this week in music

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2016 VIDEO OF THE DAY: “EASY” BY HELIOTROPES

Who: Heliotropes
What: Northside Festival
Where: Gold Sounds, 44 Wilson Ave.; Bar Matchless, 557 Manhattan Ave.; Black Bear Bar, 70 North Sixth St.
When: Friday, June 10, Gold Sounds, $8-$10, 7:00; Friday, June 10, Bar Matchless, $7, 11:15; Saturday, June 11, Black Bear Bar, 4:30
Why: Heliotropes have gone through some major changes since we first sang their praises at the 4Knots Festival back in June 2013. Only founding member and chief singer-songwriter Jessica Numsuwankijkul remains from the original all-woman foursome; Numsuwankijkul is now joined by guitarist Ricci Swift, bassist Richard Thomas, and drummer Gregg Giuffre. The Brooklyn-based quartet will be featuring songs from its upcoming sophomore album, Over There That Way, which drops June 17 from the End Records. The record has a military theme, with such songs as “Normandy,” “War Isn’t Over,” “Dardanelles Pts. I & II,” and “Goodnight Soldier.” Heliotropes will be playing Gold Sounds at 7:00 and Bar Matchless at 11:15 on June 10 and Palisades at 4:30 on June 11 as part of the Northside Festival.

Five More to Watch on Friday at Northside
The Teen Age, Gold Sounds, $8-$10, 8:00, and Muchmore’s, $10, 10:15
Slonk Donkerson, the Grand Victory, $10, 10:00
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Palisades, $15, 10:30
Jeff the Brotherhood, Music Hall of Williamsburg, $16, 11:00
Dead Leaf Echo, Alphaville, $8, 11:15

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL 2016 VIDEO OF THE DAY: “C’EST LA VIE” AND “FLOATING WORLD” BY WOLF PARADE

Who: Wolf Parade and Land of Talk
What: Northside Festival
Where: McCarren Park, North Twelfth St., Lorimer St., and Manhattan Ave. between Bayard St. and Berry St. and Nassau Ave.
When: Thursday, June 9, free with RSVP, 8:30
Why: Canadian quartet Wolf Parade continues its reunion after a five-year break with a free Northside Festival show at McCarren Park, with fellow Montreal band Land of Talk opening up. Spencer Krug, Dan Boeckner, Dante DeCaro, and Arlen Thompson are out on the road in support of their new eponymous four-track EP, consisting of “Automatic,” “Mr. Startup,” “C’est La Vie Way,” and “Floating World.”

Five More to Watch on Thursday at Northside
Mobile Steam Unit, Sunnyvale, $7, 7:00
Juliet K, Pete’s Candy Store, free, 8:00
Diarrhea Planet, Brooklyn Bowl, $18-$20, 10:15
Grooms, Aviv, $10, 10:40
bunny X, the Grand Victory, $10, 12:15 am

BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY 2016

There’s plenty of smokin’ good ’cue at annual BBQ block party in Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Madison Square Park
23rd to 26th Sts. between Fifth & Madison Aves.
Saturday, June 11, and Sunday, June 12, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Admission: free; $10 per plate of barbecue
Fast Pass: $131.72; Big Wig VIP Package: $288.53
www.bigapplebbq.org
www.madisonsquarepark.org

