This Week In New York

ROCKS OFF: RAILROAD EARTH

Railroad Earth will be setting sail June 17 aboard the Rocks Off Concert Cruises (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

41st St. & the West Side Highway
Thursday, June 17, $25-$30, 8:00
www.rocksoff.com
www.railroadearth.com

June in the city doesn’t get much better than a sunset music performance aboard a ship sailing down the Hudson River. The Rocks Off Concert Cruises have become a staple of the season in New York, offering a couple dozen of these three-hour tours each summer, where patrons can dance, drink, and groove up close with an astounding variety of musical acts while they ply the waters around New York Harbor as evening settles in. On board the Temptress this Thursday (the flagship vessel, with a capacity of five hundred, and one of a half dozen in the Rocks Off armada), New Jersey roots rockers Railroad Earth will be providing the musical entertainment in a setting that’s as unique and enjoyable as one could imagine. While their music defies a straitjacket definition genrewise, Railroad Earth has been compared to such acts as the Band and WORKINGMAN’S DEAD–era Grateful Dead while resolutely channeling their own musical path — one that mixes string-band instrumentation with drums, great songwriting, the ability to improvise on a tune (don’t say the “J” word — RRE is far from the archetypal jam band), and what can only be described, perhaps, as a spiritually exploratory take on musical ideas ranging from folk to rock to Celtic to bluegrass . . . all set to a groove that will have both passengers and boat swaying from the moment it leaves harbor.

This will be RRE’s first NYC show with bassist Andrew Altman, who signed on at the beginning of the year. As far as the band’s repertoire goes? Well, their last time headlining one of these cruises saw them performing an apropos and full-throttle rendition of Gram Parsons’s “Luxury Liner,” and it would seem keeping in character for them to bust out their original powerhouse “Mighty River” this time afloat. The group has been woodshedding material for a new album in a Brooklyn warehouse as of late. While these compositions have yet to see the light of day in their live show, it’s assured that the band will be playing enough well-loved material from their catalog to please their seafaring followers and create some genuine rocking, river-borne revelry. In other words, it should be a cruise to remember.

And don’t forget that This Week in New York has four pairs of tickets to give away to any of this summer’s Rocks Off concerts. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and event choice to contest@twi-ny.com by Thursday, June 17, at 3:00 pm. Winners will be selected at random and must be at least twenty-one years of age. Only one pair of tickets can be given out for each show. Good luck!