Music x3

After seeing the Maccabees supporting Mumford & Sons at Coney Island, they announced they were doing a little show at Le Poisson Rouge, the intimate Bleecker Street venue that we seen Mumford & Sons earlier this year.

We got there about 35 minutes before they went on and timed it just right to get a great view from the left of the stage. It filled up nicely and there seemed to be quite a lot of fans who knew all their songs going way back.

Heather even asked nicely just before they came back on for the encore and the sound guy was nice enough to give here a copy of the setlist to add to our collection.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday night I got to go to Radio City Music Hall for the first time as we saw Belle & Sebastian.

The sound was awesome. The large screen behind them was pretty cool the way it was worked into some songs. They had a few dancers on stage all the way from Scotland and then even brought a little bagpipe action into the end of one song.
It was all seated but pretty much everyone stood after the first song. Combined with last night and running a hard-ish tempo that morning on the way to work killed my quads and calves though, ha ha.
After the next 10K I am definitely getting a massage or two.

Then the following Wednesday we took our camp chairs over to Prospect Park to see, well, listen to Damien Rice. It was a paid Summerstage / Celebrate Brooklyn show so the fences went up but you could obviously still hear it, quite well it turned out.

It was a cold-ish 14 or 15 degree night, combined with it being Damien Rice, meant it was pretty quiet where we decided to sit off to one side on the top of a little hill.

Amazingly when he came on stage he stood right in the gap between the poles and bandshell frame so we had something to focus on rather than just hearing the sound. Sitting in your camp chair, drinking and eating a snack is more like it. Although we left with about 4 songs to go as we were just too cold by that point.

The view in front of us

The normal view

The megazoom view!

Definitely looking forward to going back for more free cheap seat shows, Interpol, Punch Brothers and Willie Nelson to come.

Coney Island in the rain

It had sounded so good at the time. The Maccabees and Mumford & Sons at MCU Park, a small minor league baseball stadium just on the other side of the beach at Coney Island. A nice Summer night in June, shorts, tee....
Well, it was nice weather the few days before but it rained heavy the night before and it lingered all day long making it a little bit cold and damp, a bit of a novelty at this time of year as it's normally still warm when it rains as it's more thunderstorm weather.
I'd never seen so many ponchos at an event!

Anyway, it didn't ruin the gig. The venue was really cool with the Coney Island theme park stuff in the background. Both bands sounded awesome and after a bit of initial shuffling position we got a really good view off to the side.

Secret show and secret trail race

On Sunday it was announced that Mumford & Sons were playing a kind of secret show at a small 500 capacity venue in the city. The tickets went on sale the next morning but we couldn't get any.
Late Monday night they announced they were playing a second night so on Tuesday morning we tried again and after a couple of page refreshes after entering my card details I managed to get two tickets!

They were playing all the songs from their upcoming new album, basically practicing the songs live before they go on tour. Because of this, they specifically stated there would be no phones or cameras allowed inside and you would have to leave them at the door.
As it was close to my work we left our stuff there and headed over around 5.30pm, Heather wanted to be close as normally she struggles to see over tall folk at standing gigs!

The doors opened at 7pm and they were due on at 9pm. We ended up being about the 10th people in line and I wandered around the corner to get some mexican food which we ate in line then we went in and ended up right at the front corner of the stage basically a couple of feet away from the bass guitar every time he swung it round.
The two hour wait inside was pretty painful on the feet and back, old people problems, but once they started it was pretty amazing. So close, so loud and brand new songs!

Of course there was the odd person that smuggled in their phone as there were a couple of pics floating about the internet the next day buy the singer commented that it was amazing to look out and see actual faces and not phones and ipads staring back.

As we were up front we were also lucky enough to come away with one of the guitar picks jettisoned at the end of the gig.

REI has been trying to boost its running business, specifically leaning towards the trail running market. They started a running group and are organising a trail race series, the first of which was last Saturday.

I wasn't planning to do it as it was an hour and a bit drive North at the Blue Mountain Reservation but a couple of other people at work said they were doing it and would drive if I wanted to go so I jumped a the opportunity to get some proper trail practice.

They hadn't really advertised it much on purpose as they wanted to keep it low key as it was their first real attempt at orgainsing a running race. The other races in the series are later in the year.
There was only 40 something in the 10K and maybe 30max in the 5K so of course I hit the front within the first few metres and lead the whole way round, coming home first by a good distance.

The course was good, rough in parts, little climbs, and a good warning reminder to not go off too fast in this upcoming marathon with pacing being more difficult to judge.

The course was a little short at 5.9M but I average a solid 6.50 pace overall and represented work, coming away with a nice silver mug.
Annie from work finished 5th overall and 1st female but they only did awards to the first three across the line so we gave them feedback, maybe something they can think about changing for their next ones!

Four weeks to go!

