Goodbye and let's party
Farewell to a few friends...
RIP St. Vitus. The last show I saw there was a last-minute underplay on a Monday night by Less Than Jake and it was excellent. The venue continues to present shows at other venues around the city and the goodbye post hints at a new space somewhere else. “To be continued”….?
RIP Crest Hardware. There’s one last party on Saturday.
As always the best listings for your money (free) are at Tapped In Live, NYC Noise, OhMyRockness and BrooklynVegan….here are some of mine:
Wed, Aug 21
Kassa Overall at the Rink at Rockefeller Center: The drummer and jazz creative works outside of established boundaries with genre-crossing albums and his Shades of Flu mixtape series. That open-eared approach extends to his energetic live sets. Free.
Thu, Aug 22
Tilt (Isabel Crespo Pardo, Carmen Quill & Kalia Vandever) at Close Up: The pop-jazz-new music trio features meditative vocal harmonies, Vandever’s sonorous trombone and still leaves room for improvisation.
Fri, Aug 23 & Sat, Aug 24
Afropunk Festival w/ Erykah Badu at Prospect Park: Erykah Badu hasn’t released an album in a minute, but that hasn’t stopped her from touring and constantly tinkering with her body of work, treating the live set like a shapeshifting creative project. She’s beat maker, jazz singer, spellcaster, person of many hats. Here she has two nights to stretch out.
Fri, Aug 23–Sun Aug 25
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival at Marcus Garvey Park and Tompkins Square Park: Christian McBride’s Big Band headlines Friday night at the annual free three-day jazz summit uptown for two nights and in the East Village on Sunday.
Fri, Aug 23
The Roots + Digable Planets + Jungle Brothers at SummerStage: Questlove & Co + hip-hop legends.
Sat, Aug 24
The So So Glos, Lost Boy?, Dead Tooth, Short Porch at Rippers: Rock n Roll beach party.
Sun, Aug 25
Sun Ra Arkestra at Union Pool: An NYC cultural tradition unlike any other, Sun Ra Arkestra on the Union Pool patio. Currently the venue’s last free afternoon show for the summer (though in the past they’ve sometimes added more). Go!!!
Freaks Day Out at Valentino Pier: The trio of NSA (Nocera/Strum/Abba) plays the jam-band-friendly afternoon park hang.
Pitbull + T-Pain at Forest Hills: I fell in love with Mr. Worldwide’s “Fireball” (cowritten and sung by Rochester, NY’s John Ryan) at a wedding after another guest begged for the DJ to play the song. The DJ acquiesced only for a minute, complaining the whole time, before cutting it of before the best part. The weirdly petulant DJ with oddly strong opinions about Pitbull songs was obviously very wrong about how much “Fireball” slaps. Similarly, T-Pain is a consummate showman with unimpeachably good songs. Can’t think of anything else I’d like to hear rattling my window panes.
Coming up
Aug 30: Real Young and Lazy Horse at Rippers - Real is for real.
Oct 31: Night Train 19th Annual Haunted Hop Halloween Spooktacular at Knockdown Center - If you need something to do on Halloween (no judgement, movie and sleep for me), this is one of those things.
Sept 7: Azymuth at Brooklyn Bowl - Bassist Alex Malheiros is the only surviving member of this Brazilian jazz-funk-fusion group after the passing of drummer Ivan Conti last year, but I’m betting it’s still gonna be great time.
Sept 10–13: Geordie Greep at Union Pool, TV Eye, Nublu, Sultan Room - Former black midi frontman has a new album coming out and the new song is bonkers with an Earth, Wind & Fire type feel or maybe Jamiroquai jam (folks are saying Steely Dan).
Sept 24 & 25: Mystic 100s at Union Pool - The band formerly known as Milk Music now makes psychedelic drug music (with art direction by Online Ceramics). I didn’t know that until recently, but I enjoy it.
Oct 25 & 26: Andre 3000 New Blue Sun w/ Meshell Ndegeocello at BAM - Speaking of zoning out, Andre’s ambient jazz trip continues where it started, in Brooklyn. Recently announced opener Ndegeocello makes this more of an event if you’ve caught Andre elsewhere. The show I saw at St. Ann’s last fall was quite good once it got going (an hour-plus in). The band often welcomes guests.
Nov 14: Laura Marling matinee show added
Nov 14–17 Unsound Festival at Lincoln Center - The Krakow heavy/classical/experimental music festival comes to NYC bringing pipe organ/choral composer/performer Kali Malone and drone-metal band Sunn O))) to Philharmonic Hall at pay-what-you-wish prices. Last winter the fest presented The Caretaker at the venue, lovingly archived in the bootleg video below. Lip-syncing to “Heroes,” reading a book, drinking whisky, mock playing a half-flaccid inflatable guitar. Little bit different than your typical Lincoln Center gig.