Is Freehold Ready To Rock?

It's a sunny Thursday night in Freehold, and Ryan Timmons is ready to put his plan into action. The dinner crowd at Zebu Forno is pleasant and altogether unsuspecting, picking over salads, pizza, paninis. But a tattooed, bearded, and smiling Timmons stands over them, smirking knowingly at what is to come.

At 30, Timmons has worked at music venues and bars all around the Jersey Shore before becoming manager of Zebu when it opened here in February. Now, he is passionate about bringing cool, young bands to kids in a town where there's not much of an edgy music scene for the younger demographic.

"We're going to start a rock revolution," Timmons declares, with more than a hint of rock-stardom-dreaming in his voice. He'll put on two shows a week-Thursdays and Sundays-with bands from the area. Right now, he says, "it takes a lot of homework to find these bands." But he's just getting started.

As the sun sinks over Main Street just out the window, crowds of summertime diners and strollers mill just beyond Zebu's French doors. Preppy-looking teenage girls finish paninis and bottled waters, and a couple seated at the window-bar sip white wine, watching South Street as the Freehold workday comes to an end and its mellow nightlife begins. Café life hums along quietly.

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