this week in music

OUTDOOR CINEMA: L’ATALANTE

Michel Simon has loads of fun as a somewhat decrepit first mate in Jean Vigo’s classic L’ATALANTE

L’ATALANTE (Jean Vigo, 1934)
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Wednesday, July 13, free, live music at 7:00, screening at sunset
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org

Swiss actor Michel Simon is spectacularly hilarious as an aging, somewhat decrepit first mate with a peculiar lust for life and cats in French auteur Jean Vigo’s fourth and final film, L’Atalante. After barge captain Jean (Jean Dasté) and Juliette (Dita Parlo) get married in her small, tight-knit country town, they head for the big city of Paris on the long boat, L’Atalante, that he captains as his job. First mate Père Jules (Simon) and his young cabin boy (Louis Lefebvre) come along for the would-be honeymoon, attempting to make sure it’s a smooth ride, which of course it’s not. Juliette wants to enjoy the Parisian nightlife, Jean is a jealous, overprotective stick-in-the-mud, and Père Jules — well, Père Jules is downright unpredictable, pretty much all id, living life footloose and fancy free even if he doesn’t have much money or many true friends. When a love-struck bicycle-riding peddler (Gilles Margaritis) tries to woo Juliette, Jean grows angry, and an emotional and psychological battle ensues. But through it all, Père Jules just keeps on keepin’ on, never getting too concerned, confident that everything will work out in the end, because that’s what happens in life.

Jean (Jean Dasté) is jealous of a hotshot peddler (Gilles Margaritis) trying to steal his wife (Dita Parlo) in L’ATALANTE

The son of anarchist Miguel Almereyda, who chose his last name because it is an anagram of the French phrase for “there is shit,” Vigo had been labeled a subversive for his first film, À propos de Nice, and his third film, Zéro de conduite, had been banned. So he went a little more conventional, at least for him, with L’Atalante, rewriting with Albert Riéra an original script by Jean Guinée. The film is an insightful tale of love and romance, of wealth and poverty, of hard social conditions, focusing on a wacky man who has experienced a lot in his life, even though he looks like a bum, reminiscent of Simon’s brilliant portrayal of Priape in Jean Renoir’s Boudu Saved from Drowning. Whether putting on a puppet show, displaying his tattoos, getting his fortune read, or walking around with cats on his shoulders, Père Jules is one of the most endearing and memorable characters in the history of cinema, a unique figure who surprises over and over again, and Simon’s portrayal is just amazing; it’s hard to believe that he was only thirty-nine when he made the picture. The highly poetic film, featuring a lovely score by Maurice Jaubert, also echoes F. W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, only from a comic, often slapstick angle. After shooting was completed, Vigo’s already failing health took a turn for the worse, and a battle ensued over final cut involving the producers and editor Louis Chavance and cinematographer Boris Kaufman (Dziga Vertov’s brother, who went on to shoot such American classics as On the Waterfront and 12 Angry Men). Vigo died in October 1934 at the age of twenty-nine, only a few weeks after L’Atalante was released. L’Atalante is screening July 13 in Long Island City as part of Socrates Sculpture Park’s free summer Outdoor Cinema series, programmed by Film Forum, and will be preceded by a live performance by Le Petit Pepinot, with French food available for purchase from Le Fond and La Maison du Soufflé. The seventeenth annual series continues through August 24 with such other international films as Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s Sonita, Lou Ye’s Suzhou River, and Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

