Mary Weiss at South Street Seaport

Almost missed this, not picking up the Times weekend listings until 6:30 in the sweltering evening on this 95 degree day. Part of the free NYC River-to-River summer concerts. South Street Seaport feels ersatz in the day, but it's a great summer night hangout, with lots of open air restaurants, plenty of beer stands (the Times had an interesting and accurate article about the openness of outdoor drinking around the city in summer, largely tolerated because almost everybody gets around in public transport, on foot, or by taxi and poses no driving threat to others), the three lighted bridges spanning the river, Brooklyn across the way, and the Watchtower providing time and temperature.

Mary's several hundred audience consisted mainly of three generations of white guys who no matter how prosaic our lives thought she was singing Leader of the Pack to us. Now as then she looked better than all of us put together. Slender and short, she wore tight jeans, white shirt with a knotted rep tie, a black vest, shades, all this set off by straight shoulder-length blunt-cut blonde hair. As effortlessly cool and concentrated on her music as her fellow New York contemporary Patti Smith is all posturing and political hectoring.

She called her old band the Shangs and played several of their hits and not-so-hits, including Out in the Streets, Train from Kansas City and -- dedicated to her late Mom -- I Can Never Go Home Again. But this was no solitary walk down memory lane. She also played almost every song off her album from last year Dangerous Game -- should be bought or downloaded -- and when she closed her encore with the back to back pairing of Leader of the Pack and the best off Dangerous Game, Don't Come Back, it was clear that the intervening years had only strengthened her voice and her person. Had the Leader not met his end in such untimely fashion, he would -- make no mistake -- have soon been handed his walking papers.

Afterwards I asked her about a new album and she said there is one in the works. Excellent news.

The last time I was at Seaport was two years ago to see Amy Rigby. Similar women, different, much different styles, equally satisfying, only that night Amy and we were dodging lightning and my sister was dying. I'll take tonight.