Celebrate Brooklyn Festival w/ Raekwon – Prospect Park – July 9th – Brooklyn, NY
The Prospect Park Bandshell is probably the best place to catch a hip-hop show in the New York City summer. Yes, you’re going to have to stand in a line that stretches beyond the park’s BBQs and jugglers to get a metal detector wand waved in front of you, but well worth it.
The night went essentially like this: one verse, one chorus, annoying explosion sound, flighty banter—repeat approximately 22 times in a mere hour His DJ dropped manic fragments of old-school rap songs as Rae blurred past his 90-second rhyme sprees, burning through song after song after song—new ones, old ones, shit off Immobility that you totally forgot existed, he had even more that he wanted to do until he was cut off by the 10:30 curfew.
At one point, he asked the crowd if they liked where hip-hop was going, which was received with a resounding “boooooo.” Thankfully, he assured us all, “Rae ain’t going nowhere. Rae right here with a new pair of sneakers.”
Set list:
C.R.E.A.M.
Can It Be All So Simple?
Da Mystery Of Chessboxin’
Glaciers Of Ice
Ice Cream
Surgical Gloves
Gihad
Criminology
Verbal Intercourse
Shimmy Shimmy Ya
Your Beef Is Mine
Heaven & Hell
Rainy Dayz
10 Bricks
About Me
Yae Yo
Broken Safety
Rock N Roll
Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing Ta Fuck Wit
Shaolin Vs. Wu-Tang
Incarcerated Scarfaces
Triumph
A great relaxing day in the sun – I had been telling her about the park, and showed her aroundand we walked around and ate at one of the great sidewalk cafés’ in the neighborhood.
Since Brooklyn was the theme of the day, I suggested we check out this party in Brooklyn, Nancoteque that I’ve hearing so much about.
We managed to have a good time, but I wouldn’t go back. Got raked over the coals by the door-chick and it just wasn’t what they were advertising and all in all pretty lame.
Cibo Matto – Brooklyn Bowl – July 12th – Brooklyn, NY
One of the best nights of my life, we had just come from eating at the Dressler, which was one of the best meals/experiences of her being here, and I couldn’t begin to exaggerate my anticipation for this show. I’ve been waiting so long for this.
I was fortunate to see a pair of “soft” reunions within days of each other earlier this year to benefit the relief efforts in Japan after a devastating earthquake, where they quickly assembled a played 3-4 songs as a part of a revue. But tonight was going to be the real deal and I didn’t get to see Cibo Matto back in the day, and in the 12 years since they broke up, I think I’ve listen to their music every single day, I’m an obsessed crazy fan of theirs and I love it.
I wasn’t the only one excited, the air was tense with excitement and though Erin didn’t know anything about them previously other than what I had been schooling her on, she’s real good about feeding off of and supporting my excitement.
While Miho Hitori addressed the showgoers, it was apparent that these folks were already keyed in and ready to have a good time.
Miho and Yuka performed two new songs as well, Tenth Floor Ghost Girl and Check-In. Considering that both tracks are indicative of the future of Cibo Matto and their new sound, they were surprisingly quite modern without the loss of the duo’s edge, which is exciting about their upcoming album. After almost an hour of play, they attempted to close out their set only to return for an encore after a most raucous and spirited bout of applause and cheers – and Miho is still so freaking hot.
Beef Jerky
Le Pain Perdu
Sugar Water
Spoon
BBQ
Moonchild (with Sean Lennon)
Tenth Floor Ghost Girl
Sci-Fi Wasabi
Check In
Birthday Cake
Encore:
Blue Train
Know Your Chicken