Still training well, just got over the cold which really only made me miss one of the speed sessions.
Last weeks key weekend workout was 18M with the last 14M of that around 7.30 pace. Felt good during but lay on the sofa absolutely knackered later that afternoon.

Then now that we are outdoors for the speed workouts I stepped onto a running track for the first time in years to do a session. 10x400m with a 200m jog rec. Not much lighting when the sun went down halfway through and light drizzle that turned to rain as we finished but in the absence of the two faster guys I led the pack round in fairly consistent 75 to 72 secs.

One of the hardest workouts I've done in ages, the short recoveries were hell.

A slightly different week this week. On Monday, I went with a couple of colleagues and managers to our off-site warehouse (freight company) storage place in New Jersey and basically did a days tidying up of the entire stock we had there.
This mostly meant throwing fixtures away, taking stock of fixtures left there, finding two pallets of stock we didn't know was there and then lining up a pallet of old backpack hip belts to dispose of  due to a (very stinky) dead squirrel being found inside.

It's getting near to my three year anniversary of arriving to stay in the USA.
Three years ago who'd have thought I'd be sitting on the ground, in a warehouse car park, in New Jersey, eating a Subway sandwich!

Thursday our (flagship) REI store had a big event instore. The US National Parks have their centennial celebrations and REI are a main partner associated with this.
This meant a tidy up before a visit from some various big wigs! Just at the end of my shift we went upstairs and provided the audience for the CEO of REI and the Director of National Parks to make their announcements.

The bad news was I was on the edge of the photo and just got shrunk out, the good news, I was one of a few he shook the hand off. I thought that was a pretty cool thing.

This weekend Heather and I went out for a nice meal then went to the Beacon Theater to see Damien Rice.

Apart from one song where he was joined onstage by fellow Irishman Glen Hansard, plucked from the audience no less, he did the whole concert himself.
Similar to KT Tunstall (& Ed Sheerin) he uses the recording loop effect to make different background sounds and even backing vocals for himself.
Really good gig, really strong voice, one of the best I've seen in ages. The Beacon is a really nice old style theater venue too with comfy seats and plenty of leg room, what we look for now, ha ha.
Even though it has some strange Roman architecture thing going on.

Home late but up this morning to do my latest long run, 17M and I threw in a few random hills along the way as I ran through a lot of small parks.

A productive busy week!

Gig time

On Friday I finished off Bike to Work Week (12th - 16th) by biking into work and making it about 56 miles for the week made up of a 7 mile each-way commute and Monday's couple of laps of the park before home.
On the last day the Transportation Alternatives people had various stations around the city such as on the exit of the Manhattan Bridge where as well as trying to sign people up they dished out free coffee, apples, Kind bars and coconut water.

This picture was obviously taken last year as my Friday, although warm, was cloudy with the prospect of torrential rain later. They also organised a bike party under the Brooklyn Bridge later that night but we had a concert to go to!

We went to Webster Hall on the east side of Manhattan to see Elbow supported by John Grant. Both were really good and the crowd had quite a few British, well English, voices along with some older couples complete with shouts of Manchester and occasionally flying their Lancashire rose flag.

When you see on the forecast is supposed to be 100% chance of rain and it's classed as "thunderstorms" you know you'll get wet at some point.
Around 10.45pm everyone exited the venue anxious to see what it was like outside. Yup, absolutely pissing down with water running down the streets!
Still warm enough for shorts though and now that mild humidity has broken and the weekend forecast is for 20 degrees and sunny. Great for running to work on Sunday to pick up my bike and bag from Friday!

Saturday snow

Friday night we had our soccer playoffs. It was a bit frosty around the pitch and cold on your throat while breathing but good for running about trying to keep warm!

Unfortunately we got beat on penalties in the semi-final.

Then we had escaped so far but the city got a few inches of snow on Saturday.

I went for a late afternoon run in Prospect Park. The lake was mostly frozen and it was great to run in the snow, I love that.

Of course we had a show that night, Queens of the Stone Age at the Barclays Centre. We can take the bus from the bottom of our road right to the venue but it meant standing in a light blizzard for 20 minutes as the bus times were way out probably due to road conditions.

Outside the Barlcays

But it was really good. I love the new album although the crowd seemed very sedate compared to our last visit there to see Pearl Jam.

Then I worked Sunday but because it is soooo busy at work on Saturday/Sunday they provided pizza, sandwiches and crisps for all the staff. Not healthy but it takes a lot of will power not to have a slice... or two.

Gig-tastic

We had the last round of concert visits for a little while.

Last Friday and Saturday we hit up the (reasonably) local Barclays Centre to see our favourites, Pearl Jam! They have been one of both Heather and my favourite bands since they came on the scene around twenty three years ago (nearly to the day) and were one of the factors in us getting together as we mentioned our shared love of them.

We entered the fan club draw for both nights of tickets and were lucky enough to "win" for both nights.
As they are well known for playing different sets each night we were lucky to hear around 66 songs over the course of Friday and Saturday night with only about 10 repeated, mainly stuff from their new album. Nearly three hours shows with no opening band starting at 8.30pm. Excellent.

