Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Free NYC Concerts This Week: Black Eyed Peas (Central Park, June 9th); Coheed & Cambria (Williamsburg, June 11th)

All the Black Eyed Peas tickets are spoken for, but you can get in to see Coheed and Cambria Saturday.

UPDATE #3, 6/10: Robin Hood says in a statement on their website that it's not giving up on the Concert 4 NYC idea, and notes, "We are exploring our options and hope to announce to you soon what our next plan will be."
 
UPDATE #2, 6/9: The Concert 4 NYC with the Black Eyed Peas has been CANCELLED due to inclement weather, and spectators are being asked to leave the Park. The start of Thursday's Black Eyed Peas concerts is delayed by an hour due to thunderstorms expected to move through the NYC area. According to the Robin Hood Foundation's Twitter account (follow the for the latest updates), "Gate opening delayed. Pending weather conditions, gates are projected to open at 7:30 with an 8:30 show start."
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In addition to the free concerts being staged by Celebrate Brooklyn and SummerStage, this week features two no-cost rock shows with very different types of music.

The Black Eyed Peas play Central Park's Great Lawn tomorrow night, June 9th, in a show called the "Concert 4 NYC" to raise money and awareness for the poverty-fighting Robin Hood Foundation. Tickets are free, but ticketholders have already been chosen via a lottery.

I haven't been around one of these huge Central Park free shows in recent years, so I don't know if you can get inside the Park close enough to hear if you're not one of the 54,000 lucky lottery ticket recipients. With some shows, I believe people were prevented from entering Central Park at various locations to try to prevent overcrowding.

The Black Eyed Peas show is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., and if you can't be there you can watch it live online on LiveStream here.

According to a blog post at Romio.com, the B.E.P.'s will have a host of special guests, including Taylor Swift, LL Cool J, Natasha Bedingfield, and Blondie's Debbie Harry, among others. Note: temperatures of up to 97 degrees with high humidity are predicted for tomorrow, so dress and hydrate accordingly.

For something completely different (and at a much smaller scale), Coheed and Cambria are playing a free gig on the Williamsburg Waterfront on Saturday, June 11th. Also on the bill are the Adrian Belew Power Trio and Tigers Jaw. You won't need a ticket to get into this one, but entry is on a first-come, first-served, and doors open at 5:30 p.m. It's unclear what time the show actually starts, but it's scheduled to end at 10 p.m.

The location for the show is East River State Park at North 8th Street and Kent Avenue.

According to a post on their Facebook page, Coheed and Cambria the band will be "playing a free encore performance of their wildly successful Neverender: SSTB tour," featuring an acoustic opening set; an electric performance in its entirety of their debut album, "The Second Stage Turbine Blade;" and a "short encore set of songs from other albums."

Legendary guitarist Adrian Belew, best known as a member of King Crimson, will be on the bill with his current trio.

Are you going to either of these shows? What other live gigs (free or otherwise) are you looking forward to seeing this week?

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