May 7, 2007

Washington Square Park doesn’t have much in the way of grass. And as Dave Chappelle pointed out to the country in his Half Baked vehicle, not even the weed for sale there resembles grass by any measure. But Greenwich Village’s 10-acre concrete park is my home away from home, and what it lacks in rich greenery it more than makes up for with no-nonsense freak shows and incredible musical interludes. Plus, it’s a great place to lay down and shake off that hangover.

Between the Wang near-perfect game, the Kentucky Derby and the Mayweather/De La Hoya fight, Saturday made for a great day of sports.

But Sunday provided me a fantastic musical backdrop for lazily loafing around the park and watching performances by so many different, talented musicians. The always-enjoyable BuzzUniverse headlined my day of great music in the park (no Chris Barron sitting in for Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong this time), but the amateur acts also entertained me to no end while I finished reading a great book. Read on to stroll through the park with me and check out what all went down…

Today we launch a new department: We hope that this space will provide a slew of quality music with which you can properly start your week. And to begin this new beginning, let’s

Michael Franti and Spearhead will be playing a special show for the prisoners at San Quentin on May 19. Hopefully Franti won’t get shanked by an inmate who gets asked “How you feelin’?” one time too many times. Franti also gets heady points for recently visiting and performing for wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Kudos bar. Elsewhere from the interweb:

• Genesis has added more dates to their upcoming tour
• A review of Bjork’s recent concert at Radio City Music Hall
• U2 to release a DVD from 1997’s PopMart tour
• Who woulda thunk Rick James and Neil Young had a history together?
• Large Hearted Boy is compiling a list of Coachella Festival downloads
• Bob Weir speaks with Rolling Stone
• Chicago Trib looks at the new trend of bands performing classic albums
• The New York Times defends nostalgia
• A new podcast chock full of Widespread Panic from Everyday Companion
• Some rare The Who MP3s
• Bridgeport is excited to get the Gathering of the Vibes back
• Tool adds a few more late July gigs
• Neddy lists the shows of the week
• Jefitoblog shares a sicky sicky Van Halen show from 1977
• Ace & Co. head to Yankee Stadium for Cinco de Mayo, Jerk-style

And make sure to read on to check out setlists from the weekend — this batch includes Arcade Fire, Gov’t Mule, moe., RAQ, TLG, Umphrey’s and many more…