Sunday is the 11th Annual No Pants Subway Ride. It starts at 3pm and more details can be found at Improv Everywhere's website. Video below...

Continue reading "No Pants Subway Ride Sunday"

Faith No More @ Williamsburg Waterfront - Friday, June 2nd (via my phone)

**Due to MTA construction there is no L Train service between 8 Ave, Manhattan and Myrtle-Wykcoff Aves, Brooklyn**

Here are 3 alternate options to get to the Williamsburg Waterfront from Manhattan:

-Take the 7 Train to 45th/Court House Square and then transfer to the G Train at 23 Street-Ely Avenue, then take the Brooklyn Bound G Train to Nassau Ave.

-Take the J, Z, or M Train to Marcy and there are shuttle busses to Bedford Ave, or it is a short walk to the venue
-Take the E Train to 23 Street-Ely Avenue and Transfer to the G Train to Nassau Ave

In Brooklyn take the M to Marcy Ave, or take the G train to Nassau Ave. There are also shuttle busses running along the L line beginning at Myrtle-Wycoff and ending at Lorimer St. From the Lorimer stop, walk west down Metropolitan to North 6th St. (under the BQE). Continue west to Kent Ave. and go two blocks north to North 8th St.

If you were at the same venue on Friday night, July 2nd, then you probably know that Faith No More played a 2-encore, 20-song set that ended with "We Care a Lot", included "Epic" but not "Falling to Pieces", "The Real Thing", "Zombie Eaters", "War Pigs" or "Edge of the World". It also included, like the rest of the tour, an opening cover of "Reunited", and unlike Coachella, their cover of "Easy".

One night later in Philly they switched things up a bit. Brooklyn got a Bee Gees cover on Friday. Philly, like Coachella, got the Jackson 5's "Ben". Both nights got Vangelis to kick off the encore, but Philly only got one encore (no "We Care a Lot" for them at all).

Not counting his little son that he brought up (aka embarrassed) on stage, Rahzel played completely solo during his opening set on Friday. Mike Patton didn't join him and he didn't later join Faith No More... like he did in Philly for "Chinese Arithmetic".

A full set of pictures from the Brooklyn show is coming soon. Meanwhile the Brooklyn and Philly setlists, and some videos, are below...

Continue reading "Faith No More play Brooklyn again tonight (NO L TRAIN SERVICE) ++ the setlists from Friday & Saturday "

photos by Ryan Barkan

They reportedly played 2 and 1/2 songs before being shut down by cops around 6:30pm on Tuesday. UPDATE: The cops actually just made them move near to the Driggs entrance where they played 4 or 5 more songs.

More pictures from the Williamsburg show below...

Continue reading "Freelance Whales played the Bedford L Platform (pics)"

Freelance Whales @ Bowery Ballroom - Feb. 18th (more by Sarahana)

Freelance Whales played last night at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Shout Out Louds. Pictures from that are on the way. Tonight (3/2) you can catch the Whales busking on the Bedford Avenue L train platform, where they plan to go on at 6pm.

Freelance Whales also have plenty of tour dates coming up, including SXSW, where one of their shows will be the Mom+Pop/Frenchkiss Records showcase (with Local Natives, Antlers and others) at Galaxy Room on Friday, March 19th.

They come back from the road for an April 13th show at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets to that are still on sale.

A bit of their busking at Bedford Ave, recorded in 2009, is posted below...

Continue reading "Freelance Whales playing the Bedford stop (like they've done before) during rush hour today (and other tour dates) "

"The 9th Annual No Pants Subway Ride went off without a hitch today in New York. It's tough to count, but we're guessing we had around 3,000 participants. Riders met at meeting points spread out all over the city and converged on Union Square. The high was 28 degrees." [Improv Everywhere]

Lots of videos from the 2010 event, below...

Continue reading "pictures & video from Sunday's No Pants Subway ride "

Live Nation santas outside Irving Plaza - 7/14/2009 (Jason DeCrow/AP Images)

Live Nation has been dealing with the recession, or at least their recession, by putting tickets on sale like crazy this summer. They've been continuing week after week with their No Service Fee Wednesdays (for lawn tickets at amphitheater shows). This past Tuesday they sent multiple Santa Clauses to give out tickets outside Irving Plaza here in NYC. And there are $5.00 ticket promotions running for both Citi Cardmember holders and Subway sub eaters (code = Subway$5tix). NYC show tickets you can get for $5.00 include Pinback, Bob Mould, Son Volt, Alice in Chains AND STRYPER, Suffocation (playing with Necrophagist on Sunday), Marduk, Obituary, Vader and KMFDM, Brian Wilson in Westbury, and Motorhead, Psychedelic Furs, Happy Mondays, and Islands. Supposedly Pet Shop Boys are $5.00 too, but I can't get that to work.

Crowd @ Farrell's (Windsor Terrace) - St Patrick's Day 2009 (Aonghais MacInnes)

"Good news for anyone sick of getting off the G at Smith and 9th Street and waiting for an F train just to go a couple more stops: Starting July 5th, the G train will continue on for five more stops into Brooklyn. The additional service is being added because of the massive Culver Viaduct Rehabiliation project, which, according to the Post, will prevent the G train from reversing itself at the next stop (Fourth Avenue). Come summer it will stop at Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street, Seventh Avenue, 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway before finally reversing course after the Church Avenue stop." [Gothamist]

words by Andrew Frisicano, photos by Tim Griffin

Dan Deacon, wearing an arm sling because of a dislocated shoulder, played three shows in NYC over the weekend (3/16 & 3/17). The first was a performance at 979 Broadway Backyard, an open lot in Bushwick, Brooklyn under the M train. The spacious spot was a mixture of rocky terrain, freshly cut grass and refuse-laced rubble. Amazingly, even with stage diving through most of the show and Dan Deacon's constant dancing instructions that sent people running across the space, there weren't any (more) major injuries (that I know of) from falling on the dark, uneven ground.

