If you were at the corner of 23rd and 6th Avenue in Manhattan at 7:30 on Thursday, July 19, 2007, you would wondered as many passerby did about the line of people that wrapped around the block in front of the Grand Masonic Lodge, the club house of the Free Mason Society. You may have been surprised to find out that they were lining up for a concert given that the average age of people in the line were probably mid thirty’s and above. What band could possibly bring out such a crowd in such an unusual location?

The answer is the comeback of Crowded House, a band started in Melbourne, Australia in 1986 who’s first hit single, “Don’t Dream It’s Over” from the album “Crowded House” reached #2 on the charts in the States. The band originally began with Neil Finn and Paul Hester, members of the New Zealand rock group Split Enz, and Nick Seymour, brother of Mark Seymour of another Australian rock group, Hunters & Collectors. Mark Hart, the fourth member of the Crowded House, joined in 1992. Lasting only a few years of success, the band played its last show in 1996 together to a sold out crowd in Australia. The members part ways and embarked on their own music careers. Paul Hester, adored by fans as “Hessie”, battled several years of depression and committed suicide in 2005. After Hessie’s death, it was hard to imagine that Crowded House would rise once again to record another album and go on tour. Yet, they did this year with the addition of Mark Sherrod, the former Beck drummer. Sherrod, though he can never replace Hessie in fan’s memories, adds a lively personality that complements Neil and Nick’s antics.

The show opened with Mark Hart playing the pipes that are part of the decoration in balcony section of the auditorium. For some reason, pipe music always makes me thinks of mystery houses and Halloween. They began with “People are Like Suns” and continued on to an old favorite, “Locked Out.” Neil comments on the state of the world repeatedly after each new song from “Time on Earth,” perhaps reflecting on the darker side of the album. The band did not forget crowd favorites and classics including, “Seven World Collide,” “Fall At Your Feet,” “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” “Better Be Home Soon,” and “Four Seasons.” The audience rewarded or bored the band with plenty of singing along. Although we go to concerts to hear the people who can sing and perform do, it is a much more entertaining experience to have an audience who knows the music so well that they can sing along. There was also plenty of improvisation and spur of the moment beats and melodies from the eternal songwriter, Neil Finn.

I stood next to a man who was the biggest Crowded House fan that night. Representative of an older audience, late 30’s and older (there was even fan who must have been at least 60 years of age and I was amazed that he stood on the floor for the entire show!), this man whistled, screamed and re-enacted every drum beat. Even Neil Finn commented on his spastic enthusiasm.

All in all, it was one of the best concerts I have been to in a long long time. There was more rock than the ballads that I am used to hearing of Crowded House. The older age of the audience makes me worry about Crowded House being able to make a comeback if they can not draw in the younger audience. Does it really matter when they have a set of loyal friends worldwide?

Below are a few playlists for you to sample some of Crowded House masterpieces.

Songs about Home
The All Time Greatest Songs To Dance To, Cry To and Drive To
80s Pop 1
Songs that Everyone Can Relate To
Moments of Sadness

On a breezy July afternoon in New York City, Rumsey Playfield was pumping with the sounds of Latin music. When I think of Latin music, I think of the traditional salsa, merengue, cha-cha-cha and Ricky Martin the sounds and beats that keeps dancers on the floor till dawn. I was in for a treat of the new sounds of Latin music which includes punk, alternative rock and raggeaton as well as a crowd and long lines to get into the performance area. Unfortunately I never made it inside and had to enjoy the music from a far on one of the lawns adjacent to Rumsey Playfield.

The long lines and crowd was a contrast to last weekend's concert as every Latin music lover in New York flocked to Central Park. One of my friends did make it inside and reported that it was definitely crowded with everyone standing up and sorta packed lik sardines. Again, that is also a contrast from last week's performance featuring Cinematic Orchestra where attendees laid out blankets and lounged about.

Pacha Massive received a warm welcome from the audience and provided some lively entertainment but it was Cafe Tabuca who brought the house down. I watched the crowd outside of the gates and saw people jumping up and down to the music when Cafe Tabuca came on stage. They captivated the crowd with one punk rock number and the next raggaeton then alternative. There was even one swooning slow song for all the female in the audience.



Too bad I wasn't able to make it into the performance area but I was having a good enough time outside. There is just something about foreign music that one can't understand...it is so hot!

Although I missed the grand opening of Summer Stage 2007 with Joss Stone and Common, I made a summer resolution to attend at least 1 Summer Stage event very week. The weekend of July 20 will be a busy one because there's Neko Case on Friday July 20th and Cat Empire on Sunday July 22nd.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Summer Stage is a series of mostly free music concerts, dance and film events that goes on every year between June and September in Central Park, NYC. New Yorkers bask in the sun in bikinis for women and bare chess for men as we often do where ever there's a patch of grass, drink beer and enjoy the music.

Saturday's performance features Cinematic Orchestra, El Michel Affairs, Kevin Michaels, and RAMP with DJ Spinna providing dance music between the performances. Although the Summer Stage described the event as a compilation of soul and funk, it sounded more like jazz, lounge, big band, gospel and a bit of soul.

El Michel Affairs from Brooklyn, New York opened up the performance with a lot of energy. Although they are supposedly a punk and soul group, I'm not sure how punk is defined by the sounds of trumpets, saxaphone and the trombone. Overall I enjoy the energy of their music but can't really identify any particular songs because they didn't introduce the song names.



The next 2 performances where a bit of a wash and very much filler in anticipation of Cinematic Orchestra. Kevin Michaels, a hyped up crooner has a great bellowing voice like a male version of Beyonce and theatrics with the hair but the songs aren't inspiring. He sang a song about "Vicky's Secret" which is essentially a commercial tune for Victoria Secret if anything. RAMP, a group who released their first and only record in 1977, was re-discovered through their cameo in one of A Tribe Called Quest's album. Does Bonita Applebaum ring a bell? Anyways, I felt like I was in a church and 45 minutes of their performance was more than enough.



After 2.5 hours of waiting, the crowd finally got to see who they came for in the first place, Cinematic Orchestra. When the band came out, members of the audience started congregating closer to the stage, standing there mesmerized almost. I can't very well describe their sound other than that it was big and involving and complex. It would have been much more enjoyable if they had appeared early because really, after 2 hours of so-so music, I was tired and restless and my friends were antsy to leave.


I would give this Summer Stage event a B as in, it could have been better. I do have a couple of video clips and as soon as I can compress them, I'll upload them shortly.

Here's a sample of Cinematic Orchestra's works: