Aretha Franklin: Jones Beach Theater 27 July 2011

All hail the queen! Performers give themselves titles all the time. Some ironic. Some ridiculous. And every so often a title that is true. Aretha is the Queen of Soul. And last night she proved why no one would ever dispute that fact. This second trip to Nikon at Jones Beach Theater was brought about […]

Billy Bragg: City Winery 26 July 2011

Billy Bragg has been playing his version of folk/punk and folk/rock since the early 1980s. He’s also a professional leftist and many of his songs are political. He’s out there on the front lines. So when the tickets for his show at City Winery turned out to be twice as expensive as any other show […]

Lucero: Mercury Lounge 23 July 2011

An announcement this past Tuesday on Lucero’s Facebook page: Nobody’s Darlings would be playing a late show at the Mercury Lounge on Saturday – tickets go on sale Friday and they’ll probably sell out quickly. Since Lucero would be playing the Vans Warped Tour at Nassau Coliseum earlier in the day, this secret show was […]

Henry V: New York Classical Theatre 20 July 2011

Panoramic Theater. In Battery Park, the ferry, and Governors Island. Beautiful summer weather. Shakespeare with a cast of 10s. And 500 audience members. Free Shakespeare in the Park is a long-standing NYC tradition that I’ve never taken advantage of because I don’t want to stand on those long lines for the Public Theater performances. I […]

Follow-up to the Jones Beach lack of buses experience:

I wrote to the CEOs, presidents, and general managers at Live Nation, Nikon, and Jones Beach Theater. I also wrote to executives and supervisors of Nassau County and Hempstead and to the various police chiefs/commissioners. And letters went out to the MTA and the LIRR presidents. The Nassau County Executive sent me a response via […]

Pink Martini: SummerStage 17 July 2011

This is another situation where I was going in blind. It was my first concert of the season at SummerStage in Central Park and by the time I met rtb (an hour before the concert) the line was long and full of an eclectic bunch so I figured this would be interesting. We got seats […]

The Old 97’s: Bell House 14 July 2011

According to my saved documents this would be the eleventh review I’ve written about The Old 97’s. And then there are ten reviews I’ve written of Rhett’s solos shows. Obviously I’m not tired of watching them perform. And one of the reasons is that they are not tired of performing. It was another fantastic night […]

The Old 97’s: Bell House 13 July 2011

Another night with The Old 97’s and this time we stood right at the stage. The Bell House’s stage isn’t high – it comes up to my hips – so we had a great view of the boys and got to see (and experience) some fun interaction with the band. sweet pea is in town […]

Soundgarden: Jones Beach Theater 9 July 2011

This past weekend was one of those perfect NYC summer weekends – hot but not humid with a cool breeze at night. Since I had to be at Jones Beach for the show I decided to head out early and spend some time at the beach. It’s an easy ride on the LIRR and then […]

Justin Townes Earle: Celebrate Brooklyn! 30 June 2011

Another great summer series for music, dance, spoken word and film is Celebrate Brooklyn!, which is held in Prospect Park. And you can’t get much better than seeing Justin Townes Earle for free. I got there early hoping to score a good spot on the concrete or on the grass and it turned out they […]