A Look Back: July 9
By Mike Stampalia on July 9, 2025
By Mike Stampalia.
30 years ago: Yanni @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
The most popular performer continues to be Karen Briggs, the charismatic jazz violinist, who received an ovation at her entrance before the performance began, which pretty much matched Yanni’s own. Briggs has a definite following, some of whom came to the concert only because she was performing. The woman was featured in just about every piece – and rightly so.
– Stephen F. Leonard for the Post-Star
30 years ago: Debbie Gibson @ Borders Books and Music (Colonie)
30 years ago: Lambsbread @ Music Haven
Past the pink elephant slide and blue seal swing of Central Park’s Tiny Tot Land, on a Sunday as cool as the Good Humor ice cream sold there, people did something a bit different than the usual Sunday in the park – they skanked.
– Times Union
By concert’s end, hundreds of “mud people” were caked in the track’s fine, grayish soil, a sight not seen in this abundance since Woodstock ’94.
– Mike Curtin for the Post-Star
20 years ago: Yo La Tengo @ MASS MoCA
The resulting program is hard to classify – not quite a YLT concert, not exactly a night of cinema – but fascinating to watch. The band’s speciality is blending the otherworldly and the mundane – they’re apt to reference “The Simpsons” one minute, Sun Ra the next – and it’s an aesthetic that fit perfectly with Painleve’s love for both pure science and pure spectacle.
– Casey Seiler for the Times Union
10 years ago: Yonder Mountain String Band / Blind Owl Band @ Alive at Five
But far-and-away the stunner of the night was a sprawling, rip-roaring rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s early “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” with Bob Dylan’s “Spanish Harlem Incident” sewn into the middle by Jolliff’s most avant-garde playing of the night. Simply epic.
– Greg Haymes for Nippertown
Visit onstagealbany.com to keep up with Capital District concert reviews, both old and new.
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