South Street Seaport is located on Pier 17, Manhattan, at Fulton & South Street.  It is an actual wooden pier, albeit a modern and stable one, located between the Pier 19 shopping mall and a collection of turn-of-the-century sailing ships; giant masts and a huge Pizzeria Uno loom over the plaza.  It lies within the Seaport tourist area in southern Manhattan, right upon the East River.  During the summer, the annual River-to-River Festival and Seaport Music hold a series of concerts there, Fridays, starting at 7:00 P.M.  It is one of the venues used by River-to-River Festival during the summer, along with Battery Park, Castle Clinton, World Financial Center, Rockefeller Park, and others.

The actual stage is located at the end of the pier’s wide plaza.  Being free, all-ages, and outdoors during the summer, most acts get quite a healthy turnout, and the crowd on the plaza can get quite thick.  The sound carries well, however, thanks to large speakers and side structures.  There’s a ‘photo well’ area between the crowd and the stage, cordoned off by portable metal railing barriers.  That cordoned area extends up the house-left side of the stage floor, and is open not just to press but other VIP’s, friends of the bands, friends of River-to-River and so forth.  It creates a corridor on the other side for people using the stores and restaurants that open onto the plaza from Pier 19, but also gives the main stage floor area a bit of a ‘boxed in’ feel.  The stage is elevated only five feet or so, but the acts become more and more visible as the sun goes down (it’s usually still light out when the first band takes the stage, but dark by the time the main band does).  Beer is sold from a few kiosks, but a better deal on pitchers can be found in the bar at the top floor of the Pier 19 mall, that opens out onto the food court and overlooks South Street Seaport; one can leave, pitcher in hand, via the outside staircase, avoiding the no-alcohol rest of the mall.

Seaport Music features a diverse array of acts, but more and more come from the alternative arena, usually more towards the more ‘artistic’, yet still accessible, acts.  It nicely results in bands you’ve always wanted to see, but just never have, without feeling like the free show is going to be such a draw as to make the crowd oppressive.  Not that the audience’s don’t get intense: only inclement weather kept The National from overwhelming South Street Seaport on their meteoric, post-Boxer rise, and the Battles show that finished out the 2007 season saw security having to empty out and occupy the photo well, so great were the number of fans either moshing, crowd-surfing, or jumping into the well.  There are usually three bands, always at least two, and the second is invariably someone you’ve heard of that are worth checking out as well.  A great, easy way to kick off summer weekends, whether you work downtown or not (though, like pretty much everything on the southern shores of Manhattan, it’s a bit of a trek from the closest subway stop, and the area gets pretty dead late at night); just watch out – it’s dangerously easy to get used to, but when summer ends, so do the shows (though Seaport Music has just announced a new off-season indoor venue next door, @Seaport).

Capacity: 7,000-8,000

all ages

Address:

Pier 17 at Fulton & South Street

By Subway:

QRO Coverage:

-No Age, with Telepathe & Abe Vigoda, July 11th, 2008 - No Age live review, No Age photos, Telepathe photos, Abe Vigoda photos  

-A Place To Bury Strangers, June 27th, 2008 - photos  

-Wire, May 30th, 2008 - live review, photos  

-Battles, with Deerhunter, August 31st, 2007 – Deerhunter live review, Battles photos, Deerhunter photos

-Camera Obscura, August 24th, 2007 – live review, photos

-The National, August 17th, 2007 – photos

-Au Revoir Simone, August 10th, 2007 – photos

-Bishop Allen, July 20th, 2007 – live review, photos

-Ra Ra Riot, with Sam Champion, June 29th, 2007 – Ra Ra Riot live review, Ra Ra Riot photos, Sam Champion photos

No Age - "Teen Creeps", New York, NY, 7/11/08
No Age - "Eraser", New York, NY, 7/11/08
No Age - "Ripped Knees", New York, NY, 7/11/08
Wire - "Pink Flag", New York, NY, 5/30/08
Wire - "Lowdown", New York, NY, 5/30/08
Wire - "The 15th", New York, NY, 5/30/08
Wire - "Perspex Icon", New York, NY, 5/30/08
Wire - "Comet", New York, NY, 5/30/08
Deerhunter - "Fluorescent Grey", New York, NY, 8/31/07

Click here for the venue's website

Click here for the festival's website

Click here for the festival's website