A free show under the Brooklyn Bridge, beer garden to one side and a soccer pitch to the other, the East River going pink behind the stage. On paper it’s a brand activation. In practice it was one of the best nights of the summer.
Larry June opened and set the temperature exactly right. His whole thing is frictionless cool, every line delivered like he’s saying it from a deck chair, and at golden hour with the water behind him he didn’t so much play an opening set as calmly install a vibe in a few thousand people. He let the crowd come to him. They did.
Then the surprise: AJ Tracey out with members of the U.S. women’s national team, working the place into real noise. For a minute the soccer-meets-music idea Adidas keeps pitching actually happened in front of you instead of at you.
Then PinkPantheress, who pulled off the harder trick. Her songs are tiny by design, whispery two-minute drum-and-bass cuts built for headphones, the kind of thing that should evaporate outdoors. It didn’t. She opened on “Stateside,” “Romeo,” “Noises,” slid into “Nice to Know You,” took a DJ break and an outfit change, then moved through “Pain,” “Another Life,” “I Must Apologise,” “Just for Me,” “Attracted to You.” A second reset brought “Girl Like Me,” “Stars,” “Tonight,” and the closing run everyone wanted: “Passion,” “Break It Off,” “Boy’s a Liar,” and her hit “Illegal” to send it off.
