MGMT - McCarren Park Pool - July 27th - Pt.2

I was probably only in McCarren Park Pool for about an hour and a half total and we missed the Ting Tings and Black Moth Super Rainbow. They were setting up for MGMT's set which gave me the opportunity to get in to two games of dodgeball. I'm hoping that I drank a little too much and that was why I was so terrible at a game I used to be classified as a wizard at (I'm afraid that it's not though). Either way, it was fun to play dodgeball again. I don't think I've played "real" dodgeball in like 20 years. By "real," I mean with the rubber kickballs not Nerf or anything like we were forced to play with before I even graduated from Elementary School.

For MGMT the place was packed and it seemed like most of the crowd was really into it. I'm not super familiar with the album but I recognized enough to enjoy the show. One one complaint was that for the encore they played what felt like was a 10 minute song I didn't recognize which seemed to bring the crowd down a little. On the flip side, it was followed up by the high point of the show which they closed with Kids which I thought sounded great and the crowd was really into it which always helps.

MGMT - McCarren Park Pool - July 27th - Pt.1

A few weeks ago I went to McCarren Park Pool for the first time. I showed up at 1:30 and my line wasn't too bad (as shown by the black line on the picture to the right). The doors opened at 2:00pm, and I was probably in there by 2:30pm.

This past Sunday, I showed up at roughly the same time with roughly the same rainy weather conditions. But this time the line was this long (on left). Luckily this time I did have someone with me and there was a deli a half a block away which came up huge with the Coors Light tall boys and paper bags. I can't tell if the doors opened at 2:00 since I was a mile away but I'd say by 3:45 I was approaching the area where I was on the Hold Steady line a few weeks earlier. Until...

We learned that we weren't making such great progress and the line was just re-routed so we were lined up around the pool and not around people's homes. We had only made slight progress (picture on right). After about another hour I walked to get us another six pack. By now the Ting Tings are on. I took an hours worth of public transportation to get there and I'm questioning whether or not we're even going to get in. I tell my friend to wait in line and I'm going to go to the front and ask the security guys if they are almost at capacity and if it's worth waiting. As I'm walking up to the front I see a group of people cut the line. It totally made sense as to why this line wasn't moving, it was happening all over the place. The line wasn't being policed at all. I get a hold of my friend and tell him to just walk towards the front of the line and find me. I engaged these two guys and started talking about the venue and the band. My friend came over with the beers, we gave them one and we had our new place in line. Not long after we cut the line, security came with a pitch counter and started counting off people and figuring out where they would be at capacity. He didn't get that far passed us before he determined who the last group getting in would be. We missed the first two acts but we did get in before MGMT came on.

Hold Steady - McCarren Pool - June 29th

Last Sunday I went to McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn for the first "Pool Party" of the summer. While most people show up every Sunday for the dodge ball and slip and slides, I was lucky enough to get to see one of my current favorite bands.

This was actually my first McCarren Park Pool experience. I imagine that it is usually a lot more crowded on a weekly basis than it was that day because of the weather. From the moment I stepped on line I was treated to sporadic torrential rainfalls. There were a few time where I really thought it couldn't rain any harder...then it did. I didn't mind it though. Once you're wet you just need to embrace it. If anything else, it weeded people out and kept the actual Hold Steady fans in the building. And I'll also mention that, from a spectator's point of view, a dodge ball game can actually seem epic when being played a teeming rainstorm.

As far as the show goes, I don't think it's possible for The Hold Steady to play a bad show. Even if their songs weren't any good, they really seem like they enjoy what there doing and it really brings the show up a notch. They played pretty much the whole new album which is very good. I'll give the fans there alot of credit. Not only did they sit through the rain, most of the fans were singing along with the new songs despite the new album not being physically released at the time (iTunes only).

I debated whether or not to go to this concert since I would be going myself but between The Hold Steady and the concert venue, I definately made the right call.