Band of Horses opened the summer concert series at Williamsburg Waterfront on June 20th, in front of a sold-out crowd in Brooklyn. Despite the many barriers to entry – which included a maddeningly large number of separate lines for ticket checks, ID checks, drink tickets, and actual drinks that could only be bought with said drink tickets – the show seemed to be a rousing success. Though the majority of the 8,000 or so people watched the show, much of the crowd enjoyed the gorgeous late-afternoon sun and twilight, sitting by the water as the bands played.

And the lineup was pretty perfect for the setting. Karen Elson played first, and ended her set with a fairly spooking cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch.” Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear followed, though many fans seemed perplexed why they weren’t headlining the show. Regardless, their brand of psych/folk/pop rock worked with the setting, provided you were looking out at the water and not the desolate buildings and empty condos.

Band of Horses took the stage right around sunset, and played an hour-long set that was pretty evenly split between old songs and tracks from the recently released Infinite Arms.  Band of Horses always sounded like outdoor, summer rock anyway, so they fit right in to the warm twilight hour.