Local Natives @ Governors Island NYC

I had the pleasure of seeing Local Natives play on a beach in NYC last night. What a beautiful night it was...we had to take a ferry from Battery Park over to Governors Island where we chilled on the beach for 2 hours soaking up the sun and having a few beers. It was pretty surreal to be sitting on a beach with Manhattan as your backdrop. The first band was a Vampire Weekend wannabe, then We Are Barbarians took the stage, and thoroughly impressed me. They are from LA and have been friends with Local Natives from back in their home town. Local Natives played for over an hour, in front of their biggest crowd ever. For a ten dollar ticket (that included ferry ride), you can't ask for much more then that.

Local Natives are a band that I have wanted to see live for some time. They are all over the place on stage(a good thing)...everyone playing drums at some point, switching guitarists, switching lead singers...everyone in this band are class musicians and can hold their own on multiple instruments. The crowd was very laid back and also very into the show...I think the beach setting had everyone chillwaving to their fullest potential. The boys were on, hitting their four-part harmonies perfectly. Think bad-ass rock Fleet Foxes and then you've got Local Natives. They spastically jump around on stage, absolutely rocking out like tribal leaders would have around a campfire. 'Sun Hands', their encore song was by far the best of the night. Drums were smashed by everyone on stage, the crowd was going crazy...it was one of the most memorable moments of the summer for me. What a beautiful venue, and Local Natives played one hell of a set. So glad I decided to make that trip. I added a beautiful acoustic take of Airplanes from Pitchfork this year....breathtaking