Sweat Cab for Windy

It’s been three days since I meant to write about this last event in EvanKessler.com lore. I think the excessive heat has gotten to my brain, rendering it a pile of mush and making me good and lobotomized. However, I don’t think lobotomy patients can even use the word lobotomy in a sentence, they just drool and sound out grunts…so perhaps that characterization was a little unjustified and premature seeing as no operation has yet to be scheduled.

In any case, it was this Tuesday night past when I ventured out to Billyburg for the Death Cab for Cutie concert at McCarren Pool Park. The entire city was steeped in a blizzard of thick, moist air thanks to temperatures hovering somewhere near the 100 degree mark. Persistent beads of sweat were a fact that complimented each mere movement. Dehydration was easy to come by and so I made my way out to the far reaches of Brooklyn from the slope via the G train with a bottle of water in hand. I didn’t take my iPod with me since there was a report of a possible rain storm and the last thing that I wanted was for my musical lifeline to be drenched. For some reason though, my camera was a perfectly suitable electronic accessory.

As I rode the G train the conductor announced a service change skipping my stop at Nassau. That meant I would have to either get off at Greenpoint or Lorimer. They seemed equidistant from my destination so I haphazardly decided on Greenpoint. When I got out I knew where I was in relation to where I had previously been off of that stop, but no clue as to how to walk towards where I was originally supposed to have gotten off. I called Kishore as I stood on the corner of Manhattan and India. He said he would have to call me back to look on the map on his phone and call me back.

While Kishore was busy checking maps I called Kristin E because I remembered she lived right around the corner. She picked up and said she would meet me on the corner. She also told me she was going to the show and that we should meet up during the show. I couldn’t really hang out though before since I was going to meet some folks before. Kristin came out toting a laundry bag and we had a brief conversation before she pointed me towards the direction of Matchless, the bar where I was to meet my ticket toting friend.

It was a ten to fifteen minute walk, which in that heat can be rather exhausting though I go to the gym enough to have something like that take it’s toll I suppose, though I don’t think ten or fifteen minutes of walking should really take it’s toll on anyone unless you’re really old or you’re in the Sahara desert. To break up the walk-fest and satisfy my hunger I got a slice of pizza at Schmook’s and finished my stroll over to Matchless where I was greeted by the Morwin (the proprietor of Schmook’s) Kishore, Kishore’s friend Jean, and his other friends Jesse and Jessica. We sat and had a drink before heading over to McCarren pool at 7:40.

When we made it into the venue we quickly got some drink tickets and a beer…finding a nice spot to the left of the sound board. When I looked over I saw my other friends Zak, Emma, and Robert hanging out, which was a pleasant surprise. I only spoke to them for a bit before they made the move to get closer to the stage.

Kristin and her friend Kevin soon joined me near my friends just as the show was set to start. I’m not sure what time the band went on. I think it was relatively close to 8pm, give or take. The band kicked off the show with “Bixby Canyon Bridge” and “The New Year”. The sound was actually better than I had expected. I was never a big fan of the acoustics at outdoor shows in Central Park, and this being my first real McCarren Pool Park outing, I can’t say there was much to be desired sonically.

Kristin’s Reaction to My Photographic Inclinations

There did seem to be an inordinate amount of talking going on around me. There was an entire lot of folks that seemed to be paying no attention to a show they paid around $50 to go to. The bridge and tunnel contingent standing to the Northwest on my personal compass looked to be hitting on anything that was moving whilst paying no attention to the fact that they were at a show and eventually settled down with some young and willing ladies. I was distracted by them for a majority of the show due to their close proximity to me the entire show. I was able to put up with it most of the time since the sound was pretty good, but there were times that it was overly annoying.

The show itself was enjoyable. My favorite performances were “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” and “The Sound of Settling” Death Cab has been a band that I’ve developed an appreciation for more recently. There was a brief period where I was immune to a lot of music for no other reason then I could fit anything else into my iPod and I didn’t want to spend money on any CDs.

As far as the weather went, the heat never seemed to be too much of an issue. However, nearly an hour into the show the wind started picking up and you could tell that rain was imminent by seeing the trees sway side to side in the distance. Mere seconds after “The Sound of Settling” ended Ben Gibbard announced that the show was over and that they were told that it was unsafe to stay onstage due to impending weather conditions. A disappointed crowd began to file out. Some of the people I was with started talking about sticking around and waiting til everyone else bailed. I pleaded them to leave saying that if it was unsafe for the band to play it probably wasn’t a good idea to be in the pool and we should probably go. Right on cue, after I finished my sentence, we witnessed a wind-blown beer tent go flying across the pool. I’m not sure if it injured anyone but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

The rest of our group took that as our cue and we made our way out of the park and towards our friend Pat’s apartment. We got to his building just as the rain was beginning to pour down. It took us several minutes to rouse Pat so that he was cognizant of our presence enough to open the door. His apartment was more or less a sweatbox, but at least it wasn’t a rainy sweatbox. After about a half hour in Pat’s presence it was back to Park Slope courtesy Kishore and his car, for which I am most thankful.

Morwin is Thankful For Pat Being Home

It certainly wasn’t the night I was looking for…but all’s well that ends well. And if you recall earlier, my not wanting to take my iPod to avoid wetness, it would seem I made the right decision. Unfortunately, the next day for no apparent reason my iPod died. At least I had it for less than a year, as I am now equipped with iPod #3. Praise the Warranty!

Death Cab Setlist 6/10/08
bixby canyon bridge. the new year. why you’d want to live here. photobooth. crooked teeth. long division. grapevine fires. a movie script ending. company calls. company calls (epilogue). soul meets body. i will follow you into the dark. i will possess your heard. cath… . we laugh indoors. the sound of settling.