On New Years Eve, Kung Fu filled American Beauty to ring in 2018. With cage dancers and late night revelers on hand, the funk group played until 4am, the final night of music at a fan favorite venue in the heart of Manhattan.
Category: Manhattan
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Photo Gallery: Lettuce with Bobby Dietch at Brooklyn Bowl
On December 30, Lettuce welcomed special guests John Scofield and Pharoahe Monch to Brooklyn Bowl for night 2 of their 3 night New Years run. Opening up were Deitch Band, featuring Lettuce drummer Adam Deitch’s mom, Denis and his dad, Bobby.
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The Disco Biscuits Heat Up New York City
The Disco Biscuits returned once again to New York City to end out the year, playing their New Year’s Eve run at Playstation Theater. They’ve had a month off since their last run at Holidaze, but they sounded like a band that has been on the road for weeks. After a solid run opener on Thursday, the band was warmed up and primed to throw down a classic on the 29th.
Philly’s Greg D got the show started with an R&B heavy set as the rest of the crowd filtered in from the Phish show at Madison Square Garden. The Disco Biscuits started the night off with two songs that normally end the night, with the pairing of “Hope” and “Kitchen Mitts”. They then went into a monster “M.E.M.P.H.I.S.” which was the meat of the set clocking in at almost 30 mins, which then dropped into “Gangster”. “42” was next, and it was one of the best jams of the run. Marc Brownstein set up the pace for a nice dance funk style jam which would be something they would return to a few more times in the night. The jam bled into “Spraypaint Victory” to end the set.
The second set was pretty much one highlight reel, as it was up there with one of their best sets of the year. Things started back up with a “Crickets > Papercut > Crickets” sandwich, with the jams into “Papercut” and then back into “Crickets” being the highlights of the segment. Next was “Story Of The World”, which went into “Spacebirdmatingcall”, which featured some of my favorite type of Biscuits; blissful and bouncy. Barber started tearing up the guitar which then led into “Tricycle”, which had another happy biscuits jam before going back into ‘Story Of The World” to end the set. A “Once The Fiddler Paid” encore was the perfect way to warm up everyone’s hearts before venturing back out into the bitter New York City cold.Disco Biscuits Playstation Theater, New York City
Set 1: Hope, Kitchen Mitts, M.E.M.P.H.I.S.> Gangster> 421> Spraypaint2Set 2: Crickets> Papercut> Crickets, Story Of The World> Spacebirdmatingcall1> Tricycle>Story Of The WorldEncore: Once The Fiddler Paid- unfinished
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Photo Gallery: The Nth Power at American Beauty
For the first of four nights of post-Phish shows at American Beauty, The Nth Power brought their soul funk to a crowd of late night party seekers on December 28. During the night, John Shannon from The Leaders of The Shift and rapper Atlas Gramz joined the Nth Power on stage for what would turn out to be one of the final shows at American Beauty.
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American Beauty Closes its Doors
American Beauty, the mid-town Manhattan venue that quickly became a staple for the Big Apple’s jam scene, is no more. In a statement on Friday, following the January 1st shuttering of their doors, American Beauty issued the statement below:
It is with a heavy heart that we announce our doors closed after December 31st 2017. Our home at 251 West 30th Street was purchased by Herald Square Properties in 2016, who are renovating the building and renting to new tenants. We’d like to thank our loyal staff, customers and every artist who’s performed on our stages for a magical run.
Although it’s sad to say goodbye to our Midtown party factory for now, we are happy for the memories that will live on with those who experienced it. Fare Thee Well.
Touring bands, as well as pre and post show events surrounding Phish and Dead and Company shows at Madison Square Garden, were a huge draw to American Beauty, located just 2 blocks from MSG. Events held during these runs filled the bar’s three floors with vending, music, beer and free pizza, causing a great deal of surprise from fans, patrons, and the musicians who performed there. Seth Eisenstein, saxophonist at Polyvamp, called the venue home, and lamented its closing, saying “American Beauty always felt like our home away from home. Polyvamp was able to grow our sound playing that room, and always had a blast doing it. We want to thank American Beauty for everything and wish the great staff all the best in their next step.”
