Emily May 7/9/24 Emily May 7/9/24

T-Pain @ Central Park's SummerStage - Manhattan

June 23rd, 2024: T-Pain's Mansion in Wiscansin Party @ Central Park SummerStage - Manhattan, NY

T-Pain | Photos courtesy of: Alyssa Rasp

T-Pain brought the Mansion in Wiscansin Party Tour to Central Park’s SummerStage on June 23rd, and he had the crowd hyped all night long.

Appearing onstage in front of a massive video wall, T-Pain took to the stage just after dusk in a colorful ringleader look – top hat and all. He opened the show on a high and it only got better throughout the night.

The setlist covered a lot of ground. Most songs were put into mashups to keep the energy up nonstop. He had the hits, the deeper cuts, the covers… a bit of everything. Every night of the tour is just a little bit different, so even if you wanted to, you wouldn’t know what you were walking into. Just a night of living in the moment at the best fancy party ever.

The crowd shared a vulnerable moment with T-Pain as he spoke about how after the illustrious career he’s had, he’s still able to go out and play shows like this as a fully independent artist.

T-Pain is a hitmaker with an unmatched amount of talent. No one will ever forget the night he brought his mansion to New York and invited us to come over.

Beginning the set sitting in front of his keyboard, Bridwell transitioned to his guitar early on and rocked out with the band on stage, often engaging with the fans in the crowd and ensuring everyone was having a good time. Towards the end of the set, the band performed their big hits and fan favorites, “No One’s Gonna Love You”, “Is There A Ghost”, and “Funeral”, which ended their pre-encore set. Leaving the stage briefly, the band came back out for a 2-song encore. Starting their encore with “Blue Beard”, they ended the night with a fun cover of INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart”! Opening the show this evening was Cincinnati band Carriers. Led by singer/guitarist Curt Kiser, the band had a psychedelic, Americana sound and a fun energy on stage that warmed the crowd up for the evening!

Photo Ladies 7/23/23 Photo Ladies 7/23/23

Horsegirl, Iceage, Water From Your Eyes, and Lifeguard @ Central Park SummerStage - NYC

July 20th 2023: Horsegirl, Iceage, Water From Your Eyes, and Lifeguard @ Central Park SummerStage - New York City

Horsegirl - Photos Courtesy of Edwina Hay

On Thursday, July 20, 2023, Horsegirl, Iceage, Water From Your Eyes, and Lifeguard performed at Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. All four acts have one thing in common: they’ve all released music on the same record label that’s based in New York City, Matador Records. The show was free to attend, for all ages, and was one of the highlights of their schedule this season.

Chicago’s Lifeguard, who began their tour with Horsegirl tonight, just released a pair of EPs on Matador Records (Crowd Can Talk EP and Dressed in Trenches EP) and kicked off the show at 6 PM. The young band was full of energy and was a great start to this highly anticipated show.

Water From Your Eyes released their Everyone’s Crushed album at the end of May on Matador, and their set featured songs from that release. The duo of Nate Amos and Rachel Brown were joined by an additional guitarist, Al, and seemed to have many fans in the audience who were eager for their early evening set.

Copenhagen’s Iceage went on next at 7:41 PM, and the last performance of theirs I caught was in 2019 in Queens and Central Park’s outdoor stage seemed to fit them well, with many people near the barricade dancing and singing along during their set. Singer Elias Bender Rønnenfelt barely stood still during their performance. Immediately after “High & Hurt,” Elias declared, “We love you, New York.”

Horsegirl, who I last saw in March opening for Unwound, closed the show when their set began just before 9 PM. The second song of their set was brand new, and Penelope mentioned her brother, Isaac Lowenstein, of Lifeguard, while on stage. Before starting their second brand new song, Horsegirl announced they were recently in their hometown of Chicago working on their second album. During “Billy,” Horsegirl brought out the trio of Lifeguard to assist them on the final song of their set.

Throughout the show, a t-shirt gun was used to launch t-shirts into the audience, and was done by a member of a band who wasn’t performing at that moment. For Lifeguard, Nora of Horsegirl shot a t-shirt to a lucky audience member who was near me, proudly whipping it around in the air after catching it. During Water From Your Eyes, Kai of Lifeguard used the gun, in Horsegirl’s performance, Nate of Water From Your Eyes shot shirts into the audience a few times before the show came to an end. The venue also kept fans cool by having their security team occasionally spray water but simultaneously needed more than just one water fountain/bottle refill station located in a somewhat hidden spot, which was a noticeable change compared to last year. Between the strong bill and venue inside one of our city’s most famous public parks, Thursday night was a stellar way to spend a warm July evening in New York City.