OUT IN THE STREETS 2016

out in the streets 2

Who: The So So Glos, Potty Mouth, Future Punx, Frankie Rose, Teen, Honduras, more
What: Out in the Streets Music & Arts Festival
Where: Vander Ende-Onderdonk House, 1820 Flushing Ave., Ridgewood, Queens
When: Saturday, July 16, and Sunday, July 17, $24 per day, $38 weekend pass, $60 VIP package
Why: The fourth annual Out in the Streets festival takes place July 16-17 at the historic Vander Ende-Onderdonk House in Ridgewood, the oldest Dutch Colonial stone house in the city, dating back to the mid-seventeenth century. Saturday features Freind (1:30), Softspot (2:15), Party Static (3:00), B Boys (3:50), Future Punx (4:40), Beverly (5:30), Big Ups (6:20), Guerilla Toss (7:10), Potty Mouth (8:00), and the So So Glos (9:00), while Sunday’s lineup is Dead Stars (1:30), the Teen Age (2:15), Weekender (3:00), Boytoy (3:50), the Britanys (4:40), EZTV (5:30), Pill (6:20), Honduras (7:10), Teen (8:00), and Frankie Rose (9:00). In addition, there will be an after-party on Saturday at Sunnyvale in Brooklyn at 11:00 with Chappo and Surf Rock Is Dead ($10 at the door, $5 with festival wristband). You can listen to a mixtape of all of the bands here, then meet us out in the streets next weekend.

LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S WONDERFUL WORLD 2016

louis armstrong festival

Who: Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, Soulive
What: Free music festival with beer garden, family-friendly activities, and food trucks
Where: Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
When: Saturday, July 16, free with advance registration (beer garden access $11.54), 1:00 – 8:00
Why: The third annual Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World festival celebrates the life and legacy of the great Satchmo, who was born in New Orleans but moved to New York City in the 1920s and to Corona, Queens, in 1943, just down the road from Flushing Meadows Corona Park. That residence, at 34-56 107th St., is now home to the Louis Armstrong House Museum. On July 16, the great Dr. John, Kermit Ruffins, and Soulive will perform for free on the main stage in the park. There will also be a Backyard Bash with family activities, a food court with local food trucks, and DJ sets at Pops’ Place at the Queens Museum, featuring music by the influential and innovative, one and only Armstrong.

BASTILLE DAY CELEBRATION

bastille day

60th St. between Fifth & Lexington Aves.
Sunday, July 10, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
www.bastilledaynyc.com
fiaf.org

On July 14, 1789, a Parisian mob stormed the Bastille prison, a symbolic victory that kicked off the French Revolution and the establishment of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Ever since, July 14 has been a national holiday celebrating liberté, égalité, and fraternité. In New York City, the Bastille Day festivities are set for Sunday, July 10, along Sixtieth St., where the French Institute Alliance Française hosts its annual daylong party of food, music, dance, and other special activities. There will be a Wine, Beer, Cocktail, and Cheese Tasting in FIAF’s Tinker Auditorium at 12 noon, 1:30, and 3:00 ($25), as well as luxurious ninety-minute Champagne & Chocolate Tastings in Le Skyroom at 12:30 and 3:00 ($75) featuring delights from G. H. Mumm, Piper-Heidsieck, Drappier, Brimoncourt, Billecart-Salmon, La Caravelle, Neuhaus, La Maison du Chocolat, Valrhona, MarieBelle, and Maman Bakery. The annual raffle ($5 per ticket) can win you such prizes as trips to Paris and New Orleans, concert tickets, beauty treatments and gift baskets, lunches and dinners, and more. Food and drink will be available from Babeth’s Feast, Barraca, Booqoo Beignets, Dominique Ansel Bakery, Éclair Bakery, Epicerie Boulud, Financier, Bec Fin, Le Souk, St. Michel, Tipsy Scoop, François Payard Bakery, Mille-feuille, Oliviers & Co., Ponty Bistro, and others. Taking the stage will be cast members from An American in Paris (12:30), CanCan dancers led by Sarah O’Dwyer (1:15 & 2:15), a French puppet show by Samantha Grassian (1:30), the Hungry March Band (2:30), the Sheridan Fencing Academy (3:15), and Myriam Phiro’s Accordion Trio (4:00). The festivities also include a roaming French Mime for Hire (Catherina Gasta), a photobooth, a book signing with Marc Levy (A Spin on the Horizon, 1:00), the annual Citroën Car Show (1:00 – 5:00), a live screening of the UEFA Euro final between France and Portugal (3:00), and more. Vive la France!