While American Beauty is closed, the space has been a music venue under other names for years, leading to the hope that perhaps the room will open under another name, given the history of the location. The final show at the venue was a Phish after-party featuring Kung Fu and Wyllys and went late into the night.
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Phish Sets Sail into 2018 bound for a Soul Planet
For their 11th New Years at Madison Square Garden, Phish found a new way to combine their creativity within the World’s Most Famous Venue and their annual celebration of the beginning of a new year. In the past, Phish has moved the stage to the center (2013), and the other side of the arena (2015), and this time set sail upon a ship, with the stage serving as the bow of the boat that would chart the crowd into 2018 on a Soul Planet.
Fans arrived at their seats to bracelets that were designed to assist them on their voyage of cosmic discovery, and when this was learned early in the day, the buzz and potential for the participatory light show sent fans buzzing. In 2012, Coldplay used similar devices to engage fans on their Mylo Xyloto Tour, which had fans giddy with excitement leading into the waning hours of the year.Kicking off a more than 80 minute set was a powerhouse, no-let-up set that will serve as a standard by which other NYE first sets can be measured. “Carini” as set opener was the bellwether for a strong, full force set that chugged forward into the night. Diving into “Fluffhead” early into the set, the electric crowd was plugged in for the rousing “Fluff came to New York” announcement, a hallmark of a fiery MSG New Years Eve sets. “Reba” continued the stellar set, capped by heavy hitters “46 Days,” “Maze,” and “Character Zero.”
For set two, another six song second set, the third of the run, was on par with previous years that kept the Garden bouncing deep into the final hours of the year. “Possum” kept energy from set one up, and a Type II “Fuego” lit the room. “Gotta Jibboo” went Type II as well and stayed there for one of the best jams of the run, while “Golgi Apparatus” foreshadowed the audience using their bracelets, a memento of their ticket stubs, visibly on their hands for later in the show. As a twist, the audience was thrown for a loop into “What’s the Use,” the only thing close to a breather during this heater of a set. “You Enjoy Myself” served as the perfect closing to the set with a large, extended vocal jam.https://www.instagram.com/p/BdZJq03n6dp/
The curated third set featured rope access technicians coming to the stage shortly after the start of “Soul Planet,” a debuted catchy and jammy number that kicked things off right out of the gate. As the techs jugged up and down the rope, the sail began to unfurl and rotate to face each side of the crowd as the song’s refrain “Oceans are rough, Soul Planet” was repeated over a steady jam that grooved the audience through the last 15 minutes of 2017. With cannons exploding to countdown the last ten seconds of 2017, and the S.S. MSG headed full steam into 2018.
With fans a part of the art, the stage serving as both bow and stern of the boat, the crowd was the sea and glowed with changing light patterns from the LED bracelets. Fresh from “Auld Lang Syne” roared an invigorating “Free” that pushed forward into a nearly 20 minute “A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing,” mirroring the beauty of the Baker’s Dozen version. Seaworthy version of “Moma Dance,” “Prince Caspian” and “Wading in the Velvet Sea” followed, then a lifesaver in the form of “First Tube” constituted the finale for this well crafted set. “Loving Cup,” one of only two covers the entire run, closed the show with a beautiful buzz and capped 17 shows at Madison Square Garden in 2017. Only Phish, and only in New York.Setlist via Phish.net
Set 1: Carini > Suzy Greenberg > My Friend, My Friend, Fluffhead, Reba, Poor Heart > 46 Days > Maze > Character Zero
Set 2: Possum > Fuego > Gotta Jibboo > Golgi Apparatus > What’s the Use? > You Enjoy Myself
Set 3: Soul Planet[1] > Auld Lang Syne > Free, A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing > The Moma Dance > Prince Caspian > Wading in the Velvet Sea > First Tube
Encore: Loving Cup
[1] Phish debut