12 THENEWYORKER, AUGUST 26, 2019
ILLUSTRATION BY MAX DALTON
As the dog days of summer give way to
autumn’s cool, opportunities to catch
a show beneath the sun and the stars
are dwindling. Luckily, the Rooftop at
Pier 17 offers myriad options: Z100’s
Summer Bash (Aug. 29) gathers such
crossover acts as the d.j. Marshmello,
the country singer Kane Brown, and
the man of the moment Lil Nas X.
The Afrofuturistic singer and musi-
cian Janelle Monáe (Sept. 25) helps
wind down the waterfront venue’s
summer concert series, which officially
wraps with Thievery Corporation
(Oct. 11). Elsewhere, the stacked E.D.M.
festival Electric Zoo (Aug. 30-Sept. 1)
returns to Randall’s Island Park; Global
Citizen (Sept. 28) calls on the star power
of Queen + Adam Lambert, Pharrell,
and Alicia Keys for its annual Central
Park event; and the New York edition of
the preëminent hip-hop festival Rolling
Loud débuts at Citi Field (Oct. 12-13).
Indoors, larger stages present some of
the most in-demand artists of past and
present. Two home-town heroes—the
legendary rapper Nas and the equally
revered R. & B. singer Mary J. Blige—
split a bill at the Barclays Center (Aug.
28). At the same venue, the urban Latin
event Soulfrito (Aug. 30) features Ozuna,
A Boogie, and Jeremih amid an enticing
cross-genre lineup, and, in a random but
still somehow plausible pairing, the ir-
reverent punk band Blink-182 combines
powers with the equally punk rapper Lil
Wayne (Sept. 20). Across the river, Mad-
ison Square Garden’s calendar includes
the Jonas Brothers, far removed from
their Disney Channel beginnings and
celebrating their first studio album in a
decade (Aug. 29-30). The band Vampire
Weekend takes its acclaimed “Father of
the Bride” record on the road (Sept. 6), as
does Tyler, the Creator (Sept. 12), whose
recent release “IGOR” further advances
his singular style; the following month,
Chance the Rapper’s new album, “The
Big Day,” brings him to his first headlin-
ing date at the Garden (Oct. 8).
At SummerStage, the brilliant singer-
songwriter Mitski performs her final
shows before a planned hiatus (Sept.
7-8). Brooklyn Steel hosts the R. & B.-
tinged pop of Banks (Sept. 7-10) and
the rising reggae star Koffee (Sept. 11);
the next day, Madonna begins a series of
intimate shows at BAM (Sept. 12-Oct. 7).
As November draws near, Charli XCX
brings her own brand of energetic elec-
tro-pop to Terminal 5 (Oct. 21-22), and
the exhilarating multi-instrumentalist
and vocalist Georgia Anne Muldrow,
the saxophonist Tia Fuller, and the per-
cussionist Sasha Berliner hold court at
BRIC Jazz Fest’s three-day marathon
(Oct. 24-26).
—Briana YoungerNIGHT LIFE
FALL PREVIEW
Stars of Rap, Jazz, Country, and Rock
of 2014, when she played a surprise 6 A.M. set
with Skrillex, at Bonnaroo. A recording of
the two of them behind the booth percolated
throughout the Internet, introducing fans to
her and the eclectic musical philosophy she’s
dubbed “fk a genre.” Of late, she’s moved into
chemical-pop territory, testing out her voice
over bright, maximalist productions.—Julyssa
Lopez (Aug. 23.)Gauche
Alphaville
Gauche descends from a regional punk lin-
eage whose tradition of activism can make
the buttoned-up denizens of its home town,
Washington, D.C., seem apolitical by com-
parison. Fittingly, the sextet’s new début LP,
“A People’s History of Gauche,” is lyrically
righteous enough to abide by its cheeky title.
The music’s underlying concern, though, is a
person’s unimpeachable right to shake his or
her backside, with anthems enlivened by joy-
ous bursts from a rarely employed punk trump
card: the mighty saxophone.—J.R. (Aug. 24.)High Seas Festival
Hornblower Infinity
Around 2009, a handful of hazy, electronic
projects that fit under the so-called chill-
wave umbrella lulled listeners into tranquil
daydreams. Though the sounds eventually
retreated from the indie main stage, the High
Seas Festival is a sign that remnants of that
blissed-out musical moment are still floating
around—and evolving. For this showcase, acts
including Washed Out, Goldroom, and RAC
find an ideal place for their live sets: a boat
in the middle of the Hudson.—J.L. (Aug. 24.)Jan Jelinek
The Shed
Sound collage, as much as musical compo-
sition, has been central to the Dutch elec-
tronic musician Jan Jelinek’s work from the
beginning. As Farben, and also under his own
name, his lustrously bare tracks helped define
nineties-into-two-thousands minimal techno.
There’s a straight line from those releases to
the thematic audio essays he now makes for
German radio, and his recent slowed-down d.j.
sets are similarly heady, often incorporating
his own field recordings. Jelinek follows a live
scoring of new videos by the multimedia artist
Tony Coke at the Shed with a performance at
Public Records, on Aug. 27.—Michaelangelo
Matos (Aug. 24.)Shigeto
MOMA PS
The Detroit hip-hop and electronic-dance pro-
ducer Zach Shigeto Saginaw made his name
in moody down-tempo, d.j. culture’s most
orthodox style, but his recordings have grown
more engrossing and less predictable as he’s
matured. His most recent, “The New Mon-
day,” from 2017, features layers of percussion
that add a swinging, loose funk to even the
most beat-heavy tracks. Live, Shigeto utilizes
a large array of programmed gear, plus a drum
kit for embellishment.—M.M. (Aug. 24.)