On Tuesday, August 4, AEG Live presented Erykah Badu as the first summer show at The BEACH at Governors Island. The sometimes flaky Badu was on time, and no worse for the wear after the birth of her third baby (in her Brooklyn home) this February. With the exception of sound issues during opener Janelle Monae’s set, the kickoff went smoothly.
Added as part of a reinvention of the historic island off of Manhattan, the new waterfront venue is hoped to bring tourists and New York fun-seekers out to green space, with a beach-like plot of sand, beer venders, full bars, hot dogs for days and a capacity of 3,000. With skyline views and sweeping lawns long forgotten by the city folk, Governors Island provides an idyllic summer concert location, one that AEG plans to utilize from May to October every year.
Erykah Badu brought her sig smooth-jazz-meets-rough-soul sound and toothy grin to the stage, while attendees sat on sheets-cum-beach blankets in the sand. Perhaps a function of the ticket price ($72 once water taxi and ticketmaster fees were added), the crowd was decidedly older and calmer than one might expect, and even while she belted out “Puff,” the air was clear. Most didn’t even seem to get it when she quipped about hitting a drive-through to order “a large everything” in the middle of the song.
As is her wont, Ms. Badu jumped from song to song, sometimes mid-verse, or by swapping one song’s bridge for another, but stayed mainly in her melancholy set including, a favorite among couples in the crowd, “Love of My Life.” The melee she’s known for (songs like “Bump It” and “Bag Lady”) were saved for the encore, for which barely a third of the crowd stuck around.
The young ones who lasted to the bitter end were treated to Badu’s rendition of the Jackson five’s “Nine to Five,” and soundbites from Slick Rick’s “Ladi Dadi,” adding “I knew y’all were some conceited bastards!” to the “mirror, mirror” line. Aside from donning a “Bite me I’m vegan” T shirt, Badu stayed away from her sometimes preachy rants. She did thank her band profusely, saying “they make my thang come together,” right before reminding the audience that “one smile can make a mill…” which blossomed right into the hook “a millie, a millie, millionaire,” from Lil’ Wayne’s hit of the same name. The crowd erupted into the first moshy dance fest all night and, as if through a puff of smoke, Erykah disappeared.
N.E.R.D., Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco are also on Governors Island’s summer lineup, along with a Sublime tribute band and hipster dance-anthem group, Brazilian Girls, to provide an intentional variety of sounds. I'll be at all of them, in my dreams. But at $72 a pop, I may have to copy the folks who pulled a motorboat up to the side of Govs Island to watch the show from the water.
What do you think? Another great green space for New Yorkers, or exclusionist, elitist day-cation spot?
