amadou & mariam at summerstage

much belated live perform-ance: amadou and mariam at summer-stage.  i've been a fan for years since i first heard their dimanche à bamako. i missed them last year when they played an intimate set at cooper square hotel penthouse. the wait was worth it on a hot summer's day in new york's central park. the perfect soundtrack for summer.

ximena sarinana at summerstage

belated live viewing: ximena sarninana at summerstage. discovered this young mexi lady a few years back when i stumbled on a video of her and jason mraz doing a spanish version of "lucky." she released her second album last year with english tunes, but i've always been found of her spanish lyrics more. which reminds me, i have to brush up my spanish significantly.

dawes @ summerstage

first summerstage of the season.  looking forward to more free summer concerts.

weekend free concert wrap-up

best weekend outdoor concert trifecta:
here we go magic at south street seaport. i was excited for some luke temple and friends action. i learned of luke a while back from his daytrotter session. honestly i wasn't completely sold on hwgm. mostly because tunnelvision sounded like a rip off animal collective. i recently came back to them while listening to a studio sesh they did for wxpn. heck, i hadn't seen luke in the flesh, so i headed down. i must say the night was gorgeous on the seaport and the boats were rocking. i wasn't completely satisfied by hwgm's set tho. they are more a studio band for moi, but that's just my opinion. here is another.

conor oberst and jenny lewis at battery city park. i was looking forward to this one for quite some time. i haven't seen ms. jenny since last fall. julie who just flew in from van and jenni (my red-headed gal pal) parked it with me on the grass for this outdoor concert goodness. jenny was the best with updates to lyrics on "you are what you love":

But you are what you love
And not what loves you back
So I guess that's why you keep calling texting me back

ms. lewis, a daughter of the revolution

gentlemen prefer redheads (that was on tote - jenni should have got this)

band gets their choir on for "born secular"

conor dueting for "handle with care" (yeah, that's him in the hat)

les nubians with asa at central park summer stage. this was day two of concerting in parks. we didn't go into summer stage because who likes asphalt and metal benches when you can have grass. this is an awesome pic julie took with her iphone lender while she is stateside.