Coney Island's Seaside Concerts Return for 2012 (Schedule)

It took a while for the schedule to appear, but the free Seaside Concert Series in Coney Island is back for 2012. Shows will be held next to the Brooklyn Cyclones' ballpark once again, and as always the series features a blend of classic rock, soul, and disco.

Squeeze and Joan Jett are two of the acts at the Seaside Concerts.

The concerts are held on Thursday nights (with a couple of exceptions as noted below), and begin at 7:30 p.m. The concert site is at West 21st Street and Surf Avenue (see directions here). See the Seaside Concert Series website for more details, and call the concert hotline at 718-222-0600. There are seven shows in this year's schedule, which is as follows:

Thurs., July 12th: Disco Night/Last Dance: A Tribute to Donna Summer. With Gloria Gaynor, The Village People, The Trammps, and Rose Royce

Fri., July 20th: Squeeze and The Romantics [UPDATE, July 20th: Tonight's show seems to still be a go, despite the wet weather. There's been no cancellation notice on the Seaside website or on the site of Coney Island Fun.]

Thurs., July 26th: Annual Latino Music by the Sea show: Oscar de Leon, Luis Enrique, and N'Klabe [UPDATE, July 26th: I haven't yet seen word that this show is cancelled, but I'm assuming that it will be due to the severe weather forecast for the NYC area. Many other outdoor concerts, films, etc. scheduled for the night have also been cancelled.]

Thurs., Aug. 2nd: Dennis DeYoung: The Music of Styx; Lou Gramm: The Voice of Foreigner; and Bobby Kimball: Original Lead Singer of Toto

Thurs., Aug. 9th: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Sat., Aug. 11th: The Jacksons

Thurs., Aug. 16th: Gladys Knight and The Commodores

Note: Although the concerts are free, those free seats are in the back section of the seating area. Paying $5 will get you a seat in the large front section. Also, I don't remember there being any concessions within the concert grounds. So if you're hungry, get something to eat before the show (Nathan's and other food options are just down the street).

Reunited Squeeze Delights New York Audience

From Rage Against the Machine to The Police, this has been one of the biggest years for rock-band reunions in some time. This is not always a good thing, of course, but in the case of Squeeze it worked well.

Last night at New York City's Beacon Theater they played an hour and a half set that kicked off with "Take Me, I'm Yours" and briskly browsed through the band's most popular tunes. Consisting of originals Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, John Bentley on bass (who was with the band in the early '80s, and players from Tilbrook's touring band on keyboards and drums, Squeeze seemed to be genuinely enjoying the reunion concert.

The one complaint I had (or maybe it's more than one) was that the show was maybe a little too brisk. There was minimal chatter with the audience, and when one song ended the band launched right into the next one. And since most Squeeze songs are quite short, the tunes just flew by, which brings up another thing: I'd wished the band would have expanded some of their songs, playing longer solos or adding new elements. Basically the songs sounded just as they did on the original LPs (yes, Squeeze's heyday was back in the age of vinyl).

But it was definitely an enjoyable show, and the rest of the crowd was eating it up. And unlike many concerts I've been to with bands from the '70s or '80s, in which the audience was full of gray-haired baby boomers, this one had a large number of people in their 20s or 30s. I guess Squeeze's brand of bright uptempo pop has a lot of fans among the younger generations.