Beastie Boys in BKLYN
At $65, tickets were steep, but I figured it was worth it. I had never seen the Beasties when I was a kid, despite having Check Your Head on constant rotation during puberty. Moreover, I was curious to hit a show at McCarren, because due to some slip up The Yeahs were not scheduled to play that week.
The show rocked. The venue sucked.
McCarren Park Pool is easy enough to get to. After the L rolls you to Bedford in Williamsburg, you can feel all fancy and hip as you stroll up to the park. If taking the timely L train has left you thristy, you can stop at Rosemary's Greenpoint Tavern and buy a 160oz Styrofoam cup of shwag beer. The Styrofoam actually conducts heat from your palm and the overcrowded bar acting as a convection mechanism inside the cup. About 30 seconds after your first sip, your PBR is well on it's way toward cooking perfection. This phenomenon has the added bonus of acting as a sterilization method — although hardly necessary given the white glove cleanliness of the bar.
But I digress...
After drinking at the well-stocked, and slightly less annoying Mug's Ale House (whose food looked pretty good too), we were ready to rock.
Doors were at 5:30pm and the show was promised to begin at 7:00pm sharp.
Arriving at the pool entrance around 7:45pm, we were greeted by a massive line extending to the left of the door down the block. Although this line was a few hundred deep, some scouting revealed absolutely no line to the right. You'd think that the fully competent McCarren staff would take a more active roll in corralling traffic, but they were busy confiscating sealed bottle water and umbrellas. Quite kind of them, seeing as it was threatening rain all day. I guess we all should have known umbrellas weren't allowed, as it's listed on McCarren's cutting edge website. Oh wait, it's not.
So we made it in, relieved that the show did not start on time as promised.
McCarren is truly massive. The bulk of the audience stands in the drained pool, facing an erected stage along the far side. You can also stand around edge of the pool. There are local vendors selling hot dogs or perogies or some shit. Also, your only choice of beverage is foul-tasting Brooklyn Brewery beer. In a stroke of genius, the beer-serving process was devised as follows:
1) Be sure to understaff completely incapable servers.
2) Make a ticket system which forces patrons to wait in one massive, non-moving line for ID check and beer ticket purchase. (See #1.)
3) Make a serving system that forces patrons to wait in another massive, non-moving line for beer serving. (See #1.)
4) Be sure to completely mis-stock enough beer for a sold out show of thousands on a warm and humid summer night, ie. ensure that the beer supply will prematurely run out. After all, it would be impossible to assess the situation during the show and send a truck back to the brewery for more kegs, since both the show and the brewery are located in Brooklyn. (See #1.)
Then the show started. I was impressed by the excellent and loud sound. Proving they're still alive, The Beasties played a full 2-hour set which spanned their whole career. I was especially tickled to hear Heart Attack Man (which is funny) and Lighten Up (with it's killer percussion). With fewer and fewer reasons to undergo the hassle of making it out for live music these days, the Beastie Boys really delivered. They skillfully played every song "live" and with variation. In this sense the crowd was treated to a first-time, one-off to remember.
If you care, Modest Mouse and some other bands play there September 9th for the last show of the summer.
