Music Events
Citysol (July 12-15) E. 23rd St. & East River, (July 13 also at South Street Seaport) [www.citysol.org](http://www.citysol.org)
Finally, a concert where you can explore sustainability solutions while listening to Les Savy Fav! Founded by the green education, arts and advocacy center Solar One, Citysol will likely be the only summer festival powered completely by clean energy. The three-day festival (July 12-15) has your typically (for New York anyway) tasteful mixture of indie rock and hip hop, with A-OK collective, The Dirty Projectors and Dragons of Zynth (among others) along with stand up comedy and a variety of workshops to gently dissuade you from destroying the planet with the only lifestyle youve ever known.
East River Music Project & City Parks Shows East River Amphitheatre, Cherry St. (at FDR Drive) [ermp.org/eastriver/]
The free shows at the East River Amphitheatre are perhaps the most offbeat and easily missed. Come on, how many of you actually knew there was a venue down by FDR? This year ERMP kicks it all off June 7 with Lucky Dragons, John Wiese, Soiled Mattress and the Springs. Their next show features Titus Andronicus, Obits, Emperor X and Blood City (June 28). The City Parks are also sponsoring shows at the venue with, so far, KRS-One (July 24) and Willie Colón (July 31).
GMA & Today Show Summer Series Today Show, Rockefeller Center, betw. 49th & 50th Sts. Good Morning America, Bryant Park, 41st St. & 6th Ave.); Plan to arrive no later than 6 a.m.
Stop being a snob, and chug from the Big Gulp of corporate assembled entertainment product! Sell out. Still, for the intrepid early risers willing to brave the touring summer gawkers, the Today Show offers Donna Summer (May 30), Kenny Chesney (June 13), Rihanna (June 20), and Coldplay (June 27), while GMA gives it up with Boyz II Men (June 20), Maroon 5 (June 27), and the cast of a lil Broadway musical you perhaps have heard of called Rent. Now through August 29.
Governors Island Concert Series Accessible via the Governors Island Ferry at the Battery Maritime Building Slip 7 on the Southern Tip of Manhattan, located next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal [www.govislandconcerts.com](http://www.govislandconcerts.com)
The biggest attraction of a show on Governors Island is usually that youre taking a ferry to Governors Island. Highline Ballroom presents these eclectic shows, which will begin June 15 with jam-band superstars moe. That will be followed by Grateful Dead aficionados Dark Star Orchestra (July 11) and Irish folk-rockers The Saw Doctors (Aug. 23). Is this a subtle way to let people know that its so much easier to smoke up on an isolated island? Hmm. We wont tell if you dont.
Celebrate Brooklyn Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th St. (at Prospect Park West), Bklyn, 718-855-7882 [www.briconline.org/celebrate](http://www.briconline.org/celebrate)
This long-running festival pays homage to the BK with an immense range of music and performance that spans soul, indie rock, jazz and classical. It opens with the deep-ass scientological soul of Isaac Hayes June 12 and continues on through August 9 with sets by mega-tasteful jam-band/jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood (June 19), a big-time hip-hop reunion with the Crooklyn Dodgers featuring Masta Ace and DJ Premiere (June 28), a night of salsero and reggaeton with Michael Stuart and William Cepedas Grupo Esencia (July 5); it keeps chugging with Deerhoof (July 18), The Phillip Glass Ensemble (July 25) and a melange of many more. The diversity of the lineup actually approximates the diversity of Brooklyn: What a thought!
McCarren Park Pool Parties McCarren Park, Lorimer St. & Bedford Avenue, Bklyn. [thepoolparties.com]
JellyNYC is responsible for the free shows at the pool, and they present the first one June 29 with The Hold Steady, The Loved Ones and J Roddy & The Business. So far, we only know that Liars, Fuck Buttons and Team Robespierre (July 22) and Black Lips, Deerhunter (Aug. 3) will be on stage for free this summer. But dont rule out the pay shows: Death Cab for Cutie (June 10), Gogol Bordello (June 20) and Ween (July 25) are all sure bets for aging funsters.
