Central Park Summerstage (more by Chris La Putt)

The schedule for the 2010 SummerStage series, which has music not just at Central Park, is out, and there are some great looking shows to highlight.

At Central Park, the first "rock" show happens on Saturday, June 5th with Living Colour, Ebony Bones!, Pillow Theory and CX KiDTRONiK. Baaba Maal, who just played Irving Plaza, will be at Central Park too on Monday, June 14th The Tinariwen show on Saturday, June 26th also features Syrian beat & mikeman Omar Souleyman. Gil Scott-Heron plays Central Park in June and Marcus Garvey Park in August.

There's also El Guincho, Bostich and Fussible and others in Central Park on July 7th. Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff plays Central Park on Sunday, July 11th. Raphael Saadiq performs there Saturday, July 17 at 3pm. The Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba/Fool's Gold show on Sunday, July 25th will also feature "West African electronica" band Burkina Electric.

On Wednesday, July 21st, there'll be a Comedy Central's The Daily Show and Friends Central Park gig hosted by Lewis Black with John Oliver, Rob Riggle, Wyatt Cenac, Adam Lowitt and Rory Albanese.

There's also music from St. Vincent, Tune-Yards and Basia Bulat on August 1st at Central Park. The xx play with Jack Penate and Chairlift there on August 8th. At the same spot, Public Enemy play an August 15th day show to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Fear of A Black Planet, and the Specials play on August 22nd with Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears and $mall ¢hange.

The borough-wide shows kick off with Jay Electronica in Red Hook Park on June 1st. Also at that park is Dan Deacon on Tuesday, June 15th. White Rabbits play East River Park on August 12th.

There's lots of great jazz too: McCoy Tyner plays with Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding and Francisco Mela as part of the CareFusion Jazz Festival on June 23rd. He also plays in the Charlie Parker Jazz Fest, which comes at the end of the summer with an incredible lineup. McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Scott, Jason Moran and the Bandwagon and Revive da Live play during the day at Marcus Garvey on Saturday, August 28th. Then the next day, James Moody, Catherine Russell, Vijay Iyer and The JD Allen Trio play at Tompkins Square Park.

The park benefit shows include John Butler Trio and State Radio on June 15th (tickets on sale), The Flaming Lips on July 26th, The Black Keys with the Morning Benders on July 27th and 28th, Hot Chip/Hercules & Love Affair/Holy Ghost on August 4th, Govt' Mule on August 11th (tickets), and one of the four Pavement shows September 21-24. Plus there's a "songbook of Simon & Garfunkel" benefit on June 8th.

Not all "Summerstage" shows are in Central Park anymore which drives home the point even further that the name of the venue in Central Park is actually "Rumsey Playfield" which hosts non-"Summerstage" shows too. Those so far include Coheed/Torche, CAKE, Ween, and Broken Social Scene.

The full Summerstage free show schedule is below...

Continue reading "Summerstage (Central Park & elsewhere) - full 2010 lineup "

"[Demetri] Martin, along with one of his writers, Michael Koman, whom he'd met while working on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and an editor, Bryan Shelton, was cutting together an episode of his forthcoming show, Important Things With Demetri Martin. They needed to get the episode down to 22 minutes for its premiere on Comedy Central on February 11. They'd been at this process, on various episodes, for weeks. (When Flight 1549 went down in the Hudson River, Martin didn't know about it until he saw the plane being towed along in the river outside the building's window.) As a result, the editing suite had the slightly stale air of a missile-firing silo in which the men, bleary-eyed, have been locked together for too long, hands on the firing keys, ready to launch."
[NY Magazine]

Demetri Martin is kicking ass lately. The very-soon to be TV star quickly sold out his upcoming NYC shows at Bowery Ballroom and Music Hall of Williamsburg. That of course hasn't stopped him from taking part in the culture that is NYC comedy which by that I mean making non-stop free appearances at venues like the soon-to-be-closed Sound Fix, UCB, and Pianos. Catch him tonight, for free, at Pianos - before the Ferraby Lionheart show. Details below...

Continue reading "Demetri Martin's new TV show & a free NYC comedy show "

this picture (by Joel Barhamand) isn't even of comedy, but it did happen at Rififi where comedy often happens.....

I already posted a reminder that Human Giant is at UCB again tonight, but I didn't mention the "It Is It" show happening earlier in the evening at Pianos:

hosted by Adam Lowitt of the Daily Show
with special guests:
Demetri Martin, The Daily Show
Rob Cantrell, Last Comic Standing
Sara Schaefer, host of the DL
Matt Goldich, Comedy Central
Joselyn Hughes, The Slumber Party

Also read through the recent Eugene Mirman post for other upcoming NYC shows.

Max Silvestri @ Rififi, NYC - Oct 29, 2007 (CRED)

In addition to all the special comedy shows always going on, don't forget that there are plenty of shows that happen weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly in NYC that are always reliable, rarely over $5, and usually feature some of the biggest comedians in the business. Why, just the other day Invite Them Up featured Jim Gaffigan, Demetri Martin, Nick Kroll, Andy Blitz, and Max Silvestri. Nuts, right!? Here are some other recurring shows I highly recommend.

• Totally J/K with Joe and Noah: Every other Monday at Rififi with Joe Mande and Noah Garfinkle
• At Night with Gabe and Jenny: Mondays at Rififi
• Sweet: Tuesday at The Slipper Room with Seth Herzog
• Invite Them Up: Wednesdays at Rififi with Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale
• Greg Johnson & Larry Murphy: Fridays at Rififi with Greg Johnson and Larry Murphy
• It is It: Monthly at Pianos with Adam Lowitt (The Daily Show)
• Tearing the Veil of Maya: Sundays at Union Hall with Eugene Mirman and Michael Showalter

What else? -Klaus