The immensely popular and ridiculously crowded Big Apple Barbecue Block Party is upon us, as pitmasters from around the country gather in Madison Square Park and serve up some damn fine BBQ. The fourteenth annual event, being held June 11-12, features some old favorites as well as some up-and-comers: Mike Mills and Amy Mills of the 17th Street Bar & Grill from Murphysboro, Illinois; Chris Lilly of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q from Decatur, Alabama; Patrick Martin of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint from Nashville, Tennessee; Garry Roark and Leslie Roark Scott of Ubon’s Barbeque from Yazoo City, Mississippi; Scott Roberts of the Salt Lick BBQ from Driftwood, Texas; John Wheeler of Memphis Barbecue Co. from Horn Lake, Mississippi; Sam Jones of Sam Jones Wood-Fired N.C. Whole Hog BBQ from Winterville, North Carolina; Joe Duncan of Baker’s Ribs from Dallas, Texas; Ed Mitchell and Ryan Mitchell from Wilson, North Carolina; and local purveyors Jean-Paul Bourgeois of Blue Smoke, Charles Grund Jr. of Hill Country, John Stage of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, and Billy Durney of Hometown BBQ. The lines can get extremely long, so the best way to enjoy the event is to go with a bunch of friends, get on different lines, and then gather somewhere in the park to devour your meal (while also checking out Martin Puryear’s new installation, “Big Bling”). Each plate of ’cue will run you ten bucks. The FastPass is back, where for $131.72 you get access for you and one guest to the express lanes and $100 worth of food, drink, and merchandise; the Big Wig VIP Package grants you that in addition to access to the VIP tent and private VIP area with open bar and snacks, for $288.53. Saturday’s music lineup consists of the Demolition String Band at 2:30 and Bernie Williams & His All-Star Band at 4:00, while Sunday’s roster is Josiah & the Bonnevilles at 2:30 and David Ryan Harris at 4:00.

DINE AROUND DOWNTOWN 2016

28 Liberty Plaza
Between Liberty & Pine and Nassau & William Sts.
Wednesday, June 8, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Admission: free, dishes $3-$7
212-566-6700
www.downtownny.com

Sponsored by the Downtown Alliance and hosted by chef Alex Guarneschelli, the fifteenth annual Dine Around Downtown will feature signature dishes from more than forty Lower Manhattan restaurants, from pizza places and burger joints to steak and seafood houses. Among the participating eateries and what’s on their menu are ATRIO Wine Bar (Mediterranean grilled octopus salad, pulled pork sliders, whipped Mortadella crostini with pistachios), Barbalu (assorted crostini, tiramisu), Bavaria Bier Haus (steak sandwich and side salad, mac and cheese, sausages and mash), Beckett’s Bar and Grill (lobster slider, lobster mac and cheese), Delmonico’s (grilled steak sandwich, lobster bisque), Le District (Le District classic crêpe, Asian chicken crêpe, chocolate lollipops), Harry’s Café and Steak (grilled baby lamb chops, lobster-stuffed mushrooms), Haru (spicy tuna roll, fish tacos), the Ketch Brewhouse (crab cake sandwich, organic chicken slider, shrimp cocktail), OBAO (chicken and shrimp dumplings, chicken pad kee mao, chicken pad see ew), the Open Door Gastropub (pork belly BLT, bacon–mushroom mac and cheese), Pier A Harbor House (blackened swordfish taco, New England clam chowder), SUteiShi (scallop skewers, yuzu lemonade), and Ulysses’ Folk House (BBQ pork ribs with coleslaw, fried chicken with coleslaw). There will also be live music by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Stars. Each plate goes for $3 to $7, with proceeds benefiting the Downtown Alliance, which “is striving to make Lower Manhattan a wonderful place to live, work, and play by creating a vibrant multi-use neighborhood.”

CELEBRATE ISRAEL: SIGHT, SOUND, AND SPIRIT

Bikers join with marchers and floats in Celebrate Israel Parade (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE
57th to 74th St. up Fifth Ave.
Sunday, June 5, free, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
celebrateisraelny.org

On May 14, 1948, “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” proclaimed, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” Israel’s existence has been fraught with controversy since the very beginning, but the nation perseveres, and on June 5 its sixty-eighth birthday will be honored with the annual Celebrate Israel Parade. This year’s theme is “Sight, Sound & Spirit,” a tribute to the ideal of Israel as a model of diversity. As the official parade website explains, “Israel speaks to our history and to our hearts. In Israel, there is so much to see, so much to do, so much to feel and embrace.” On Sunday, some thirty thousand marchers are expected to make their way from Fifty-Seventh to Seventy-Fourth St. up Fifth Ave. Among the performers will be the Broadway cast of Fiddler on the Roof, SOULFARM, the Israel Dance Institute, Paprim Ensemble Dancers, DJ LT, DJ Lee Epstein, the Maccabeats, the Milk & Honeys, and Areyvut Mitzvah Clowns. Special guests include honorary grand marshal Kathie Lee Gifford, grand marshal Moshe Gil, Ambassador Ido Aharoni, and several members of the Knesset, while among the guests are Dr. Ruth Westheimer, television journalists Steve Lacey and Robert Moses, and the Israel Pro-Cycling Team.

