this week in music

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “VACATION” BY THE GO-GO’S

Once upon a time, Coney Island was one of the most popular go-to vacation destinations in New York. On August 1, people will be flocking to West Twenty-First St. and Surf Ave. for a different kind of vacation. On Thursday night, one of the most popular bands of the 1980s will be playing a free show, as the Go-Go’s take the stage as part of Brooklyn’s Seaside Summer Concert Series. Fans can expect Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Gina Schock, and Jane Wiedlin to play all their hits, including “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Cool Jerk,” “Head Over Heels,” and, of course, “Vacation,” throwing an outdoor dance party that is sure to be hot. The ’80s celebration actually gets going with the Tom Tom Club, consisting of former Talking Heads husband-and-wife duo Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, who scored with such cutting-edge singles as “Wordy Rappinghood” and “Genius of Love.” The concert series, hosted by borough president Marty Markowitz, continues with Huey Lewis and the News on August 15 paying tribute to the thirtieth anniversary of their Sports album and concludes August 21 with Chicago.

Belinda Carlisle and the Go-Go’s didn’t let a little rain spoil the party in Coney Island (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: With the rain coming down, threatening to cancel the free Go-Go’s concert in Coney Island on August 1, lead singer Belinda Carlisle took the stage wearing a blue poncho, promising the small but dedicated crowd that the band was determined to go on once things let up. Shortly thereafter, rain still falling, guitarists Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin and drummer Gina Schock walked into the audience, posing for photographs and signing autographs as a way to thank everyone for sticking it out. Eventually, after a two-and-a-half-hour delay, “the most successful all female rock band of all time” hit the stage, tearing through an abbreviated but stellar forty-five-minute set that focused on their most popular songs from the ’80s, along with some rip-roaring covers. Clearly happy that the fans, young and old alike, had waited out the rain and were now ready to dance their soaking-wet hearts out, the Go-Go’s played such innately infectious favorites as “Vacation,” “How Much More,” “Head Over Heels,” “Cool Jerk,” Carlisle’s solo song “Mad About You,” Wiedlin’s Sparks cover “Cool Places,” and “Our Lips Are Sealed,” adding hot versions of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” and KISS’s “Rock and Roll All Night” worked into “We Got the Beat” before paying tribute in the encore to the group that made them want to start a band in the first place, the Ramones, closing out the show with “I Wanna Be Sedated.” Unfortunately, opening act Tom Tom Club didn’t get to play, but the Go-Go’s were in top form, seemingly enjoying themselves nearly as much as the audience. (For pix, go here.)

BEATLES BLAST

Richmond County Bank Ballpark
75 Richmond Terrace, St. George, Staten Island
Friday, August 2, free, 7:00
718-816-2133
www.statenislandusa.com

The Beatles and New York City baseball have a storied history. In 1965, the Fab Four played one of their most famous concerts ever at Shea Stadium, where they could barely be heard amid the shrieks of their crazed fans. More than four decades later, in 2009, Paul McCartney played Citi Field, then headed to the Bronx two years later for a pair of shows at Yankee Stadium. Although not quite in the same, er, ballpark, shall we say, Beatles Blast returns on August 2 for its sophomore go-round, as a series of Beatles cover bands take the stage at Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George, home of the Staten Island Yankees, the Bronx Bombers’ Single-A affiliate. Among those playing Beatles classics will be the Blue Meanies, London Fogg, Giffords Lane, eliminated Voice contestant Garrett Gardner, and original Mersey Beat star Billy J. Kramer, who recorded a series of Beatles-written songs with his band the Dakotas. The event will be hosted by Q104.3’s Ken Dashow, whose “Breakfast with the Beatles” radio program can be heard every Sunday morning; last week’s playlist began with “Oh! Darling” and included such other songs as “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” “Eleanor Rigby,” a live version of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” McCartney’s “Jenny Wren,” the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle with Care,” and Kramer’s “Bad to Me” before concluding with “All You Need Is Love.” We don’t know if Beatles Blast will have quite such diversity, but it should be a lot of fun while also raising funds and awareness for autism. The event, sponsored by Staten Island borough president James Molinaro, is free, but donations to Come Together for Autism Awareness will earn you VIP seats. Play ball!

