Photos: Tokyo Police Club Closes Out 2012 Lackawanna Festival

The second annual hMag Lackawanna Music Festival featured a full day of up-and-coming bands performing on Hoboken's Pier A, capped with an international headliner: Ontario, Canada's Tokyo Police Club. The rain cleared up early in the morning, leaving sunny skies and dry weather for the festival, which started around Noon.

Beautiful day for a music festival on the Hudson.

Because the Lackawanna Festival started early and ended earlier (it seems concerts in town must end by 10 p.m.), I managed to see only TPC and the previous band, Vacationer. The latter lived up to its name, performing a bright set of catchy but mellow tunes. Their Facebook page says of their album "Gone," "The eastern seaboard’s foremost relaxation specialists have teamed up to compile this unique collection of serenity-inducing sonic arrangements."

OK, Vacationer wasn't that mellow, but they definitely are influenced by surf music and fit in well with some of the current bands making pop music with a chilled-out vibe.

Vacationer (with the Empire State Building seemingly growing out of the drummer's head).

Tokyo Police Club, which said it was familiar with Hoboken from playing at Maxwell's, performed at its  biggest stage yet in the Mile Square City. Although TPC didn't have anywhere near the 15,000 people who attended the Mumford & Sons concert at the same location just two weeks before, it played before an appreciative audience.


TPC performing "Your English is Good" at the Lackawanna Festival.

Fans in the front seemed quite familiar with the band and its songs (in the front part of the crowd, at least), singing along to the set of tunes that included a number of older tunes from the Tokyo Police Club catalog. Although the advertised hour-and-a-half set really was more like 75 minutes, TPC put on a great show, and they seemed to enjoy it almost as much as the crowd did.

TPC frontman David Monks.

Graham Wright.

Guitarist Josh Hook and Monks.

Concert Notes: Tickets for Grace Potter, Regina Spektor, Off!, & More Going on Sale Fri.

Friday's another big day for popular concerts going on sale, whether you're interested in the strong female voices of Grace Potter, Regina Spektor, and Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards to the rousing rock of Off! and the bluesy jams of Gov't Mule (for those who like to plan ahead for New Year's Eve). Here are the details:

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals play the Beacon on Nov. 16th & 17th.

On sale Fri., Aug. 17th:
* Grace Potter & the Nocturnals at the Beacon Theatre, Fri. & Sat., Nov. 16th & 17th. On sale: 1 p.m.
* Gov't Mule at the Beacon Theatre, Sun. & Mon., Dec. 30th & 31st. On sale: 12 p.m.
* Regina Spektor at the Beacon Theatre (with special guest Only Son), Wed., Oct. 24th. On sale: 9 a.m.
* Heartless Bastards at Irving Plaza (with Futurebirds), Sat., Oct. 27th. On sale: 10 a.m.
* Off! at Irving Plaza (with The Spits and Double Negative), Tues., Oct. 16th. On sale: 10 a.m.
* The Dirty Guv'nahs at Highline Ballroom, Tues., Nov. 15th. On sale: 12 p.m.

If you're interested in free shows this weekend, there's no shortage. On Saturday, there's an afternoon Australia Day show at Central Park SummerStage; Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings (with The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow, Antibalas, and SJDK) at Williamsburg Park; and Tokyo Police Club headlining the Lackawanna Music Festival in Hoboken (see info on the festival layout and set times here).

Free shows on Sunday the 19th include an afternoon Jamaica's 50th Anniversary of Independence Celebration with Inner Circle, Israel Vibration, and more at Central Park SummerStage, and comedy in East River Park as the Upright Citizens Brigade presents "The All-Stars of Improv."

Free Concert Notes: Titus Andronicus, Tokyo Police Club, Lyle Lovett, The Jacksons, & More

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts played a great show in Coney Island last night (more on that later), but there are still some high-profile free shows coming up in the next week (including several big ones tomorrow alone). Wherever you are in the NYC area, there's a show near you: in Central Park, Prospect Park, Coney Island, Lincoln Center (the last hurrah of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival), and Hoboken's Pier A, which hosted 15,000 for Mumford and Sons on Aug. 1st.

Titus Andronicus is part of a free concert at Van's in Brooklyn.

Below is a list of what's coming up in the next week; see the websites for more details on performers, set times, directions, etc. (Note: there are other events for Lincoln Center Out of Doors than the ones I've listed. The website has the complete schedule.)

Sat., Aug. 11th: Carolina Chocolate Drops, Buckwheat Zydeco, and Abigail Washburn, Central Park SummerStage, 3 p.m.

Sat., Aug. 11th: Lyle Lovett and His Acoustic Group and Aoife O'Donovan, Celebrate Brooklyn (Prospect Park), 7:30 p.m.

Sat., Aug. 11th: The Jacksons: Unity Tour 2012 at the Seaside Concerts in Coney Island (West 21st Street and Surf Avenue), 7:30 p.m.

Sat., Aug. 11th: 29th Annual Roots of American Music Festival at Lincoln Center Out of Doors:

• Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls All-Star Band: Sister Songwriters, 5 p.m.
• The Triple Goddess Twilight Revue: Celebrating the Music of Laura Nyro, 6 p.m.
• Soulful Songwriters Circle: William Bell, Teenie Hodges, and Dan Penn, 7:30 p.m.
• Otis Clay and the Platinum Band, 8:45 p.m.

Sun, Aug. 12th: 29th Annual Roots of American Music Festival at Lincoln Center Out of Doors:

• Tom Paxton, 2 p.m.
• Swamp Dogg, 6 p.m.
• Aloe Blacc, 7 p.m.
• Pardon Our Analysis: An All-Star Gathering for Gil Scott-Heron, 8 p.m.

Thurs., Aug. 16th: Van's House Party with Cursive, Titus Andronicus, Love as Laughter, and Joyce Manor at House of Van's, 25 Franklin St., Brooklyn, 7 p.m. (RSVP here)

Sat., Aug. 18th: Australia Day concert with Husky, Sheppard, High Highs, George Byrne, Maya Jupiter, DJ Ashley Feraude, and Kid Zoom, Central Park, 3 p.m.

Thurs., Aug. 16th:  Gladys Knight and The Commodores at the Seaside Concerts in Coney Island (West 21st Street and Surf Avenue), 7:30 p.m.

Sat, Aug. 18th: Lackawanna Music Festival: Tokyo Police Club, Vacationer, Shinobi Ninja, Body Language, Lights Resolve, We Barbarians, and The Nightmare River Band, Pier A Park in Hoboken, 12 Noon (RSVP here) [UPDATE: There isn't much info at the official site about set times, etc., but this web page lists them. I can't vouch for them, but they sound about right.]

Speaking of free concerts, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts put on a great show last night in extremely muggy conditions in Coney Island (at least it didn't rain). She played a solid assortment of her classic crowd-pleasers, plus a few new songs (so a new album may be in the works). She opened the show with "Bad Reputation" (as usual) and the setlist included "Cherry Bomb," "Victim of Circumstance," "The French Song," "Love is Pain," and "Crimson and Clover." The new songs were called "TMI," "Hard to Grow Up," and "Reality Mentality."

The summer is winding up with a bang; go get out there and see some live music.