Kid Francescoli – Racket – March 26, 2024

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French singer-songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Mathieu Hocine put out his most recent Kid Francescoli album, Sunset Blue — filled with electronic pop, R&B, chillwave and soul — last October, and his North American tour brought him to the Meatpacking District for a sold-out show at Racket on Tuesday night.

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Photos courtesy of Ken Grand-Pierre | www.kenamiphoto.com

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The Last Dinner Party Thrill Sold-Out Webster Hall

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The Last Dinner Party – Webster Hall – March 26, 2024

Industry plant is a contemptible term that has been laid upon up-and-coming independent artists. The fast-rising London band the Last Dinner Party has been hounded by the label and has been vocal about its basis being untrue. Having formed across university lines, the quintet of female and nonbinary members consists of Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland and Georgia Davies repping King’s College, while Emily Roberts and Aurora Nishevci claim the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. It’s hard to argue their talent and ability to uplift a musical sensibility that hasn’t received significant streams since Florence and the Machine or Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”  (thanks to a Stranger Things assist). Proving the naysayers wrong, TLDP graced a sold-out Webster Hall on Tuesday to support their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy

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The blistering orchestra of “Prelude to Ecstasy” played over the speakers, welcoming the band to mic stands and guitar necks decorated with colorful ribbons. The ribbons were a reference to their Ribbons for Provisions campaign, in which concertgoers were encouraged to bring canned goods for local food banks and rewarded with a ribbon from the band. Dramatic kick-drum thuds opened the set with “Burn Alive,” as lead singer Abigail Morris pranced about the stage. Although I was expecting flow-y, ornate yesteryear attire to accentuate the band’s Baroque-pop sensibilities, it seemed like Morris, the touring drummer introduced as “Di” and guitarist Mayland swapped the ruffles for blazers they might have picked up at a vintage shop on St. Mark’s Place. Roberts played the flute on  “Beautiful Boy,” which with its sad beauty would be fitting as an ode to Timothée Chalamet. The “weeping hour” as Morris dubbed it, soon continued with the lilting vocals dramatized in “On Your Side” and keyboardist Nishevci sang in her native Albanian for the personal “Gjuha.” 

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The band debuted a new song before outsourcing choir duties to the audience for “Portrait of a Dead Girl” to sing the anthemic chorus, “Give me the strength.” It was clear throughout the evening that these ladies are a tight rock machine anchored by the intoxicating stage presence produced by Morris, who had the crowd in the palm of her hands. The mirror ball was activated to sparkle over the room as they closed with their hit single, “Nothing Matters.” Revelers exiting the venue could not stop complimenting the musicianship and further kicked away any industry-plant stamp. —Sharlene Chiu | @Shar0ck

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(The Last Dinner Party play Brooklyn Steel tonight.)

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Photos courtesy of Adela Loconte | www.adelaloconte.com

Matisyahu – Brooklyn Steel – March 23, 2024

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Out on the road with an acclaimed new EP, Hold the FireMatisyahu was back in New York City on Saturday night to close out his tour in style at Brooklyn Steel.

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Orbital – Webster Hall – March 22, 2024

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English techno duo Orbital have been making crowd-pleasing music influenced by a variety of genres for more than three decades. And on Friday night at the early show at Webster Hall, the brothers Hartnoll played their first two (self-titled) albums — affectionately known as the Green Album and the Brown Album — in their entirety, back-to-back for the very first time.

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Photos courtesy of Ellen Qbertplaya | @Qbertplaya

Angie McMahon – Music Hall of Williamsburg – March 21, 2024

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Australian singer-songwriter Angie McMahon makes the kind of relatable, guitar-fueled folk-rock that’s seen her open for the likes of Father John Misty and the Shins. But thanks to her excellent sophomore studio album, last fall’s Light, Dark, Light Again, she’s now out on her own headlining tour of North America, which brought her to a sold-out show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Thursday.

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(Angie McMahon plays The Sinclair in Cambridge, Mass., on 3/26.)

