Free summer concerts. Is there anything better? From Central Park's Summerstage to Celebrate Brooklyn! Via the River to River Festival, NYC has a packed season ahead. Here are 10 shows we're looking forward to.
- 6/8: David Byrne. It's a free show. He's David Byrne. Any questions? (Prospect Park)
- 7/4: Conor "Bright Eyes" Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band with indie darling Jenny Lewis bring you a very heartfelt, lo-fi, all-American Fourth of July (Battery Park)
- 7/10: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are big, powerful, noisy popstars in the making. (Seaport)
- 7/11: Ezra Jack Keats Family Concert: A Very Special Show with They Might Be Giants. Now that alt-rockers TMBG are winning Grammys for their kids' albums, they're a natural choice for this annual Keatsfest. (Prospect Park)
- 7/19: Alpha Blondy & The Solar System, Lee "Scratch" Perry… The Ivorian reggae king and the godfather of dub plunge right into an evening of '70s-tinged Afrifunk. (Central Park)
- 7/22: KRS-One. Kris "The Teacher" Parker brings his 20-year-old politically-charged rhymes to (Crotona Park)
- 7/24: Bettye LaVette, Budos Band. LaVette's brand of badass story-telling soul is a nice fit with Brooklyn's Budos Band, the Daptone outfit that plays funk that sounds like the lost soundtrack to Shaft. (Central Park)
- 7/30: Arlo Guthrie. The folk singer/activist/son of Woody headlines part of the multi-show Summer of Love tribute "Four Nights of Peace, Love and Music: A Tribute to Woodstock." (Castle Clinton)
- 8/3: Béla Fleck, Toumani Diabaté. A full set of music by Béla Fleck and Malian kora jammer Toumani Diabaté, followed by a screening of the documentary tracing Fleck's journey through Africa in search of the origins of the banjo. (Central Park)
- 8/7: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (with Deer Tick /The London Souls). Potter's got one of those rich, bluesy Susan Tedeschi-type southern voices that make you wish you were drinking a mint julep out of a mason jar on a porch swing. (Prospect Park)
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