(Photo: Jesse Sposato)
If you’re a touring band playing a show in New York City, finding a quiet place to unwind and catch up on some alone time before your performance is not a simple task. Unless, of course, your show is at art space and residence Silent Barn. You see, Silent Barn has the Canned Ham, a 1972 Shasta “canned ham” style travel trailer that functions as part green room, part resident meeting spot and hangout.
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Fireworks over the Manhattan Bridge, at The Bean on Second Avenue. (Photo: Daniel Maurer)
Because the your pyrotechnic fun on this most sacred day, arguably defying the founding fathers’ true intentions, please be advised it’s probably best to toss out your mortars and Roman Candles if you’re sticking around this crock-pot of a city for the weekend. But buck up kiddies, because we’ve got an ultra-Patriotic guide for this 4th of July featuring tons of activities that are almost as exhilarating as narrowly escaping having your hand blown off by a defective firecracker.
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Last year’s block party at Joe’s Pub. (Photo: Erica Martin)
If you’re a live music completist, the next few weeks are going to be simply overwhelming. Not only does the Northside Festival kick off today, but on June 21, the first day of summer, Make Music NY returns with a mind-boggling 1,000+ free shows in public spaces. Highlights include a 90+-band punk rock marathon on Staten Island, a hootenany on Governor’s Island, and (God help us all) Billy Joel karaoke from the back of a pickup truck.
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Left to right: Carlos Salguero Jr, Joe Galarraga, Amar Lal, Brendan Finn (Courtesy of Big Ups)
(Photo: Peter D’Amato.)
Saturday evening at Silent Barn, the usual bored-looking über-hip were outnumbered by beaming tape nerds manning tables topped with an array of brightly colored cassettes; friendly dudes and girls repped tape labels hailing from Brooklyn and beyond, at the first annual NYC Cassette Fair.
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Tapes are back! Well, at least for some established acts like Animal Collective and the Flaming Lips that are re-releasing material this Saturday to celebrate the first annual Cassette Store Day (a la Record Store Day). The truth is, tape culture never really died out for underground and experimental music — its cheap magnetic swathe has always been the most accessible medium for skuzzy punk bands and noise acts alike to lay down their tunes and distribute to audiences that tolerate their presence.
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