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Photos courtesy of Savannah Lauren | @savannahlaurenphoto

Jon Batiste – Beacon Theatre – March 19, 2014

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A member of one of New Orleans’ (and America’s) great musical families, genre-spanning singer-songwriter-composer-multi-instrumentalist (and Academy Award winnerJon Batiste is out on his first-ever headlining tour, for his seventh studio album, the terrific World Music Radio. And last night, he was back in New York City to play a sold-out Beacon Theatre.

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(Jon Batiste plays Radio City Music Hall on 9/7.)

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Photos courtesy of DeShaun Craddock | dac.photography

Ministry & Gary Numan – Terminal 5 – March 19, 2014

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A pair of highly influential acts — Chicago industrial rockers Ministry and English synth-pop godfather Gary Numan — brought their North American tour to Terminal 5 on Tuesday, the first night of spring.  

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Photos courtesy of Silvia Saponaro | @Silvia_Saponaro

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Adrianne Lenker – Music Hall of Williamsburg – March 18, 2024

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Her sixth solo studio album, Bright Future, drops on Friday, and ahead of its release, Big Thief bandleader Adrianne Lenker was back home in Brooklyn on Monday night for an intimate, sold-out show at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

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(Adrianne Lenker Shubert Theatre in Boston on 11/12-13.)

(Adrianne Lenker plays Kings Theatre on 11/18-19.)

(Adrianna Lenker plays Union Transfer in Philadelphia on 11/25-26.)

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Photos courtesy of DeShaun Craddock | dac.photography

Rhiannon Giddens Can’t Be Pinned Down to Just One Sound at the Beacon Theatre on Saturday

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Rhiannon Giddens – Beacon Theatre – March 16, 2024

Looking down upon the stage from the balcony of the Beacon Theatre awaiting the start of the Rhiannon Giddens show, I was compelled to take stock of all the instruments onstage: multiple banjos, guitars, keyboards, basses, fiddles, accordions. There were at least two of everything, which invited the question of how Giddens and her band were going to use all those music-makers. By the time the show had ended, some 90 minutes later, the sold-out crowd ecstatic in appreciation, the answer was clear: Those instruments would be used every which way and then some. 

The opening instrumental, “Following the North Star,” found Giddens and Dirk Powell going back-and-forth with banjo and fiddle respectively, drums driving a lively rhythm behind them. The six-piece band then settled into “The Love We Almost Had,” which suggested old-school jazz, Powell now on piano matching Francesco Turrisi on organ, with Giddens providing an Ella Fitzgerald–esque scat solo. From there, permutations of players, instruments and genres turned the band into a two-guitar blues outfit on “Wrong Kind of Right,” an accordion-heavy Creole band on “Dimanche Apres-Midi,” a psychedelic Americana ensemble on “Louisiana Man” — a set highlight — an Aretha-soul group on “Too Little, Too Late, Too Bad,” and traditional folkies on “God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign.” 

Throughout, it was Giddens’ voice and talent and make-the-historical-present worldview that tied it all together. The band’s fun free-for-all was balanced by weightier material: Giddens describing the painful separation of families to introduce “Come Love Come,” fiddle, organ and guitar adding musical pathos to the song, and then the dark rocker “Another Wasted Life,” inspired by the tragic story of Kalief Browder. Despite the serious material, the music was infused with joy and optimism, and Giddens made sure to end on an uplifting note, closing with “Yet to Be,” filling the theater with the words: “Today may break your heart, but tomorrow holds the key / We’ve come so far, but the best is yet to be.”  —A. Stein | @Neddyo

Photo courtesy of Ebru Yildiz | www.ebruyildiz.net

Sleater-Kinney – Racket – March 16, 2024

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After a pair of appearances at Brooklyn Steel earlier in the week in support of their 11th studio album, Little Rope, Sleater-Kinney were still in town on Saturday night, cutting loose in the Meatpacking District at a sold-out Racket.

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