“The Bowery Presents, an independent New York concert-promotion company, today announced Terminal 5 will open in early October and will be the largest midtown venue to open in more than ten years. Terminal 5 will be located at 610 West 56th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, and will provide a new 3,000-capacity midtown music, art and event venue.” Here’s the initial lineup:
OCTOBER
11: The National
19: M.I.A.
20: Justice
23-24: The Shins with Vetiver
NOVEMBER
1-2: The Decemberists
23: State Radio with The Beautiful Girls
30 – 12/1: Ween
Bowery Presents, what can’t these geniuses do? We can’t wait for the Ween shows to turn the Big Apple brown on Friday, 11/30 and Saturday, 12/1…
Farm Aid organizers officially planted its 22nd-annual installment of the festival on New York’s Randall’s Island back in June. That much we already knew.
But today Farm Aid unveiled the full lineup for its first-ever NYC event, and believe it or not, it’s remarkably similar to the raucous Rock the Bells festival that took place on the same plot of land in late July.
Okay, not so much: Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds and The Allman Brothers Band are scheduled to play full sets. They’ll be joined by Counting Crows, Matisyahu, Guster, The Derek Trucks Band, Warren Haynes, Supersuckers, The Ditty Bops and Montgomery Gentry.
That’s a pretty solid fucking lineup [full of white people] for a random Sunday in September. It’ll take a star-studded roster to get fans off their couches on the first Sunday of the NFL season, but I think this may just do the trick.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been mentally preparing myself to write a bad review of The Police at Madison Square Garden. Every critic and blogger was all over these guys for changing the sound of a few tunes and playing the same songs every night. The first shows of the tour sounded mediocre at best and had me doubting their reunion. But I’m glad to report that last night The Police showed the sold-out crowd why they were once the greatest band in the world.
All of the anxiety and musical flubs present in those first shows have been completely worked out. After two months on the road, The Police have regained its swagger, playing with each other instead of against each other. Each member of the band had his own moments of brilliance, and it was difficult to tell these guys are all over 55.
The show started with Marley’s Get Up, Stand Up playing over the PA, a subtle reminder from The Police that this wasn’t going to be a sit down affair. Everyone rose to their feet as the lights dimmed and Andy Summers started up Message In A Bottle. I should have known right from the start, that this was their night. As soon as the band hit the first break in the song the crowd erupted. Sting said “Hello,” which brought the place to a frenzy. It was amazing that The Police could wrap a crowd around their fingers more than 25 years after their last appearance at the Garden (1/22/82). Read on for more of Scotty’s MSG review…
If it ain’t broke, ya know? Self-proclaimed indie-jam rockers moe. today announced it will return to Manhattan on New Year’s Eve and set up camp at Radio City Music Hall for the second straight year. I’m predicting a Timmy Tucker opener right now.
The band released this statement today, with ticket sales laid out below:
moe. will once again hit the stage at the legendary Radio City Music Hall to ring in the New Year. Tickets go on sale June 20th through moe.ticketing, and general sales begin June 23rd through Ticketmaster. More info to be announced soon.
The skies over Manhattan opened up twice today, and as of post time it’s currently showering an adult dose of precipitation onto anyone out-of-doors. The downpour must be soaking the people camped outside the Highline Ballroom, the poor souls waiting for a chance to see Paul McCartney at the new club that holds 700.
I actually have no idea whether people are camped out or not. This isn’t journalism, and little things like facts take a backseat to unabashed laziness and a predilection for staying dry. But I imagine at least a smattering of folks have been hangin’ out all day since the second Brooklyn Vegan broke the news that McCartney would be playing a first come-first serve-something with wristbands 7 pm show at the Highline to support his new album, Memory Almost Full.
This is McCartney’s second FREE secret show in a week. He also played a 20-song set around London last Wednesday. Pierce Brosnan was there. I doubt he waited for a wristband, though. Click here to enter the official raffle: Good luck to you all, and may you all see Uncle Albert.
As we reported a month ago, Farm Aid is officially coming to Randall’s Island.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg today welcomed Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp to Union Square’s Farmers Market to announce the day-long concert on September 9th. Said longtime activist Mellencamp: “This is ouuurrrr city.”
Farm Aid 2007: A HOMEGROWN Festival will feature headliners Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, and the organizers are promising a soon-to-be-revealed list of ”other top artists” to join them on 9/9.
Tickets for Farm Aid 2007: A HOMEGROWN Festival are on sale June 16 at 10 a.m. EDT and are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, online at http://www.ticketmaster.com/ or by calling (212) 307-7171, (631) 888-9000 or (203) 624-0033.
For more information about Farm Aid 2007: A HOMEGROWN Festival, visit http://www.farmaid.org/.
Randall’s Island is actually an amazing place to host an event like this. We’re guessing the crowd at this year’s Farm Aid will look remarkably similar to the late July Rock The Bells festival featuring Wu-Tang Clan and Rage Against the Machine.
Apollo Sunshine once again proved that rock and/or roll is alive and kicking on last night’s Rocks Off boat cruise.
Warm weather, blue skies and, well, sunshine offered a perfect environment for a three-hour floating rock show around lower Manhattan, and Apollo Sunshine provided a high-energy blast of power pop, heavy on the power.
All photos by Ace Cowboy
You can try to list some similar-sounding bands to describe their sound, but you’d have to list at least six or seven to even attempt to portray a realistic vision of what we heard last night. It was truly a perfect evening of music, friends, gorgeous views, the Queen Mary II and a gigantic double necked bass/guitar.
Read on to see whether Scotty got a good look up Lady Liberty’s knickers…
Written by
Scott Bernstein on
05.23.2007 |
American Babies,
Bjork,
Bloggers,
Festivals,
Franti,
Grateful Dead,
Intermezzo,
Leftover Salmon,
NYC,
Prince,
Richard Thompson,
Smashing Pumpkins,
The Police,
Van Halen,
Zappa
Want free tickets and press access to any show you want this summer? Do you like to write about and take pictures at concerts? If you answered yes to those questions, check out Billboard’s Mobile Beat contest.
Billboard is teaming up with LG to offer the winners press passes to any concert they want and a heady camera phone. In exchange they promise to post their photos and a brief review of each performance they attend. Two winners will be picked from every major metropolitan area. Simply create a photo montage of your own photos and write a 100-word essay on why you want to be a Billboard blogger. Check out the Mobile Beat web site for more information or to enter the contest.
We hope someone from our audience wins — we don’t want bunch of emo kids filing dour rants on why Dashboard Confessional has sold out.
We got plenty of links this week, so let’s get down to business:
As always, please let us know if we missed anything below….
Washington Square Park doesn’t have much in the way of grass. And as Dave Chappelle pointed out to the country in his Half Baked vehicle, not even the weed for sale there resembles grass by any measure. But Greenwich Village’s 10-acre concrete park is my home away from home, and what it lacks in rich greenery it more than makes up for with no-nonsense freak shows and incredible musical interludes. Plus, it’s a great place to lay down and shake off that hangover.
Between the Wang near-perfect game, the Kentucky Derby and the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight, Saturday made for a great day of sports.
But Sunday provided me a fantastic musical backdrop for lazily loafing around the park and watching performances by so many different, talented musicians. The always-enjoyable BuzzUniverse headlined my day of great music in the park (no Chris Barron sitting in for Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong this time), but the amateur acts also entertained me to no end while I finished reading a great book. Read on to stroll through the park with me and check out what all went down…
Like my own musical Tuesdays with Morrie, I feel fortunate to have spent some good times with Tonic in the club’s dying days. The best little naked performance space in New York never did wrong by me, and on three Wednesdays in November it provided a fun backdrop for evenings with Marco Benevento and his residency friends.
And on August 7th, Ropeadope will release three discs worth of highlights from the Duo keyboardist’s five-night Novemberstand on the Lower East Side. I’m all tingly just thinkin’ about it. Check out this video recap of the weekly gig:
If you’re curious, special guests include Mike Gordon, Steven Bernstein, Dave Driewitz, Reed Mathis, Matt Chamberlain, Bobby Previte, Sir Joe Russo, Mike Dillon, Scott Metzger, Claude Coleman, and Brad Barr. Dig it.
The Green Apple Music Festival started out a disaster for me personally.
