Porn on the 4th of July
The theme to this summer's outdoor concert season seem to be coming up with new ways to deal with rain. While Manu Chao embraced it and Cheeseburger/Oxford Collapse had to cancel because of it, the New Pornographers just kind of went on despite it. First, indie one-hit wonder Midlake opened with a perfectly serviceable set. After came out the newly bearded A.C. Newman and the gang to play a high spirited show featuring songs off all their albums, including the soon to be released, Challengers. Sure, it's a little strange celebrating America's independence with a Canadian band, but they seemed to embrace the irony and kick out the jams to the waterlogged faithful. Nobody can pass up a free show (no matter how many hoops one has to jump through to get a ticket...) and the concert was well covered. Read more about it at Pop Tarts, Stereogum and Music Snobbery. (pic via Muzicspy's flickr.)
Shearwater Dodge the Rain
Shearwater, despite their name, is another band that had to deal with the elements last night. They took a proactive approach and just moved their whole outdoor show inside from the outset. As a result, what was supposed to be a free Castle Clinton show was a free "Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University" show. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, but the music was just as good and the crowd was significantly dryer. Pitchfork has a bunch of good pictures from the show, if you weren't able to make it down to see for yourself.
A Low-key Swede in New York City
Brooklyn Vegan helped book and promote a couple of New York dates for Swedish singer/songwriter Britta Persson while she was in town this week. On Tuesday, she set up shop at the Rockwood Music Hall to showcase a set of delicate folk songs to an early, attentive crowd. This was Britta's first show ever in America, and she seemed to impress most who were in attendance. Fresh Bread was there, took a few pics and had some nice things to say. Tonight she'll be playing one last time in the city at the Living Room, so swing by if you need to decompress before starting your weekend.
