A Weekend of Rhye, Neko Case, and Lucius

This weekend was a wonderful couple of days of live music!

On Friday night, I headed to Williamsburg's Northside Festival where I saw Rhye and Neko Case.

As I wrote about on Friday, I was super stoked to see Rhye and, in all, it was an enjoyable show, however, I'd love to see them again unbound by situational circumstances. Their set started at 7:45pm, right around dusk, and though they played with a gorgeous Manhattan sunset as their backdrop, their whole set was in the daylight. Given their warm, smooth sound with an electric pulse, I'd love to see them play post-sunset, in the thick of night with lights fanning with the beat and splashes of colorful silhouettes in the dark. 

Their set was also rather short, about 40 minutes in full, if that. You could feel that they felt a bit rushed through the set. And so nothing against their performance as they did put on a heartfelt show, but I'd love to see them back in Brooklyn for a headliner with a full lighting design and in a position where they can dwell in their songs without time constraint.

Next was Neko Case and my, oh my was this woman a wonder. I have to say that while I was familiar with Case and have heard her songs here and there on the radio (The Penguin and WFUV) she wasn't an artist that I played in heavy rotation nor had much background on...but that has since changed. I've been listening to her all weekend. And not only did she put on a fun, feel-good show, this lady is hilarious.

At the show, she wore pink cheetah leggings, of which she spoke about in great length throughout the night. For one example:

"I made these pants. They're pretty great. If you could see them up close, they're pretty jankity. I have a f*cking great camel toe right now."

And other great moments including:

"I'll put four capos on this sh*t (referring to her guitar). Yeah, you like that?

"F*ck lazers. Larvae are much scarier."

**Disclaimer: quotes may be slightly paraphrased. But you get the gist. 

It was a great show of music and stage banter, and I hope I'll get to see her live again soon.

While none of her stage banter is included here (unfortunately), you can catch her performance of "Night Still Comes" from the show, below:

Video by Jason Adams / Photo by Chris Laine

On Saturday, I headed down to Prospect Park for the Celebrate Brooklyn summer concert series featuring Lucius, a five-piece fronted by vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. They were absolutely, heart-flutteringly incredible.

While I've listened to Lucius for some time now and was familiar with their music and distinctive harmonies, they blew me away live. Their vocals were tight with rich and invigorating harmonies that swarmed about the park. Each band member had their own drum which, on a couple of songs, they'd strike in unison creating a roaring pulse that vibrated throughout your bones, and their energy was electric as they danced across stage with hair flips, clapping and stomping. Simply an incredible show.

Below is a short clip that I shot during their song "Two of Us On The Road" which is one of my absolute favorites of theirs:

Photo and Video Clip by Chris Laine

Oh, and my friends and I met Sara Bareilles who was watching the show from the same tent as us. So, that was neat. She was very nice.

In all, it was a great weekend of live music, dancing, and hangin' with friends.

xxChirs