So in brief – Friday night we went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn to catch a free show as part of Celebrate Brooklyn, featuring locals TV On The Radio, Matt Pond PA and Austinites Voxtrot. It had been a long day of walking around Manhattan, so arriving early enough to get seats was a real boon.

Voxtrot got a brief set but made the most of it. It was kind of strange to see them on such a massive stage and they played it like it was a small one, staying mostly clustered together up front (except the keyboardist, who was shunted off way to stage right). The set did contain one new song amongst old favourites which was more like the jaunty pop of the first EP rather than the leaner rockingness of the second, but still sounded good. I don’t think I’ll ever hear Ramesh’s voice as loud and clear at a club show as they were this night, that’s for sure. I like these fellows, they’ll go far.

Matt Pond was apparently celebrating his last night in Brooklyn and I think he might have been more than a little drunk. The weather had begun turning a bit foul during their set, and rather than hurry up through their show to get the headliners on before everyone got drenched, he wasted time by talking about how the weather was turning a bit foul and how they were going to hurry up through their show to get the headliners on before everyone got drenched. I haven’t heard Several Arrows Later so I can’t really comment on that stuff but surprisingly, the Emblems material was quite sped and rocked up. The new cellist sounded as good as the old cellist which is to say it sounded like cello. A good set but I was distracted by the fear of getting drenched. As previously stated.

I have never actually heard TV On The Radio, but can now say they put on one hell of a live show. Playing off the energy of the super-enthused hometown crowd and bringing out guest singers and horns, they definitely impressed with their rocked-up, fuzzed-out soul music. Now THIS was a band who knew how to work a stage the size of the Prospect Park bandshell. It’s also worth noting that the skies cleared up and the air warmed up the minute TVOTR took the stage and remained mostly warm and clear right till the end of their set, with a little rain only coming back during the encore. Not many bands can control the weather like that. I am going to have to check out their stuff, including the new one Return To Cookie Mountain, which is released this week in the UK and which NME is streaming the whole of right now.

Hey, I told you it’d be brief. I got some okay super-telephoto pics, but won’t be getting to them until I get home. Update: Okay, photos are up.

MP3: TV On The Radio – “Staring At The Sun”
MP3: Voxtrot – “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives”
Video: Matt Pond PA – “Look Out (Closest)” (MOV)
MySpace: Matt Pond PA
MySpace: Voxtrot

BrooklynVegan was also there, natch, and from the camera angles was backstage. And also for Voxtrot’s set.