The best bit was when their large lights descended form the ceiling and they started pushing a few out and then carrying on playing but dodging them as they swung back towards the stage, then Eddie got all angry and climbed up on one and started swinging on it, out over the crowd.

The fan club seats are selected in order of how long you have been in the fan club so for Friday (Heather's) we were in the floor seats and for Saturday we were in the lower bowl for mine.
We got great and different views for both nights which was neat. You could tell the surrounding crowd on the floor were a bit more old school fans than the following days!

The following week I got to visit two new venues for us, Hammerstein Ballroom for Franz Ferdinand on Tuesday and a blast form my past at the Roseland Ballroom to see Simple Minds.

Franz Ferdinand were excellent. The seats were old theatre venue so the view was good but the leg room was about half that of an economy airline! The sound was soooo loud but they were really good.

They finished the set with this amazing drum foursome. 

Simple Minds were a little disappointing if I'm honest. I think the time to see them was probably about twenty five years ago! An old pale white crowd for sure, ha ha.

Midnight at the pop-up shop

In celebration of the release of the new Pearl Jam album Heather and I attended the above pop-up shop on Monday night. I left work just after 10pm and we walked down Broadway, getting there just before 10.30pm. There was already a line! I mean I should've expected that but I thought we'd just rock up before midnight and it might be busy but...

So we waited and waited and just after midnight it opened and the line moved a little. They let about thirty people in and then every so often a few more when people left.

 
As we got closer everyone was watching the people coming out to see what they were getting. They were selling some limited edition t-shirts and also all the merchandise that is going on sale at the two Brooklyn gigs we are attending this weekend. So it was also a chance to get some stuff including the poster without having to worry about getting it at the gig itself.

In the end we got into the store around 1am and stayed 40mins. We got a couple of t-shirts each, the cd and one of the posters.

Don Pendleton, the artist who did the posters and all the artwork for the album was in attendance painting something similar to the poster artwork but everyone entering was told not to speak to the artist, ha ha, and he will not be signing anything!

When we left there were still just as many people in the line waiting to get in. I read a comment from one guy that was one of the last to leave the store at 3.30am!

It was a fun night, everyone was in an excited mood which made up for us not getting to bed until 3am.

4 in a week

As it turns to Fall here, it also seems to be gig season for us. Got a few more coming up that I'm looking forward to but we started last Friday with a trip to the local Barclays arena to see Vampire Weekend.
They sounded great, the set was really clever with a mirror behind the band that reflected the crowd near the front. We also noticed the crowd seemed a little bit collegiate and some were very young indeed. Let's just say there were a lot of guys with baseball caps on backwards.

The very next night we went into Manhattan to see the Stereophonics. Tickets were only $25 for this one. We weren't that enthused about going but again, a smaller venue and they sounded really good. They've gotta be pretty unknown in America so this time the place was full of Brits I guess, with probably New York's Welsh contingent. A couple of Welsh flags and some rowdy folk, at one point there were guys on each others shoulders, three tall!

So that was two late nights where I didn't get to sleep until after 2am and then I ran the Fifth Avenue Mile on the Sunday morning. In some ways I was lucky it was just a mile!

Tuesday night we went to a new venue. The Skirball Centre at NYU (New York University) to see KT Tunstall. It was a really plush small theatre with American width seats, ha ha, I've never sat in theatre seats that wide. All the tickets were the same price but I must have got in there early because, and I'd forgotten this, that we were at the very front, in the centre.

The set was much better than I thought considering the new album is more mellow. But she has good banter with the crowd before every song and does that whole one-woman band thing where she plays sounds like her hand drumming on the guitar or the crowd clapping, recording it, then looping it in the background while she plays the song.

On the second last song, as the lights dimmed, she threw her guitar pick in to the crowd and it kind of fluttered into our row but we couldn't see it. Then as the gig finished she bowed and walked along the front and high-fived our half of the crowd, starting with me!
Then when the house lights came back on and we picked up our bags, we only only went and found her guitar pick (Heather has never heard the word plectrum) under our bags!

The very next night a friend had managed to get tickets to a special album launch gig by Tired Pony in a Housing Works Bookstore, luckily round the corner from work. I left work around 9.50pm and they opened the doors just after 10pm.
I was expecting at least a kind of small hall or a cleared space but it was indeed just a bookshop!
A different type of gig for me and it was amazing. Gary Lightbody mentioned how he loved R.E.M. growing up and how it was amazing enough to play with Peter Buck in the group but even better as he brought up Mike Mills from the crowd to do vocals on one song.
As he left the stage he brushed right past us and then we glanced over and he was only standing at the back beside Michael Stipe!

At the end of the gig Heather asked the nearby guitar tech if she could have his set list. He said he normally keeps them but he gave it to her. Complete with guitar tunings for each song.