Live Concert Photography: LAMC and SummerStage Present: Aterciopelados with Diamante Electrico at Queensbridge Park 7/11/19

Live Concert Photography: LAMC and SummerStage Present: Atreciopelados with Diamante Electrico at Queensbridge Park 7/11/19

I’ve been adhering to social distancing guidelines and self-quarantine as much as possible over the past almost 100 days or so. I’ve obviously gone out for the occasional walk to get fresh air and some exercise, to run household errands and for my mom’s medical appointments. Beyond that, my life has been rather lonely and monotonous: I work deep into the night, often into the morning hours. I’ll get a few hours sleep, wake up and eat breakfast with mom. Then I’d get to work for most of the day, stopping to eat dinner and repeating the whole process over again.

There has been the occasional Zoom happy hour, the occasional Zoom birthday gathering and a FaceTime call here or there. But mostly my life has been centered around work. There’s no place to really go and nothing to really do, besides work and more work. And if I’m not busy, I’ll wind up sitting in my apartment and going a bit stir crazy.

Unsurprisingly, over the course of this site’s ten year history, I’ve managed to compile and develop a deep archive of unedited photos. As I’ve mentioned throughout this site’s history, much of my work with JOVM has coincided with working full-time, corporate jobs in book publishing as an Editorial Assistant and Acquisitions Editor. And if you add commuting back and forth to work and shows, listening to and writing about music, editing photos, going through my correspondence and even occasionally having a romantic and social life to my day, there sometimes just wasn’t enough time in my day to sleep or daydream or just do anything else.

Sadly, much of this work going through photos has managed to be an uncomfortable reminder of the some of the things I’ve loved so much that I’ve once had — and won’t get back for the foreseeable future, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Back in 1986, City Parks Foundation created SummerStage in the spirt of Central Park’s original purpose — to serve as a free, public resource to help culturally enrich the lives of New Yorkers through live concerts, dance performances, and other cultural events. Starting with relatively humble beginnings at Central Park’s Naumberg Bandshell and expanding to an annual series of over 100 free, outdoor performances at Central Park’s Rumsey Playfield and 17 other neighborhood parks across the city’s five borough’s between June and October to over 200,000 New Yorkers — the majority being free of charge.

Much like its counterpart outdoor concert festival, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, SummerStage has hosted an eclectic and lengthy list of internationally renowned and emerging acts across a wide variety of genres, cultures and styles on all of their stages including Sun Ra Arkestra, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Mavis Staples, Elvis Costello, Big Daddy Kane, Seun Kuti, Femi Kuti, Lettuce, PJ Harvey, Dr. John, Bonobo, Blood Orange, Roy Ayers, McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Ron Carter, Homeboy Sandman, Whoodini, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, DMC, Common and a lengthy list of others.

Over the past decade, SummerStage has expanded with showcases and other performances in a number of parks across the city’s five boroughs — most notably, the concert series features an annual run of shows at Queensnbridge Park. Last year, I stood in a torrential rain storm for Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) and SummerStage hosting Aterciopelados and Diamante Electrico at Queensbridge Park. Check out photos below.

Atreciopelados