The four-day Seaport Music Festival’s 15th anniversary celebration wrapped up on Sunday (9/10) with a killer all-day show out on Pier 16 hosted and curated by Jonathan Toubin and featuring some genuine legends. The night was headlined by The Make-Up and frontman Ian Svenonius, decked out (like the whole band) in a gold lamé suit, spent half the show atop the crowd, preaching the gospel, screeching like Pentecostal preacher, leaping around, and doing The Monkey. Svenonius is a whip-smart master showman, whose stage patter seemed off the cuff, of the moment, yet also made perfect intros for Make-Up songs like “Here Come the Judge.” Anyone who wasn’t already familiar with the band were made converts then and there. Check out video from their set, below.
Also on the bill: Suicide’s Martin Rev who, at 69, remains an antagonizing force bashing away at his keyboard against backing tracks sampled from Ohio Players and Foreigner. Before that was no wave legend James Chance, who still channels James Brown (albeit in a slo-mo way these days) and played a great, skronky set with The Contortions. There was also a very rare performance by The Wolfmanhattan Project, the supergroup featuring Kid Congo Powers, Mick Collins (Dirtbombs/Gories) and Bob Bert (Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth) who played messy-but-fun rock n’ roll, and delivered a spirited take on “Psychotic Reaction” to cap their set.
Earlier in the day were newer groups, like North Carolina’s The Nude Party, Death Valley Girls, and Surfbort whose singer Dani Miller wore a see-through mesh top under her blazer that she was apparently asked to button up after a few songs. Pictures (Surfbort shots on the NSFW side) from the whole day (apart from openers Warm Drag who we missed) are in the gallery above.