Acoustically, Deacon and the band sounded much better than at their Brooklyn Masonic Temple performance last December (didn't see NYU in April). "The ensemble," as Deacon referred to his band throughout the night, played clearly, with a sound that added nuance to Deacon's usual overblown-synth sound.

Dan Deacon stood on stage all set and filled the space between songs with instructions for dancing, rants about elves, warnings about stavediving (particularly after someone knocked his gear on to the front row) and appreciation to the neighborhood. The heavy crowd participation (singing, making people-bridges, dancing in a circle) came off as genuine and matched the spirit of the ad hoc venue (which I'm sure took a lot of cooperation to get together), its summer-fest vibe and the energetic crowd.

Teeth Mountain and Future Islands opened the show. One commenter writes that "homosexuals were an unannounced special guest, right at 6:15."

The second and third Dan Deacon shows of the weekend were at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday, March 16th. How were they? On Sunday he played the 9:30 Club in DC, and like they did for Animal Collective, NPR recorded and is streaming the whole show.

More pictures from the Friday show with all tour dates from Dan Deacon's upcoming European tour, below...

Continue reading "Dan Deacon played Broadway Backyard in Bushwick (pics), Bowery Ballroom & the 9:30 Club (NPR stream) "

by Andrew Frisicano

Elvis Perkins in Dearland outside Bowery Ballroom (jamayaphoto)

Elvis Perkins in Dearland played the Bowery Ballroom in NYC Wednesday night (3/25, review below). The show was not long after he got back from SXSW, and he will next visit Europe before touring North America in April & May. That tour ends with a May 20th show at Brooklyn's Bell House. Tickets are still on sale.

Perkins and band are also on the just-announced bill for the annual Clearwater Festival, June 20th and 21st at Croton Point Park in Croton-on Hudson, NY. Other performers include Arlo Guthrie, Old Crow Medicine Show, Susan Tedeschi, Alejandro Escovedo, Pete Seeger, AC Newman, and Dr. Dog. Tickets are on sale now - they cost (until May 20th when prices go up) $50 for a single day, $75 for a weekend pass, and $115 for the weekend with camping included. Full lineup below.

The Festival is a fundraiser for the Hudson Valley environmental group Clearwater, who is also hosting Pete Seeger's 90th birthday concert happening at MSG on May 3rd (where I'm told, Pete will play a one-song set that "everybody knows the words to"). Tickets for that event are on AmEx presale, and go on sale to the general public on Monday, March 30th at 9am.

To get back to Elvis Perkins, the Bowery Ballroom show began with avant-street-band Himalayas descending from the venue's balcony and ended with Perkins and friends emerging from the soapy depths of the Bowery JMZ station. It all started with...

Continue reading "ELVIS PERKINS played Bowery Ballroom, playing the CLEARWATER Festival (initial line-up)"

"The 8th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride went off without a hitch today in New York. It's tough to count, but we're guessing we had between 1,200 and 1,500 participants. Riders were divided up and dispatched to 4 separate train lines. The high was 30 degrees and there was a nice steady stream of snow." [Improv Everywhere]

...there will be a whole slew of musicians singing the same tune in the Big Apple on Friday, as the performers will be covering nothing but new Oasis songs in various locations as a special promotion around the band's not-so-secret NYC show the same night at Terminal 5.

The band's label tells Spinner that one of the Gallagher brothers may even be making a surprise appearance with one of the acts, who are volunteers from MTA's Music Under New York Program... [Spinner]

Thurston Moore @ Knitting Factory, NYC - Jan 8, 2008 (lori baily)

wearing no pants in Union Square, NYC - Jan 12, 2008 (zodak)

* Globalfest @ Webster Hall
* Franz Nicolay @ Maxwell's
* Endless Boogie & Human Bell @ Pianos
* KT Tunstall is playing the Apple Store
* Ladybug Mecca & Brian Jackson @ Knitting Factory
* Kimya Dawson & Tiny Masters Today @ Southpaw (afternoon)
* Mirah and Spectratone Int'l @ Southpaw (night time)

What else?

DOWNLOAD: Pants Yell! - Your Feelings Don't Show (MP3)

There's at least one set of pictures from Saturday's pantless subway ride on Flickr at the moment, and a couple more shots at Improv Everywhere's site.

No Pants Subway Ride, 2007 (Eric Thayer)

All are invited to participate in the 7th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride. The event will take place at 3:00 PM on Saturday, January 12. [Improv Everywhere]

Like many other local 'indie' bands, Holler, Wild Rose!'s tour dates include upcoming CMJ shows, a show at Luna Lounge, and a show at Knitting Factory. Unlike many other local bands, Holler, Wild Rose! also lists an upcoming show in the Union Square Subway station.

To help celebrate CMJ week, Holler, Wild Rose! will be giving a FREE concert in the Union Square Subway station @ 7:00pm on Friday, October 19th. The band will be set up just inside the Southwest entrance of Union Square Station which is located just to the left of the George Washington Statue in Union Square Park on the corner of 14th Street and Union Square West. [Holler, Wild Rose!]

Continue reading "Holler, Wild Rose! playing Union Square Subway, CMJ"