Across the weekends in the month of June, a new concert series called Re:SET is setting up shop in 12 cities. Billing itself as an alternative to standard summer festivals, Re:SET arrives at Central Park in Atlanta the weekend of June 9-11. The music is set to start around 4 p.m. each day.
How is it different? For starters, all of the action takes place on one stage, so concertgoers don’t have to run back and forth across the grounds or be forced to choose between artists playing at the same time. Also, with fewer acts, the sets are a little longer than ones you’d typically experience at a festival. And there is an element of curation, as the headliners selected the opening acts for their show days.
Credit: Julian Klincewicz
Credit: Julian Klincewicz
The acts include headliners singer/songwriter Steve Lacy, dance pop veterans LCD Soundsystem and indie rock supergroup boygenius, who will rotate nights across cities in geographically close regions each weekend (including New Orleans and Dallas on the same weekend as the Atlanta shows), allowing them to play venues other than the standard amphitheaters normally on their summer itineraries.
Lacy, who will headline Friday, is riding high on the success of his second album “Gemini Rights.” Its heady mix of soul, rock and funk earned Lacy a Grammy award for Best Progressive R&B album, just a few years after his solo debut (“Apollo XXI”) was nominated for a best urban contemporary Grammy (the category later being renamed Progressive R&B). Catchy single “Bad Habit” went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for three straight weeks in October of last year. Lacy’s versatility has seen him collaborate with everyone from DJ Calvin Harris to alternative rap star Tyler, The Creator to indie rock titans Vampire Weekend. Prior to his solo work, he had success as a guitarist for The Internet, a group that includes Atlanta’s own Matt Martians on keyboards and opened on a Gorillaz tour in 2018.
Credit: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Credit: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
Joining Lacy on Friday’s bill will be English singer/keyboard player/producer James Blake, chillwave/electronic artist Toro y Moi and New Jersey singer/songwriter (and Lacy collaborator) Fousheé. Blake’s minimalist electronic music showcases his baritone voice, and his 2021 album “Friends That Break Your Heart” continues a career that’s already garnered him a Mercury Music Prize and a Grammy award. From San Francisco by way of South Carolina, Toro y Moi is touring in support of last year’s “Mahal,” his acclaimed seventh album. Fousheé, who co-wrote Lacy’s “Bad Habit,” released her genre-busting debut album “softCORE” in November 2022.
Credit: Kevin Condon
Credit: Kevin Condon
New York City’s LCD Soundsystem is eight years into a comeback that started only four years after the group (first) called it quits after a memorable farewell show at Madison Square Garden. James Murphy and company have earned consistent, considerable fanfare for a highly danceable concoction of punk, indie rock and electro. Although the group last released an album in 2017 (“American Dream”), that record included a Grammy-winning single (“Tonite”), and just last year LCD Soundsystem recorded a single (“New Body Rhumba”) for the Noah Baumbach film “White Noise.” As one of the leading lights of NYC’s heralded early 2000s indie scene (alongside Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Strokes, among others), the group featured prominently in music journalist Lizzy Goodman’s 2017 chronicle of that era called “Meet Me In The Bathroom,” and then last year’s documentary version.
LCD Soundsystem’s picks for Re:SET performers will join them for a Saturday that will not be short on energy. Jamie XX, who alternates between solo work and recordings with group The XX, released two singles last year (“Kill Dem” and “Let’s Do It Again”) and has been busy producing fellow XX member Oliver Sim’s first record. British rock band Idles reached the UK Top 10 with and earned a Grammy nomination for 2021′s “Crawler,” the band’s suitably noisy fourth album. Starting the Saturday festivities will be Big Freedia, the New Orleans bounce icon and alternative rap MC who appeared on Beyoncé's 2022 song “Break My Soul.”
Credit: Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP
Credit: Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP
Sunday’s Re:SET headliner is boygenius, the heralded trio of Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers, each also a noted solo performer. The group released its appropriately named debut album “The Record” at the end of March, and reviews for it have been overwhelmingly positive. It went to No. 1 in the UK and No. 4 in the U.S. charts, and followed the success of the band’s self-titled EP in 2018. Three singles— “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry” and “True Blue” — came out in January at the same time as the album announcement. In April, boygenius played at the Coachella Festival, and alongside the Re:SET series the group will be on tour most of the summer, both in North America (appearing with Broken Social Scene and Carly Rae Jepsen, among others) and in Europe (at festivals such as Sweden’s Way Out West).
Appearing with boygenius on Sunday will be Clairo, Dijon and Bartees Strange. Singer-songwriter Clairo, who was born in Atlanta and raised in Massachusetts, followed up her viral first hit “Pretty Girl” with two albums to date, “Immunity” and the folk-focused “Sling.” Last month, she released the “Live at Electric Lady” EP featuring re-workings of some of her songs. Baltimore-based singer and multi-instrumentalist Dijon is touring in support of his first album, “Absolutely” (released in late 2021). His Re:SET appearances follow a 2022 tour with Bon Iver. Bartees Strange has been on a musical upward trajectory over the last few years, touring with The National and namechecked by Bob Mould, among others. The D.C.-based artist earned rave reviews for second album “Farm to Table,” a genre-agnostic chronicling of both the political and personal.
With its one-stage, longer-set focus and stacked lineup, the inaugural Re:SET series promises to pack Central Park for a memorable music weekend.
FESTIVAL PREVIEW
Re:SET Concert Series with Steve Lacy, LCD Soundsystem and boygenius
June 9-11. Music begins at 4 p.m. each day. Single day tickets start at $99.50; weekend tickets start at $250. Central Park, 400 Merritts Ave. NE, Atlanta. atlanta.resetconcertseries.com.
About the Author
