Live at the McCarren Park Pool. Crowd anticipation.
The crowds, the smells, the sponsors, the slip n' slide, the dodgeball, the heat... The general soggy, windy and damp weather (featuring some of the biggest lightning and gusts we've witnessed since last Wednesday's hail and torrential downpours here) made for an interesting and sloppy Sunday afternoon show featuring Brooklyn-based MGMT, Black Moth Super Rainbow (PA locals playing one of a very few dates in a close locale this summer) and London's The Ting-Tings at McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg/Greenpoint in Brooklyn, NYC, If you've never been to the pool to swim, or for a free concert or movie; imagine an empty pool about 3 NYC blocks wide and deep, and then imagine this pool filled with people instead of water. A big chunk of this year's more interesting concert schedule dates have been arranged by local group JellyNYC, bringing together national sponsors (Converse, Dell, TopShop, Dewars and Fuse) and local vendors alike (Two Boots, Ice Cream Man) to help them support the continuing FREE events throughout the summer. There are only a few left with the next event featuring Dearhunter, Black Lips, and the brilliant King Khan & His Shrines, before the city gets ready for construction to return the pool to it's previous swimming glory.
The Ting-Tings bringing it home.
Jules and Katie; wind-blown. The Ting-Tings.
The Ting-Tings are always great fun to watch live, and Sunday was no exception. Katie and Jules worked the crowd into an excited frenzy in the inclement weather (wind, rain, lightning, thunder--insurance, anyone?), and with the wind and rain whipping Katie's hair as she stomped across the stage fists up in the air, guitar at the ready; it seemed like nothing would ruin her performance as she tirelessly showed us who was boss on stage.
Black Moth Super Rainbow; playing for Russell Simmons?
Black Moth Super Rainbow are always an interesting mix of sludgy-psych and robotic sounds with vocoded vocals melting into the mix. Seeing the group live, the bass player and drummer are the most interesting people to watch working their instruments. But the crowd seemed a bit restless after a while (having been soaked, and waiting for two hours for the event to begin), and the stage seemed to swallow the band up after watching 3/4 of their set. Unfortunately, it was simply a long day, although Black Moth Super Rainbow played some great tracks "Zodiac Girls", "Drippy Eye", "Forever Heavy" and "Sun Lips" from their third album "Dandelion Gum" and their forthcoming EP for November, "Drippers". The band seem to still be working on material for a fourth album, and will hopefully have their new material for this ready in 2009.
MGMT made their first appearance since February, and performed more like a band jamming out loosely to their songs on stage rather than one trying to reach a peak of perfection for each number, and they played off of eachother well. We would even go so far as to say that they "brought the funk" to their eclectic sound. Songs like "Pieces of What", "Weekend Wars", "Of Moons, Birds and Monsters" work extremely well live, with lead singer and guitarist Andrew VanWyngarden playing the baby-faced front-man with aplomb. "Electric Feel" was the most easily cheered-after track, but didn't match up to it's recorded self when it came to the vocals live. The band ended their exciting late afternoon set with "Kids" after a nearly endless jam.
Click here for Girl About Town's live photos from the show, and for more upcoming Sunday JellyNYC shows, check out the McCarren Park Pool web site.
McCarren Park Pool - web site
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