MAXWELL’S CLOSING NIGHT BLOCK PARTY

Maxwell’s will say goodbye with a farewell block party on July 31

Maxwell’s
1039 Washington St., Hoboken
Wednesday, July 31, free, 4:00
201-798-0406
www.maxwellsnj.com

For more than thirty years, Maxwell’s has been a key part of the metropolitan music scene, hosting a diverse array of emerging and established indie and alternative bands in an intimate environment in Hoboken. Over the decades, such bands as Nirvana and Sonic Youth, the Bongos and Yo La Tengo, R.E.M. and the Replacements, the Pixies and Lucinda Williams, and the Psychedelic Furs and the Feelies played there; we remember seeing great shows by Bob Mould, Robyn Hitchcock, fIREHOSE, Richard Thompson, and the Mekons at the Washington St. venue. But on Wednesday, July 31, Maxwell’s will join other recently shuttered local venues, most notably CBGBs, when it closes for good. In this case, however, co-owner Todd Abramson is not walking away because of a rent dispute or because the club is broke; he just feels it’s time. (He’ll continue booking shows at the Bell House in Brooklyn.) Maxwell’s farewell tour has included July performances by Freedy Johnston, Ted Leo, Screaming Females, Mission of Burma, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Ian Hunter and the Rant Band, and the Muffs. On July 31, the club will say goodbye with a free block party beginning at 4:00, featuring an unannounced lineup that is expected to feature “a,” the first band to play Maxwell’s, way back in 1978, along with DJs spinning tunes from the myriad groups that have rocked the house over the years.

VIDEO OF THE DAY — THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM: “GREAT EXPECTATIONS”

Jersey indie rockers the Gaslight Anthem kicked off their three-pack of New York City shows on July 26 with a stirring performance on Pier 26 in Hudson River Park, their home state behind them, the new World Trade Center tower glittering downtown. Following a set by fellow Jersey punks the Bouncing Souls, which brought quite a dedicated contingent of their own to the outdoor show, a talkative Brian Fallon led the Gaslight Anthem through a twenty-song set that featured songs from throughout their career, opening with the hot title-track pair of “Handwritten” and “The ’59 Sound” and closing with a sizzling version of “The Backseat.” Along the way, Fallon spoke about his desire to have Ryan Gosling’s band, Dead Man’s Bones, join them on tour (instead of Gosling making Only God Forgives 2, which Fallon said was really not necessary), thanked the rabid fans, who occasionally formed a large mosh pit, for sticking by them during some tough times, and announced that the band would be heading back into the studio shortly to write and record their fifth album. Lead singer and guitarist Fallon, guitarists Alex Rosamilia and Ian Perkins, bassist Alex Levine, and drummer Benny Horowitz appeared to be having a ball at the show, which included a guest appearance by Dave Hause on “45” and a cover of the Ramones’ “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg.” The Gaslight Anthem continue their hat trick at Irving Plaza on July 27 headlining Red Bull Sound Select Presents with Hause, Bayonne’s the Scandals, and Nashville trio Frances and the Foundation and will be back on Pier 26 on July 28 with the amazing Hold Steady.

A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM

U.S. Grant National Memorial Park
West 122nd St. at Riverside Dr.
Sunday, July 28, free, 12 noon – 8:30 pm
877-427-5364
www.harlemweek.com

On Sunday, July 28, “A Great Day in Harlem” kicks off the annual Harlem Week festivities, a month of free events including live music, film screenings, community fairs, a college expo, and more. This year’s theme is “Living the Dream: Celebrating History,” paying tribute to the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. “A Great Day in Harlem” takes place in U.S. Grant National Memorial Park, featuring a cultural showcase with music and dance at 1:00, a gospel caravan at 3:00, and a fashion fusion showcase at 5:00, followed by “A Concert under the Stars: Songs in the Key of Life,” a salute to Stevie Wonder’s seminal 1976 Motown classic, led by Ray Chew & the Harlem Music Festival All-Stars with special guests. Harlem Week continues through August 24 with such other events as Great Jazz on the Great Hill in Central Park, the Tri-State Junior Tennis Classic in Mill Pond Park, Summer in the City with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Contours, and the ImageNation Outdoor Film Festival in St. Nicholas Park, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Marcus Garvey Park, the 5K Anti-Gun Violence Walk for Peace, and much more.

CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! THE WATERBOYS / ALASDAIR ROBERTS

Mike Scott will lead the Waterboys in a special free show in Prospect Park on July 19

Prospect Park Bandshell
Prospect Park West & Ninth St.
Friday, July 19, free (suggested donation $3), 7:30
www.bricartsmedia.org
www.mikescottwaterboys.com

“As for me, I figured music wasn’t worth the air it occupied if it didn’t change both its makers and its listeners, but I was altered by my adventures to a degree beyond my comprehension,” writes Waterboys founder Mike Scott about recording the band’s classic 1988 album, Fisherman’s Blues, in his 2012 memoir, Adventures of a Waterboy. “I stood looking back over the three years, wondering what the hell had happened. Unable to articulate the contents of my mind I decided to give no interviews, and did the one sensible thing I could and took the Waterboys back on the road.” Twenty-five years later, the extremely articulate Scott is taking the Scottish group back out on the road again, on the longest U.S. tour of its thirty-year career. Combining a poetic grace and narrative storytelling with an epic Celtic-rock sound, the Waterboys have recorded such memorable tracks as “Fisherman’s Blues,” “Whole of the Moon,” “And a Bang on the Ear,” “This Is the Sea,” “The Big Music,” and the antiwar paean “Red Army Blues.” Scott has also shown a deep affinity for the work of William Butler Yeats; he included a version of the Irish writer’s “The Stolen Child” on Fisherman’s Blues, and in 2011 he released An Appointment with Mr Yeats, consisting of fourteen Yeats poems set to music, including “News for the Delphic Oracle,” “Sweet Dancer,” “Mad as the Mist and Snow,” and “The Faery’s Last Song.” This fall Scott will be leading two different Waterboys lineups, both featuring fiddler Steve Wickham, as the band embarks on “A Night of Musickal Fireworks and Improvisations” in America, followed by “Fisherman’s Blues Revisited” in Europe. We first saw the Waterboys opening up for U2 at the Tower Theater in Philly on December 1, 1984, and were instantly blown away by Scott’s powerful stage presence and wide-ranging scope, and we’ll be there on July 19 when the band plays a free Celebrate Brooklyn! show in Prospect Park, with Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts also on the bill. “I have heard / the big music / and I’ll never be the same / Something so pure / just called my name,” Scott sang on “The Big Music,” from 1984’s A Pagan Place, a feeling that many experience after seeing the Waterboys for the first time.

BASTILLE DAY ON 60th STREET

60th St. between Fifth & Lexington Aves.
Sunday, July 14, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
www.bastilledaynyc.com
www.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 14, 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 tastings ($20) inside FIAF, including wine and cheese, cocktails, and beer; a raffle ($5) drawing with such prizes as trips to France, St. Barts, and New Orleans; a Twitter challenge with yet more prizes; food and drink from Le Souk, Ricard, Epicerie Boulud, the Crepe Escape, Macaron Parlour, Financier, Ponty Bistro, Augustin’s Waffles, Tiny Treats, François Payard Patisserie, Mille-feuille, Le Cirque, and others; complimentary French language workshops; live performances by the Hungry March Band and Can-Can Dancers; roaming mime Catherine Gasta; accordion player Harlan Muir; a Citroën Car Show; and a Kids’ Corner with such family activities as face-painting, arts & crafts, games, and more. In addition, the inaugural Bastille Day Banquet features $30 box lunches with fine rillettes & cornichons, coq-au-vin, a mini baguette, bottled water, crème caramel, and a Phrygian liberty cap. Viva la France!