Parquet Courts at SummerStage at Central Park
photo by Toby Tenenbaum

Parquet Courts & Sachiko Kanenobu @ SummerStage at Central Park (pics)

Parquet Courts headlined SummerStage at Central Park on Saturday (6/8) which was an all-around fun, lovely evening. They made the most of it with some special moments, including bringing a School of Rock children’s choir out, led by Eaters’ Bob Jones, to sing on “Death Will Bring Change” from last year’s Wide Awake! (which drew big applause from the crowd), and they brought out saxophone and extra percussion for a few songs, too. Their set started off with the Light Up Gold one-two-punch of “Master of My Craft” and “Borrowed Time,” and they also played “Total Football,” “Dust,” “Outside,” “One Man No City,” “Light Up Gold II,” “Freebird II,” and lots more. There was even a good-natured pit going for their rowdier songs. Setlist, and video of “Wide Awake!” and the children’s choir, are below.

Also on the bill was Japanese folk artist Sachiko Kanenobu, whose 1972 album Misora is being reissued by Light in the Attic in July. She was coaxed out of retirement this year by Steve Gunn and he was part of her band at SummerStage, along with Yo La Tengo bassist James McNew, members of ARP (who opened the night) and more. (She played Brooklyn’s Union Pool with the same band the night before.) It was a terrific, short set, and everyone on stage (and much the crowd) seemed very happy to be there. Pictures of her set and Parquet Courts’ are in the gallery above.

ARP‘s opening set of instrumentals made for a nice soundtrack to the sunset, with marimba and other exotic instrumentation fleshing out their new age-y sound.

This was my first time at the newly refurbished SummerStage at Central Park which didn’t look all that different, the biggest change being more bleacher stands, a new Members area with an even more elevated viewing area, and more bathrooms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQYNnkD9csg

SETLIST: Parquet Courts @ SummerStage at Central Park 6/8/2019
Master of My Craft
Borrowed Time
Donuts Only
Total Football
Dust
Almost Had to Start a Fight / In and Out of Patience
Freebird II
Before the Water Gets Too High
Death Will Bring Change
Tenderness
Wide Awake
Normalization
Berlin Got Blurry
She’s Rolling
Pretty Machines
Outside
Light Up Gold II
One Man No City

photos by Toby Tenenbaum