New York Philharmonic [www.nyphil.org/summer](http://www.nyphil.org/summer)
Summer concerts are often the bread and butter of classical orchestras, and the NY Phil often attracts new audiences, since people seem more willing to sit through familiar arrangements if they can do it while sitting on grass. This year the orchestra takes their bows and brass to Central Parks Great Lawn June 24, where they perform Shostakovichs Festive Overture as well as Sousa marches and Tchaikovskys 1812 Overture. Later they take the ferry to Governors Island (youre trapped!) July 5 for a post-Independence Day performance of The Star Spangled Banner and some more Tchaikovsky (it never fails). Following that they visit the outer boroughs (and NJ) from July 8-12no T-man this time, but be ready for Mozart, Bach and Elgar. Hooray!
Washington Square Music Festival June 21-July 29 212-252-3621, [washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org]
Were not sure how enjoyable it will be with the chain-link fence surrounding the park, but the concerts must go on. The free concerts last from June through July, with the opening performance set for June 21 at 5 p.m. with A Salute to Folk Concerts in the Square with Make Music New York. It continues each Tuesday through July 29.
Met Summer Concert: Live in Prospect Park Ball Field area of Long Meadow in Brooklyns Prospect Park. June 20, 8 p.m.
Real-life couple and two of operas biggest stars, soprano Angela Gheorghiu and tenor Robert Alagna, will sing popular operatic highlights by Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Massenet, Catalani and others. It is anticipated that this will be one of the Metropolitan Operas largest outdoor concerts in their history. Met Summer Concert: Live in Prospect Park has the potential of being attended by an audience of up to 150,000 people, and the performance will be broadcast live on WQXR-FM (96.3 FM) and streamed live on the Mets website, www.metopera.org. So even if you dont feel like arias in the grass, you can experience it yourself.
Lincoln Center: Midsummer Night Swing Damrosch Park, (S.W. corner of the Lincoln Center Plaza, at 62nd St. betw. Columbus & Amsterdam Ave.) 212-721-6500 [www.lincolncenter.org](http://www.lincolncenter.org)
Its one of the citys hottest outdoor dance parties (literally) as the annual event takes its 20th turn for three steaming weeks in July. Lincoln Centers Damrosch Park turns into an open-air dance hall complete with a raised platform stage and blazing live bands laying down the music that makes you move. Yep, you know it: Swing in the evenings that evoke the Roaring Twenties, 30s, 40s and 50s. And you can also let your inner passion for salsa, samba and tango take you wherever that may lead (all that construction lends itself to lots of nooky in the corners). Just remember to leave the kids at home. Please.
Warm Up P.S. 1, 22-25 Jackson Ave. (at 46th Ave.), Queens, 718-784-2084, Saturdays, July 5-Sept. 6 [www.ps1.org](http://www.ps1.org)
We still dont know who will be at the DJ booth (were always the last to know, right?), but we can always assure that the beats will be heavy, and the cool kids will get sloppy. Whether its Deep House (or some new new version of Deep House) or Euro electronica, its the place to spend many a wild and sweaty weekend afternoon. This years winner of the Young Architects Program will make things especially trippy. WORK Architecture Company has designed PF1, a public farm that looks like a flying carpet has landed with greenery growing atop.
River to River Festival Most live shows at South Street Seaport, Pier 17 or Castle Clinton National Monument, Broadway & State St. [www.river2riverNYC.com](http://www.river2riverNYC.com)
This multi-venue fest is on its game this year, kicking off with titanically influential post-punk legends Wire (May 30) and moving through a season that includes ear-shredding guitar pedallers A Place To Bury Strangers (June 27). There are a couple old obscure indie bands called The Feelies and Sonic Youth (July 4), LA shred-punk duo No Age, a bitchin Childrens Day (June 14) and a host of movie showings and other offerings.