In addition, the unaffiliated Israel Day Concert in Central Park is a free show in Rumsey Playfield (2:30–7:30) with performances by Lipa Schmeltzer, Eitan Katz, Shloime Dachs and Orchestra, Tal Vaknin with Shlomi Aharoni, Mati Shriki, Avi Kilimnick, Michoel Pruzansky, Dr. Meyer Abittan, Jerry Markowitz, Chaim Kiss, Izzy Kieffer & Heshy R., Micha Gamerman, Matt Dubb, and White Shabbos as well as speakers Danny Danon, John Bolton, Major Pete Hegseth, Joe Piscopo, and Morton Klein and special appearances by Ken Abramowitz, Farley Weiss, Martin Oliner, David Weprin, Rory Lancman, Rabbi David Algaze, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, and Rivka Abbe. The emcee is Nachum Segal.

TO LIFE, TO LAUGH, L’CHAIM!: A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION IN SONG OF SHOLEM ALEICHEM

sholem aleichem

Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Sunday, June 5, $15-$40, 4:30
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org
thejppc.org

In May 1916, Yiddish author and playwright Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, better known as Sholem Aleichem, died in the Bronx at the age of fifty-seven from tuberculosis and diabetes, leaving behind a legendary legacy of Jewish storytelling. On June 5, the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus will honor the one hundredth anniversary of his death with a special concert at Symphony Space, “To Life, to Laugh, L’Chaim!: A Centennial Celebration in Song of Sholem Aleichem.” The show will feature brand-new choral arrangements of Yiddish versions of songs from Fiddler on the Roof in addition to “Shalom aleichem malachei hasharet,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “Afn pripetshik,” and others. Sholem Aleichem’s epitaph (“Here lies a plain man, / Who wrote in plain Yiddish, / And to readers he was known / A humorist, a writer . . .”) will also be set to music, in a world premiere. The concert will be conducted by Binyumen Schaechter, with pianist Seth Weinstein and guest soloists Cantor Joshua Breitzer, Donna Breitzer, Cantor Joel Caplan, and Temma Schaechter. There has been quite a recent resurgence in Yiddish theater of late, including last fall’s New Yiddish Rep version of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Castillo Theatre, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s delightful re-creation of The Golden Bride, which returns to the Museum of Jewish Heritage this summer, as well as, of course, the current Broadway revival of Fiddler, so this concert continues the very happy trend.

FIRST SATURDAY: PRIDE AND AGITPROP!

LJ Roberts, “Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves,” Jacquard-woven cotton and Lurex, hand-dyed fabric, crank-knit yarn, thread, 2011 (photo by Mario Gallucci)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, June 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Pride Month is the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Museum’s June edition of its vastly popular free First Saturday program. The evening will feature live performances by New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and DJ Mursi Layne; storytelling by Queer Memoir; screenings of Jake Witzenfeld’s Oriented, followed by a talkback with Tarab NYC, and Asurf Oluseyi’s Hell or High Water, followed by a talkback with activists Kehinde Bademosi, Noni Salma Lawal, Ekene Okuwegbunam, and Adejoke Tugbiyele; a movement workshop inspired by domestic workers, by Studio REV-; pop-up gallery talks on “Disguise: Masks and Global African Art”; a hands-on workshop in which participants can make their own Pride-based iron-on patch; a curator talk by Catherine J. Morris and Stephanie Weissberg on “Agitprop!”; the talk “Women, Art, AIDS, and Activism,” with Joy Episalla, Kia Labeija, Jessica Whitbread, Egyptt Labeija, Sue Schaffner, and Carrie Moyer, hosted by Visual AIDS and moderated by LJ Roberts; a printmaking workshop about immigration and undocumented youth; and outdoor projections by the Illuminator. In addition, you can check out such other exhibitions as “This Place,” “Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999–2016,” and “Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (to a Seagull).”