Photo by: Alex Verron 

Sun poured in through the trees, creating speckled spots of shade as fans lined up outside Central Park SummerStage to catch a free Sunday afternoon concert, courtesy of Himalayas, The Cat Empire and Brazilian Girls. The gates opened just before 3pm and throngs of music-lovers flooded the venue, filling the artificial turf with a patchwork quilt of blankets, tapestries, beach towels and hand-woven Guatemalan serapes, some bathing in the afternoon warmth, others picnicking on pasta salad and hummus.

The opening act, Himalayas started their set while the crowd, a swaying mass of tattoos, bikini tops, dreadlocks and neon sneakers began to push closer to the stage, pulsing forward and falling back like some monstrous, crushing wave. Himalayas, wearing brightly colored homemade t-shirts and looking like a group of high-school band geeks who grew up to become a plucky band of street toughs in a gangland-style 1970’s New York City, had the brass-Army stage presence of a rock super group. Consisting of 89 players armed with trumpets, saxophones, tubas, oboes, trombones, guitars, glockenspiels, an accordion and other assorted instruments. They pounded the crowd with a catchy opener that sounded like Allison Krause’s “Down to the River to Pray,” but in a layered orchestration more suited for the Rose Bowl.

As the next band The Cat Empire, came onstage more people trickled in meandering upon this oasis of music and culture. Even a few swanky bums traipsed through the gates to join the festivities and tap their feet and perhaps do some casual panhandling. While Himalayas are a daunting act to follow the sextet from Melbourne, Australia played to a strong showing of hardcore fans, many of whom sang along as trumpets flared, rolling organs rumbled and savvy Aussie emcee, Felix Riebl crowned the audience with slick, articulate and witty lyrics.  By the end of the set the crowd had grown close to capacity, 4,000 strong licking their lips in satisfaction, yet salivating in anticipation of the headlining act.

The 5 o’clock sun was still throbbing as Brazilian Girls finally took the stage in front of a massive, surging eclectic mess of hipsters, swingers, ravers and bare-skinned revelers.  Keyboardist Didi Gutman laid down the deep, mellow organ riff introducing “Don’t Stop” and the band took off running with a heated set, emanating exotically ambient, thumping beats throughout the afternoon and early evening.  Lead singer Sabina Sciubba, wearing fairy wings and a green jumper that oddly resembled medieval jousting armor, pranced and danced like a life-size pixie, threw paper airplanes at the audience and generally aroused the crowd with a flirtatious display of sexually provocative theatrics. Her multi-lingual lyrics, sung in a sultry and mysterious voice usually reserved for Russian minxes and spies, lulled everyone into a false sense of calm on the day-dreamy “Lazy Lover,” while bass player Jesse Murphy and drummer Aaron Johnston abruptly snapped the set back into full-tilt freakiness on the upbeat and club-poppy “Jique.”