The New York area has hosted an abundance of concerts this summer, and I’ve gone to every single one I could muster the cash for, usually with Jen in tow. Since June I’ve seen George Clinton, Morcheeba, Incubus, Moby, David Bowie, Eminem, Me'shell N'degeocello, The Roots, Outkast, Polyphonic Spree, Mary J. Blige, and more – everything from funk to glam rock to gangster rap. We have a few remaining concert tickets in our possession, but for the most part the summer concert series is coming to a close. It ended on a perfect note this Saturday in Prospect Park, and we, along with some drenched fellow music appreciators, were there to soak up the music and the rain.
The Celebrate Brooklyn benefit concert was somewhat ironically entitled the Unlimited Sunshine Tour, and featured Cake, De La Soul, some bands I had heard of (Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips) and some that I had not (Kinky and the banjo-strumming filler act – I think they may have been called the Hackensack Boys.) The proceeds from the nearly $40 ticket price went toward supporting the free concerts and activities in Prospect Park throughout the year, so we felt good to be doing our part to keep events free for our fellow New Yorkers. Because it was raining on Saturday, Jen, her 19-year old sister Julia and I decided to arrive late to the show, rationalizing that if we were going to get wet, we’d prefer it to be while dancing to the bands we wanted to see the most. With hats on our heads and mini-umbrellas in hand, we set off for the Prospect Park Bandshell, and were blessed with overcast, yet dry skies, upon our arrival. The banjo boys were warming up the crowd before De La Soul. We surveyed the 4,000 person long line to the beer tent, concluded that we didn’t need a drink that badly, and found a place to stand before De La took the stage.
De La Soul played a decent enough show, but they’ve clearly lost a bit of vocal range since Me, Myself and I hit the airwaves back in 1989. (You know that Woa oh oh oh oh oh part? Well, they could only hit “Woa oh”, and left the remaining oh oh’s to the crowd. Not pretty.) It was fun but maybe I’m just an old fashioned girl that prefers a little live music at a concert rather than 3 guys walking back and forth across the stage. Regardless, the DJ spun all of our favorite old school tunes and the obligatory special guest sauntered in from stage right – in this case, Dres, the lead singer from Black Sheep, added some vim to the set. Still, it wasn’t quite as exhilarating as I’d expected, and by the end of it we decided to face the challenges of the beer line and get a bit of a groove on for the rest of the show.
When the Flaming Lips hit the stage the sun (what sun?) had set and the night sky was a perfect backdrop to their ironic style and unusual stage presence. The lead singer, Wayne Coyne, sported a tan fitted suit and clearly had a penchant for the macabre, as witnessed by the fake blood dribbling down his face during one of the songs (forgive me for not knowing the name of the song, but up until this show, I wasn’t much of a follower of this band.) He threw glittered confetti onto the stage and into the crowd, and an extremely close up camera attached to the mike stand allowed us to follow his every facial expression, which were varied and entertaining. Apparently the band had enlisted several people dressed as large animals, just like the ones you see at a kid's birthday party or an amusement park, who bounced around both sides of the stage and danced little jigs. We liked the chick and the cow, although the penguin, pig, and frog weren't bad. Between the animals, the dry ice, and the images projected on the huge screen behind the band, there was a lot to take in at this show. If that weren’t enough, they covered Can’t Get You Out Of My Head by Kylie Minogue, and the looping image on the video screen of a naked woman falling down just about summed up the empty repetitiveness of the song (although, I still love it. I really do.) The Flaming Lips were interesting, funny, and they sounded good too. I was pleasantly surprised.
By the end of their set, the skies had darkened and the rain was coming down. Hard, this time. Really hard. At least half of the audience split, and Jen, Julia and I conferred to discuss the options. Jen and I had seen Cake before, but it had been at Roseland, and the sound and the crowd had sucked so badly I had considered writing an apology to the band on behalf of all the bridge and tunnel assholes at the show, asking them to give New York another chance. It wasn’t necessary, since they were the brainpower behind the Unlimited Sunshine tour, and as the headlining act, they also had to deal with a torrential deluge during their show. Julia really wanted to see the band, and on a trip to the porta-potty, confided in me that the conditions at the show were superior to those of most fraternity parties she'd been to that year. I realized she was right, and we decided to stay. Our hats and umbrellas were no longer doing us any good – the rain was coming down so hard that even the inside of my closed purse was soaked (still is a bit damp in there… ugh.) Miraculously, the beer line disappeared, so we bought ourselves some cool ones and hung out in the rain. There were occasional lightning bolts in the distance but nothing big and bad enough to get in the way of a good rock concert. We befriended the remaining fans, namely a couple of cuties who brought us up to the front with them, and had one of the best visceral concert experiences ever. With the rain pouring down our backs and faces, the music sounding so good, and the young boys lavishing such attention upon us, we had the time of our lives. And Cake didn’t have to ask us to finish any of their lyrics for them. We were singing right along the entire time, sans invitation - the only true indicator of a supurb show you really need.
