The worldwide economic crisis finally hit New York’s free summer concert series in 2011. River-to-River’s shows at South Street Seaport (QRO venue review) were knocked down to four this year (and the annual Fourth of July show at Battery Park – QRO venue review – was no more), while The Village Voice replaced its big Coney Island Siren Festival (QRO recap from last year) with the much smaller 4knots (QRO photos) at the Seaport this year. And the post-McCarren Park (QRO venue review) Pool Parties of Williamsburg Waterfront (QRO venue review), plus last year’s new Gone to Governors on Governors Island (QRO venue review), didn’t return in ‘11. Indeed, the August 13th & 14th Music To Know Festival on Long Island was cancelled (QRO preview of what would have been) – and Long Island’s Escape To New York Festival (QRO photos) the weekend prior hardly sold out (and it’s final day was cancelled due to rain). But RiverRocks at Hudson River Park has been keep on keepin’ on, like with Metronomy on Thursday, July 28th.
To be fair, RiverRocks only throws three shows a summer, but has been consistent about it, year-to-year. And the shows themselves are bigger events than in any of the other concert series still going on, with a sizable stage placed at the end of Pier 54 at Hudson River Park (QRO venue review) – the way the whole event juts out into the Hudson, looking out on both the high rises of Manhattan and the neo-high rises of New Jersey, a beacon of life in the flat river, just makes them feel larger. And the stage floor is, by necessity of being a pier, long and thin, so it both extends the crowd by squeezing it from the sides, and pushes those up in front towards the stage.
Still, what matters most is who’s playing – and the weather. There had been a threat of rain for the evening, and a pier in the Hudson is not the kind of place you want to be hanging out in while it’s pouring (little-to-no cover, greater threat of lightning on the river – which is what forced The Dirty Projectors’ show at South Street Seaport on the other side of Manhattan to be cut short a few years ago – QRO photos). Metronomy singer/guitarist Joseph Mount even joked that the band had seemingly been bringing rain wherever they went – but not at Pier 54 that night. There were even beach balls bouncing above the crowd at the start of the show, under this summer’s hot sun (beach balls that, of course, eventually bounced into the river…).
RiverRocks’ first show of 2011, on July 14th with tUnE-yArDs (QRO photos), had seen a massive line along the waterfront, despite going up against free shows that same night from such ultra-established leading ladies of music as Joan Jett (QRO photos) & Patti Smith (QRO photos). That Hudson River Park show was something of a ‘celebration’ of how surprisingly successful local Merril Garbus has become – just last year the rather idiosyncratic songwriter was opener at Central Park SummerStage (QRO venue review) to far less people (QRO photos), but just like The xx jumping from opener at Seaport in 2009 (QRO photos) to headliner at SummerStage a year later (QRO review), another act with capitalization out of R.E.M.’s Reckoning (QRO deluxe edition review) has taken off.
Metronomy admittedly didn’t draw a tUnE-level crowd or a yArDs-long line to get in, but it was still a very healthy turnout for an English band who’s not a household name even over there, and last played NYC three years ago at the tiny (and not full) Union Hall (QRO venue review) out in Park Slope, Brooklyn. But their dance music, heavily influenced by/indebted to the sound coming from their island in the eighties, is an infectious one, and Hudson River Park had the fever. Mixing from all three of their full-lengths, the new The English Riviera, 2008’s Nights Out, and 2006 debut Pip Paine (Pay the £5,000 You Owe), Mount & co. had the pier shaking (or rather, the crowd – thankfully the actual pier was made solid; it was at Pier 54 that survivors of The Titanic were finally returned to dry land – but The Lusitania also left from there on its own ill-fated journey…). “Love Underlined”, “She Wants”, and “Heartbreaker” all stood out – the final one partly because Mount admitted that something had gone wrong with keyboardist/saxophonist Oscar Cash’s sax solo (though you really had to know the song to know what went wrong). They had soft circles of light on their chests that turned on & off in time with the music (somewhat reminiscent of the spheres of light that Yeasayer brought to Hudson River Park two years ago – QRO review). The band closed the night with a killer rendition of Nights‘s “Radio Ladio”, the whole audience singing along.
No one knows that the future will bring in these uncertain times (remember when our biggest fear was another terrorist attack? Those were the days…), but hey – the economic crisis is keeping Big Apple rents from rising at their usual astronomical rate, despite what Jimmy McMillan might say. So enjoy what you can, when you can, like at Hudson River Park.
