Every
summer WBRU puts on free concerts at Waterplace Park in Providence.
This year they've expanded the running time from 1 to 2 hours, which
is great not only because it gives us a chance to watch local
openers, but also it doubles our potential time for outdoor drinking. So I mosey'ed on down with my little cousin and set in to enjoy some music.
Waterplace Park
Waterplace is well set up for concerts. The audience gathers on a
downhill slope of grass and concrete, giving everyone a chance to be
able to see over the people in front of them. That being said I still couldn't really see the bands, though. Damn it! I guess I'll have to make due with the perfect weather and free music. The water provides the backdrop for the stage, and
it's possible to walk around 360 degrees and see the show from all
angles.
Before I
get to the acts I'm pointing out that there was a little drone was flying about
the place. My cuz and I found it unnerving. It was most likely taking pictures or video of the show, of course. We still were hoping for it to get juuuuust close enough to
grab and chuck to the ground, preventing it from opening fire and
kicking off the Skynet revolution the movies warned me about. Alas it
wisely kept it's distance, and the machines are free to uprise
another day.
A drone. We're living in the future, friends.
The
aforementioned local opener was The Brother Kite, a kind of alt-rocky
band from just down the street of the park. Their set was apparently
cut short due to “tuning issues” (fellow musicians, remember to own a
chromatic tuner – they cost about $60 and will save your asses) but
they were solid enough. They have their own website (many local bands can't be bothered to have anything more than a
Facebook page, so, big ups), but I think their best song can be found
on this last.fm page.
Phantogram
is described as “dream hop”, which is (I'm guessing) an ambient
form of trip-hop, which is a form of blah blah blah. Titles. They're
a trip-hoppy band with a girl fronted alt-rock vibe. If you listen to
the radio you've probably heard their latest song “Fall in Love”,
and if you haven't you can listen to it here. Listening to them
live, the “dream hop” label made sense. Their music is layered,
melodic, and creates that dreamy-mood, largely in part to Sarah Barthel's voice. I expected that their performance would consist of a DJ and a
singer, but a full band took the stage. Pre-recorded music is fine, but there's always love for live music actually being performed live.
For anyone interested, the
entire summer concert series lineup is available here. Also, if you're in the area, I recommend going to Harry's Burger and get the Mother of all Burgers. It is bliss in slider form.
