The City Parks Foundation’s annual summer live music, dance, and theatre festival wrapped up the season with Cigarettes After Sex and openers The Furniture at SummerStage NYC in Central Park on October 1. The City Parks Foundation is dedicated to “transforming parks into dynamic, vibrant centers of urban life through sports, arts, community building and education programs for all New Yorkers.” Taking place in all five boroughs of NYC, Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage Festival, the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, and the traveling Puppet Mobile provide a mixed series of free and ticketed events to provide a sense of community and space to appreciate art in the communities.
Despite a long week of thunderstorms and flash flood warnings hitting NYC from the remains of Hurricane Ian, Cigarettes After Sex fans showed out for the band in Central Park’s outdoor venue. They showed in an overwhelming amount, selling out the show!
Baltimore based experimental duo The Furniture took the stage first after a warm welcome by City Parks Foundation staff. With no introduction or exchange of words, Michael Kuhl and Matthew Pierce dove into their hypnotic and ethereal instrumentals with an overwhelming wave of silence falling amongst the crowd who intensely listened to the duo.
Fans grew more and more eager for Cigarettes After Sex as they one by one took the stage. Opening with “Crush” released in 2018, they played a mix of all of their iconic songs. The band rose to fame in the early 2000s and remains infamous to this day.
Cigarettes After Sex was formed in 2008 in El Paso, Texas by lead singer Greg Gonzalez. The band consists of Jacob Tomsky (drummer) and Randall Miller (bassist). They released their first debut self-titled album in 2017. Their latest release was in 2020 with the single “You’re All I Want”.
Greg’s androgynous vocals and the dreamy instrumentals of their music tied the show’s atmosphere together. Although many fans were hesitant to attend due to the gloomy weather, they ultimately saw the band in their element, concluding in another successful year of SummerStage NYC!
