.C. theme song “California”-singing band Phantom Planet is at the Wonder Bar in Asbury on July 27 and Guster and the Mountain Goats plays the Pony on Aug. 1.

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets play pure pop at Asbury Lanes on Aug. 15 and Dogs in a Pile plays the Stone Pony Summer Stage on Aug. 31, with Low Cut Connie.

The Sea. Hear. Now fest, which nabbed local hero Bruce Springsteen as a headliner last year, returns on Sept. 13-14.

Saturday’s headliner is Hozier, with an undercard that includes LCD Soundsystem, Alabama Shakes, Gigi Perez, Trombone Shorty, and Philly’s Mondo Cozmo. Sunday is Blink-182 day, with Lenny Kravitz and Sublime, plus openers that include Public Enemy, TV on the Radio, Spoon, and Philly’s Mannequin Pussy.

Music at the indoor auditorium on the Ocean City Music Pier gets underway — appropriately enough — with the Beach Boys. It’s the Mike Love-led Beach Boys, with no involvement from resident genius Brian Wilson, playing two shows each June 23-24.

Jon Anderson of the English prog-rock band Yes, is now touring with a group of Yes superfans known as the Band Geeks. Together they play the Pier on July 7.

The Wailers reggaefy the Pier on July 14, and Yes fans get catered to again when keyboard player Rick Wakeman plays the Pier.

Aug. 11 is for the Monkees’ Micky Dolenz, and Aug. 18 is a mouthful: The Orchestra Starring Former Members of Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II. Members include Philly musician Cliff Hillis.

The great Mavis Staples, the powerhouse voice of the Staple Singers, whose career dates back to the turbulent days of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, plays Aug. 25, with Jeffrey Gaines opening.

Down at bottom of the Garden State Parkway, there’s one concert series at Convention Hall and another called Rootstock at Hawk Haven Vineyard.

The former features Nashville songwriter and guitarist Mac McAnally on July 6 and a pair of oldies acts: the Drifters on July 20 and Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone on July 27.

At Hawk Haven, Joslyn and the Sweet Compression plays July 12, Kaleta & Super Yamba Band on July 19, Conjunto Philadelphia is Aug. 9, Glen David Andrews is Aug. 16, back-to-back brass bands with Brass Queens on Aug. 23 and Ocean Avenue Stompers Aug. 30.

If you take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry across the Delaware Bay, you’ll find Memphis soul and funk band Southern Avenue playing Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats in Rehoboth on May 31. The Bacon Brothers play the Bottle and Cork in Dewey Beach on June 29 and Tommy Conwell & the Young Rumblers play there July 27.