This was a long, hot day, probably the hottest day I remember spending all day outside. The day began at 7.30 when I woke up. My girlfriend, Jack, Shaina, and I had all planned weeks earlier to go to this show, whch was free, so that meant getting up really early so we could meet in Trenton and take the train up to NYC. Rebecca, Jack, and I got to the Trenton station with plenty of time to catch the next train, but Shaina still hadn't arrived from downtown (Philly). About a minute before the train to NYC left, Shaina's train arrived, leaving us with about 30 seconds to get on the train. Luckily, we made it.

We arrived in NYC about an hour and a half later and got a cab to Central Park so that we could wait in the ever growing line to get in to Summerstage. After awhile we were in and found a spot to sit down underneath the scorching sun. Eventhough we were well prepared (thanks to Rebecca), the water and other concessions we had didn't help to combat the heat. Well, that and the fact that I was dumb and wore jeans. Mixmaster Mike was supposed to open, but he cancelled due to emergency dental surgery, and was replaced by a very talented member of the X-ecutioners; his name escapes me right now. JSBX took the stage, decked out in their normal stylish gear, ready to rock out. Screw Greg Forman, here's the real thing! Jon and the band put on a great show for a better part of an hour, starting out with "2 Kindsa Love" and playing mostly material from "Acme". He came back out for an encore, which featured Jill Cunniff singing backup on a song and him ripping his shirt off. Christina Martinez (his wife and a member of Boss Hog) and his son were there to enjoy the set, which was as good as everyone told me it would be.

After extreme baking in the sun and clamoring for more water, Luscious Jackson made their way to the stage with a new keyboardist, a DJ, and their regular tour bassist. They started off with "Here", off of the first full-length. They played an excellent show, everything I had hoped for, mixing material from all of their releases. Included were "Ladyfingers", "Devotion", "Naked Eye", "Summer Daze", "Fantastic Fabulous", "Electric", "Deep Shag", "Nervous Breakthorugh", and others. The first set ended on a high note, with a saxophonist on stage (didn't catch his name), and Kate jumping around on stge with the bassist taking her spot. They came back out for a short encore which included "Surprise" and "Citysong", which we watched from the side of ths stage, waiting in the autograph queue. We waited a little bit too long, but we ended meeting a cool girl from Toronto and we did get out stuff signed, plus Jack was a good sport about waiting for us. We went back to Penn Station soaked and burnt, but we saw an excellent show and got autographs. It didn't matter that three of us woke up sick the next day...