First I slept through Thursday night’s kickoff show, an acoustic affair with the Benevento-Russo Duo, when a planned short nap before a midnight ramble became an unplanned 10-hour slumber through the night. Then Friday evening arrived, and the usually reliable and talented Grace Potter put on a less-than-stellar show with the Nocturnals at Southpaw, complete with three extremely creepy, balding middle-aged dudes taking as many pictures of her as possible — not a fun vibe trying to peek through compulsive masturbators to watch a show.
So I turned to the free shit to break me out of the funk. As we mentioned yesterday, the Green Apple organizers planned several sets gratis outside Grand Central Station for the second straight year, an oasis of quality tunes in a big, bad city. So I headed up to the makeshift hippie enclave for an Earth Day street fair to meet up with some good friends and try to salvage a piss-poor beginning.
Read on for more photos and videos from the sunny day in NYC…
We’re pretty geeked up about this weekend’s Green Apple Music Festival, even though overall enthusiasm for the event can only be considered “tempered” at best compared to last year. Organizers expanded the music and arts festival to three cities this year, adding Chicago and San Francisco to the mix, but there’s no question it’s flying well below the radar of many in its desired audience.
Regardless, we’re fired up. I had a stellar weekend last year and even started a one-weekend blog to document the cause of my permagrin. Part of that Cheshire Cat smile stemmed from the free music outside Grand Central Station, which may or may not have caused me to play hookey from work. Well, this year they’ve planned two days of free shit, and the festivies are currently underway.
The Paul Green School of Rock featuring Yes’ Jon Anderson, and later Gandalf Murphy, opened the outdoor shows earlier today, but there’s plenty more music following behind them in the pipeline. Here’s a look at the remaining acts on display outside Grand Central on Vanderbilt Avenue today and tomorrow:
Friday, April 20:
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals 4:30 PM
Ozomatli 5:45 PM
Saturday, April 21:
Zero 12:00 PM
State Radio 1:40 PM
Assembly of Dust 3:20 PM
I’ll see youse there tomorrow, unless I sleep through it, which is possible. And if anyone’s hitting up Grace Potter at Southpaw tonight, I’ll be the kid with the Jew-nose wearing the Cardiff City FC shirt that desperately needs a haircut.
Spanning the four months between the Coventry Disaster and New Year’s 2004, I somehow found myself on an unplanned, unconscious live music hiatus. The only performances I caught in person took place under the pavement while riding New York’s underground public transportation system.
But I did watch those amateur shows intently. Sometimes I found myself hanging out for 20 minutes, sometimes an hour, literally, getting my fill of free music in exchange for a well-deserved buck or two. The caliber of musician down there occasionally floored me — why is this person underground and not up on some stage? Point is, there’s talent everywhere, like in this sweet clip:
Aside from spelling “cello” horribly wrong in the intro, that’s one of the better videos I’ve seen from down in the subway. Kudos bar to beatboxing flute player Greg Pattillo and cello player Eric Stephenson for brightening my Friday…
This morning we linked to the New York Times article about the Last Stand of Tonic, the minimalist Lower East Side performance space with the some of the best acoustics in New York. We opined the eventual loss of Tonic not too long ago, and at this point, we’re all out of whine and tears.
But that’s to say there isn’t news. The Times detailed the arrest of acclaimed guitarist Marc Ribot, who’s moonlighting as mouthpiece and co-director of the Take It to the Bridge campaign that seeks to protect indie, jazz and experimental music in NYC. Ribot refused to leave the Tonic stage, and as such, he became a trespasser.
Both the mainstream press and the blog scene documented the last chance to dance avant-trance very well, and Bob Arihood published an excellent recap and a slew of up-close photos on his Neither More Nor Less blog. I recommend heading over there and checking out the rest of his arresting shots before clicking over to Brooklyn Vegan for more on the strange last days of a legendary venue.
Idolator posted the shot of the Irving Plaza sign coming down, and now they’ve captured the new sign going up. And if you’re like us, the only redeeming part of this photo is that the always-satisfying Galaxy eatery next door managed to sneak into the picture. Otherwise, good lord, that sign’s uglier than a hair-lip.
