Dinosaur Jr. headlined the free 4Knots Music Festival yesterday afternoon, with tens of thousands of folks filling the parts of the South Street Seaport that aren't buried under scaffolding to see ten bands play on two stages and enjoy perfect summer-concert weather.
This was the fourth time the Village Voice-sponsored 4Knots has taken over the Seaport; for ten years prior, the Voice organized the Siren Music Festival, held out in Coney Island. The Seaport venue organically mixes people you'd except to see at a big free outdoor summer concert in NYC—hipsters, bros, aging rockers, packs of teenagers having a blast—with a fair amount of semi-bewildered tourists who just stumbled onto the party.
In addition to Dinosaur Jr.'s heavily crowd-surfed set, the affable (and clearly quite adored) Mac DeMarco also rocked the docks. Speedy Ortiz was reliably excellent, along with Those Darlings, Nude Beach, and Juan Wauters. And as is often the case at such events, the closer you were to action up front, the less likely you were to encounter the PWEDITITETPF effect.
There were food trucks on hand, of course, and corporate give-aways, and easy access to alcohol, especially in the VIP area aboard the tall ship Peking. A note to our Cabana Club Customers: in terms of first-rate free food and booze, nice sight lines, comfort and roominess, and overall aesthetic appeal, this is likely the best VIP venue of the outdoor-concert season.