TICKET ALERT: PANORAMA NYC

Who: Arcade Fire, Alabama Shakes, Major Lazer, Kendrick Lamar, the National, Sufjan Stevens, LCD Soundsystem, Sia, A$AP Rocky, many more
What: Panorama NYC music and art festival
Where: Randall’s Island Park
When: July 22-24, $125 per day ($230 VIP), $369 for three-day pass ($699 VIP), ferry $25 per day, shuttle $30 per day
Why: Goldenvoice, the promoters behind such festivals as Coachella, Stagecoach, FYF, Hangout, Firefly, and Splash House as well as 2008’s All Points West at Liberty State Park, is giving it another go in the metropolitan area this summer with Panorama NYC, a three-day fest taking place on Randall’s Island July 22-24. The innovative Panorama Stage, which features a wraparound HD video screen that is 30 feet high and 170 feet long, will host such bands as Arcade Fire, Alabama Shakes, Major Lazer, and Silversun Pickups on Friday, Kendrick Lamar, the National, Blood Orange, and Foals on Saturday, and LCD Soundsystem, Sia, Run the Jewels, and Kurt Vile & the Violators on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Pavilion stage boasts such groups as Schoolboy Q, FKA Twigs, and Broken Social Scene on Friday, Sufjan Stevens, Flosstradamus, and Daughter on Saturday, and A$AP Rocky, Grace Potter, and SZA on Sunday. At the more intimate Parlor you can catch DJ Khaled, Netsky, and Madlib on Friday, Kaytranada, Alunageorge, and Horse Meat Disco on Saturday, and Classixx, Tourist, and Holy Ghost! on Sunday. (Complete set times are below.) The festival also features the Despacio dance floor, created by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and David and Stephen Dewaele of Soulwax with recording engineer John Klett. In addition, the Verge will be presenting the Lab, a seventy-foot video dome and projection Façade that will house seven multimedia digital art experiences, consisting of Emilie Baltz and Philip Sierzega’s “Cotton Candy Theremin,” Future Wife’s “Visceral Recess,” Dave & Gabe’s “Hyper Thread,” Gabriel Pulecio AKA lustix’s “Infinite Wall,” Mountain Gods’ “Giant Gestures,” Red Paper Heart’s “The Art of Pinball,” and Zachary Lieberman’s “Reflection Study.” Keep watching twi-ny for more coverage of Panorama as the big weekend approaches.

BOB DYLAN AND HIS BAND / MAVIS STAPLES

bob dylan mavis staples

Forest Hills Stadium
1 Tennis Pl., Forest Hills
Friday, July 8, $50-$365, 7:00
www.foresthillsstadium.com

On August 28, 1965, a twenty-four-year-old Bob Dylan took the stage in Forest Hills Stadium and played two sets, the first acoustic, the second electric, a combined fifteen songs, nearly every one destined to become a classic if it wasn’t already. Dylan’s Never Ending Tour returns to Forest Hills on July 8, with a seventy-five-year-old Dylan and his band, including Charlie Sexton, Stu Kimball, and Donnie Herron on guitars, Tony Garnier on bass, and George Recile on drums, ready to perform two sets that total twenty-one songs, only one of which was played back in ’65, and seven of which are Tin Pan Alley covers. After years of changing up his setlist night after night, switching among tunes from throughout his storied career, the man formerly known as Robert Zimmerman has been playing the same twenty-one songs at every show going back nearly two years now, and he’s been performing fewer of his own songs — and he lets you know it from the opening number, the Oscar-winning “Things Have Changed,” in which he declares, “Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose / Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose.” If you’re going to the show expecting to hear Dylan’s greatest hits, well, you’re not going to; he does play a few, but in such different arrangements that many people in the audience might not even recognize them. But Dylan has always done things his way, over the course of more than fifty years and thirty-seven albums, and that hasn’t changed, especially if you’ve been paying attention. His last two albums consist only of standards; Shadows in the Night features ten songs previously covered by Frank Sinatra, and the new Fallen Angels boasts a dozen old-timers, kicking off with “Young at Heart,” a bit of sly Dylan humor.

