The first shot in ROGER ROSS WILLIAMS' documentary about the APOLLO THEATER is a performer's-eye view of the iconic theater's 1,506 seats, all unoccupied. There's a feeling of intimidation, but also connection. If you happen to be sitting in one of those seats while watching the film, as I had the privilege of doing Wednesday, the opening night of the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL, you feel the chill of a magically meta moment. You might also get a hint of what Williams intends to do in the next hour and a half, besides treating you to thrilling footage of ELLA FITZGERALD, BILLIE HOLIDAY, JAMES BROWN, the MIRACLES, LAURYN HILL (booed at amateur night, cheered a few years later with a group you may have heard of) and so many others who did so much legendary work while sharing that exact view. Music is never just about music, and "THE APOLLO" is, at heart, a film about the connection between a theater and its community. Several communities, really: Black Harlem, which wasn't welcome in the COTTON CLUB and the SAVOY, homes to black musicians and white audiences. Aspiring black musicians, who had an open invitation to the Apollo's sometimes brutal but always welcoming amateur night. Professional black musicians, who saw the Apollo as a safe space and home no matter where they were from, no matter which dressing room they were assigned to (the eighth floor was the worst; the more established you became, the lower your floor), and no matter what Apollo owner FRANK SCHIFFMAN wrote on one of his infamous index cards about how they performed, how much they were paid and whether they earned it. And black culture in general, which the Apollo housed, protected and fostered through eras of segregation, civil unrest and more. This era, the America of the 2010s, being no exception. Woven through the film are scenes of actors rehearsing and staging a theatrical version of TA-NEHISI COATES' 2015 book "BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME," a letter to his son about being black in an America that hasn't changed as much as it likes to think it has. By the end of the film, when you see ANGELA BASSETT, COMMON and others performing the show, the importance of the very space you're sitting has hit you in a visceral way. "Our struggle," Williams said in introducing the screening, "is defined by our music and our art." At the Apollo, and in "The Apollo," the music and the art does the struggle justice. "The Apollo" airs on HBO in October. If you're in New York, it has two more Tribeca showings, Saturday and Monday. And it leads a particularly strong slate of music films at this year's festival, which runs through next weekend... In the first episode of the second season of KCRW's LOST NOTES podcast, now hosted and executive produced by JESSICA HOPPER, an old Boston punk-rocker talks to his daughter and an ex-bandmate about a problematic song he wishes the former had never heard and the latter had never written. And realizes that he himself helped write it, too. A complicated, bittersweet and important story. The band is the FREEZE, which connects my hometown and my current home in 19 glorious and much less problematic seconds... It's FRIDAY and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN says HELLO SUNSHINE (seven-word review: Laurel Canyon dad-rock; this is great) and TAYLOR SWIFT says hello it's ME (empowerment! at the disco, with Cherbourg umbrellas). There's also new music from SCHOOLBOY Q, EZRA COLLECTIVE, MARINA, KEVIN MORBY, the CRANBERRIES, PINK, SUNN O))), DJ NATE, ALDOUS HARDING, QUEEN KEY, LOYLE CARNER, the MOUNTAIN GOATS, CRAIG FINN, OTOBOKE BEAVER, HELMS ALEE, JACKIE MENDOZA, RODRIGO Y GABRIELA, MARISSA NADLER & STEPHEN BRODSKY, NICK MURPHY, NILS LOFGREN, ROB THOMAS, KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD, GUIDED BY VOICES, FOXYGEN, PETE ROCK, AMON TOBIN, ALAN PARSONS, SLY & THE FAMILY DRONE, LOCAL NATIVES, STARFLYER 59, the DAMNED THINGS, NEW YEARS DAY, CATFISH & THE BOTTLEMEN, JOSH RITTER, the late J.J. CALE and the pop/rock/hip-hop/country compilation FOR THE THRONE: MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE HBO SERIES GAME OF THRONES... RIP MARILYN MASON.