It’s a been a good time to be a fan of ’90s-era slowcore adjacent band Acetone lately. The band, who broke up in 2001 following the suicide of singer/bassist Richie Lee, saw their entire catalogue get reissued last year, a live album came out for Record Store Day 2024, and the surviving members — drummer Steve Hadley and guitarist Mark Lightcap — have been playing shows. They hit NYC this weekend for three shows at Brooklyn Music School, which marked Acetone’s first shows here in over 20 years.
We caught Friday’s show (night 2) which, unlike Thursday and Saturday, did not feature an opener, so Acetone played two sets and an encore, 19 songs total, including band classics and a few covers. Senon Williams, who played with Mark and Steven in The Ecstacy of Gold, handled bass duties on this tour. NYC experienced a heatwave this weekend and no AC in the auditorium made things sweltering but Acetone were also on fire, especially Mark Lightcap, who also brought out his son Stanley to play on “Like I Told You,” which started the second set.
Night 1 (Thursday, June 20) featured an opening set from the Marshall Allen Trio, whose Tara Middleton joined Acetone for a couple songs; Night 3 (Saturday, June 22) was opened by Susan Alcorn. You can check out photos by P Squared and the setlist from night 2 below, along with the night 1 setlist.
ACETONE @ Brooklyn Music School 6/20/2024 (Night One)
Your Sweet Time
Take Me (George Jones)
Cindy
All The Time
Every Kiss
Things Are Gonna Be Alright
Return From The Ice
Shaker
In The Light
Always Late
Diamond Head (Phil Manzanera)
Vibrato
Louise
Border Lord (encore)
ACETONE @ Brooklyn Music School 6/21/2024 (Night One)
Set 1
Louise
Might As Well
All The Time
Waltz
Every Kiss
In The Light
The Final Say
Set 2
Like I Told You (with Stanley Lightcap)
Cindy
Don’t Cry
No Need Swim
Things Are Gonna Be Alright
Take Me (instrumental)
Vibrato
Shaker
Sho-Bud
I Don’t Really Care
Stray
Encore:
Sundown