Both albums are surprisingly good; Dylan’s craggier-than-ever voice still knows its way around a tune, his phrasing impeccable. You should also know that he doesn’t play guitar anymore, for health reasons, so instead he stands at a concert grand. Thus, when you arrive at Forest Hills Stadium, if you are expecting to see a restaging of his 1965 show, with Dylan plucking the six-string and singing earth-shaking folk songs and rock and roll, you’re at the wrong place. But if you go with an open mind, letting Bob be Bob — or, in this case, Frank — you’re in for a treat. The legendary R&B and gospel singer and civil rights activist Mavis Staples, a member of the Staples Singers as well as a solo artist in her own right, opens the show. Staples, whose soaring voice is quite an alternative to Dylan’s, has several connections with Bob; her family covered “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” way back when, and Dylan once told Pops Staples that he was going to marry Mavis. “I often think about what would have happened if I’d married Bobby, though,” she told the Guardian this past February. “If we’d had some little plum-crushers, how our lives would be. The kids would be singing now, and Bobby and I would be holding each other up.” They’ll be holding each other up in a different way on July 8, when their tour pulls into Forest Hills Stadium.

TOM SACHS — BOOMBOX RETROSPECTIVE: SUMMER DJ BOOMBOX RESIDENCIES

Tom Sachs’s boomboxes will be put to good use on upcoming Thursday night programs at the Brooklyn Museum (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

THURSDAY NIGHTS
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Thursday, July 7, 21, 28, August 4, free, 6:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Tom Sachs is one busy guy. In March, Van Neistat’s film about Sachs’s 2012 Mars Space Program installation at the Park Avenue Armory opened at Metrograph and “Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony” began its four-month run at the Noguchi Museum; in April his exhibit “Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999-2016” opened at the Brooklyn Museum; and since June 9, his wall piece “Training” has been included in the FLAG Art Foundation group show “Summer School.” On July 6, the DIY bricolage artist, who prefers such basic and found materials as plywood, tape, glue, batteries, wires, and foamcore, will be at FLAG to play the last “Training” game. And on July 7, the Brooklyn Museum will host the first of four free Thursday nights in which DJs will use his boomboxes for dance parties. “Like many suburban lonely guys, I’ve been making sound systems for myself, to impress friends, and mostly to bore and alienate beautiful women with long talks about high quality electronics . . . just ask my wife,” New York native Sachs, who has been making portable sound systems since he was fifteen years old, explains in the accompanying handout. The show, which continues through August 14, comprises more than a dozen of his boomboxes, all of which are operative, from the small “McDonald’s Boombox,” “Clusterfuck,” and “AAU (Acoustic Amplification Unit)” to the massive ninety-six-square-foot “Toyan’s” and a pair of large-scale speakers, “Euronor.” On July 7, Natasha Diggs teams up with #SoulintheHorn, Mursi Layne takes the reins on July 21, and Juliana Huxtable will spin the black circle on August 4, all as part of “Summer DJ Boombox Residencies.” In addition, on July 28, for the Guest Bodega Clerk Series, Acyde and Tremaine Emory will take over Sachs’s life-size bodega boombox, where visitors can buy candy, granola, and other real items as well as take out cash from an ATM that dispenses a zine as a receipt. “In movies, 70% of what you understand comes from the sound. The rest is just pictures,” Sachs notes in the handout. “In sound systems, the opposite is true: the way things look influence the way things are heard. We spend with our eyes.” Sachs’s boomboxes both look and sound great, with a low-tech feel but a high-tech concept.