River to River Booked!
One of our favorite things to do in the city once the weather gets nice is to head down to the South Street Seaport after work on Friday to watch one of our favorite bands play for free as the sun goes down. Its an infinitely enjoyable experience. The River to River Festival is responsible for this and a whole bunch of other free concerts around Lower Manhattan every summer, and this week they've announced their initial lineup. It is quite impressive. Some highlights off the top of our head are Spoon at Battery Park, Menomena and Battles at the Seaport and Drive-By Truckers at Castle Clinton. Many many more all summer long. Check the complete list (so far) here.
Patrick Wolf Deserves A Do-Over
We here at the Gothamist Arts & Entertainment World Headquarters may disagree on what to think about Patrick Wolf, but there is a solidifying consensus that his performance at Hiro last night (his first NYC appearance in 4 years) was not too great. Our growing frustration with Hiro Ballroom is only magnified by how impressive their booking has been of late. For the first three quarters of the short set, the sound was grating. Nothing mixed together, vocals either came in too strong or not at all, and the intricate instrumentation on stage was impossible to decipher. It wasn't until the final song of the set, The Magic Position, where everything came together correctly, but by then the damage has been done. One of the saddest side effects of the closings of the many different downtown rock clubs is that the acts that should normally be playing in them are now getting gobbled up by larger, non-music venues where the concert attendee is considered an afterthought. Every time we have to suffer through a set at a place like Hiro, Annex or R&R, our anticipated longing for places like Sin-e and Tonic grows more and more.
Everyone LOVES this LCD Soundsystem, Huh
Their new album has been getting rave reviews and their live shows at Bowery last weekend were dubbed by many as some of the best shows they've ever attended. While the album still hasn't clicked with us, leading us to pass on the recent shows, watching this video of the band covering Joy Division makes us realize how big a mistake blowing off these nights might have been. Maybe we'll try to catch them at Studio B in a few months.
