Last Thursday I headed over to Castle Clinton at Battery Park to catch the incredible Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond.

My first introduction to the seductive stylings of MBD was two years ago at the Dark Was the Night concert at Radio City Music Hall, where I was completely blown away by Shara’s rendition of “Feeling Good.”

Hips don't lie

So it was no surprise that MBD won me over once again at last week’s free show for the River to River festival. Now a resident of Detroit, this show was a bit of a homecoming for Shara, who lived in New York for a number of years.

Backed by the yMusic chamber ensemble, MBD played all songs of her upcoming album, All Things Will Unwind, and featured three interludes starring MBD friend, dancer Jessica Dessner taking the stage as Shara sat quietly with a creepy old lady mask on.

It's a snap

Definitely never a dull moment at a MBD show, eh? Shara introduced many of the songs with details about her new live in The D — with one particularly funny story about a mouse in her house that she found, trapped, and released out into the wild — only to find a defiant pile of mouse poop waiting for her the very next day.

Another tale described a wonderful group of jazz and blues musicians that used to meet every Sunday at a particular house to have a jam session in front of the lawn. But according to Shara, when the owner of the home died, the house was knocked down (apparently commonplace in Detroit), but the musicians still gather in front of the location of the house and perform on blankets they lay out front.

As usual, MBD’s music is a little over the top, but completely original and refreshing. Beautiful lyrics injected with a wry sense of humor, with incredibly melodious accompaniment by yMusic, the songs made the perfect companion to the lovely evening.

Another triumph for the R2R festival at one of my most favorite concert venues for a NYC summer.

Pom-pom cape

To the left, to the left

More at: Brooklyn Vegan, Brooklyn Rocks

Quickly, the charity performance of artists who have appeared on Dark Was the Night compilation was at Radio City Music Hall last night. Amidst rumors of Blonde Redhead and Sufjan Stevens playing, neither group/performer got onstage at the event.

The bands who actually did perform were:

Dirty Projectors
My Brightest Diamond
The National
Dave Sitek (from TV on the Radio)
David Byrne
[Intermission]
Bon Iver
Feist
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings
[Encore] Tribute to Pete Seeger with all bands (and a random appearance by St. Vincent – aka Annie Clark) singing altogether a song Seeger made famous “This Land Is Your Land,” with Sharon Jones busting out solo into a sassy rendition of the song a quarter of the way through (below).

For me the most impressive performances were mainly from the ladies: My Brightest Diamond blew the crowd away with her rendition of “Feeling Good,” and the performances of the Dirty Projectors and Feist were both incredibly beautiful. However if you asked any of the men in the crowd, it seems as the Boy Boner award went to Bon Iver. David Byrne was also stellar, with a wonderful set in which he performed three songs off of previous Red Hot albums to which he’s contributed.

And even though an alarming number of people left as soon as Feist finished up her set (tsk tsk, how rude!) Sharon Jones definitely brought the house down (and the crowd to its feet) with her spirited performance and dance tribute to Mr. James Brown.

Also spotted in the crowd last night were Chris Tomson, drummer of Vampire Weekend, and artist Cindy Sherman (surely there to support her beau Mr. Byrne).

More: Brooklyn Vegan, Paper Magazine, The Tripwire