Fiona (Ex-Coolies) had responded to my desperation email, and as she does for most kiwis in NYC, offers to host us for a few nights, so after exhausting Martin’s hospitality we head over to her and her husband BJ’s apartment. While I stayed back at Fiona’s place and did more crazy emailing, managing to sell all our backline through craigslist.com – the US version of tradme.co.nz, Fiona took the boys into Manhattan and gave them a tour of Times Square, The spot John Lennon was shot, Letterman etc… Me and Sally just ate some more Pizza.
The night after our show Die! Die! Die! Were playing at a free outdoor festival with Wire. We head down to watch it and really enjoyed Die Die Dies set, it was really awesome to see them playing to a couple of thousand people in another country. I really didn’t want to watch Wire as I am a big fan and I went to Auckland a few years ago to see them just after the reformed and they were so crap, it was only recently I finally started listening to them again, however, against my better judgement I watched them…and well, looks like the Wire records are going to the back of the closet for another couple of years. Stefan from Pumice was also staying with Fiona and us and lamented with me on the bitter disappointment of watching a great band play a shocking set.
Die! Die! Die! in NYC
Everything you hear about NYC is true. The drivers are impatient idiots who spend ALL day honking. Even when you know its coming, you cannot prepare for it. Driving around Manhattan is absolutely insane. A band we played with in Des Moine warned me about parking letting me know how they had received $600US in parking tickets while in NY. I hadn’t received one single parking ticket all over the US so far, so was pretty confident, but made sure I kept an eye on it anyway. Over the 4 days in NY I racked up $195 in fines. Basically, if you park in the city you WILL get tickets. Seriously…each time I got a ticket I was less then 10-15 minutes over the time on the meter, and unlike NZ where they give you fines on a sliding scale of time over, and it starts at only $12, in NYC they immediately issue you a $65 beast.
Sally saved my sanity in NYC, I was close to exploding so many times, there is nothing worse then stressing out, dealing with crap and then getting back to the car and having a massive ticket waiting for you, but having Sally there really helped me keep it level.
NYC is really going off all the time. It is ridiculously awesome and really, if you are going there on tour, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to party…there really are parties happening everywhere, at anytime, The OTA boys totallydid the NYC thing, went to several rooftop, flat, and apartment parties over the couple of days we were in NYC (photos below) as well as Fiona taking the on a classic NYC tour of times square, the John Lennon memorial, Letterman etc..
The boys with Fiona and BJ
Some Party
By the last day I had managed to sort most things out and it was a happy coincidence that we happened to be there at the same time as an absolutely awesome party at a place in Brooklyn called Goodbye Blue Monday. It was a free, day long festival with bands playing indoors and out. BJ whom we were staying with was playing a set with his band “Puttin on the Ritz”, who do like punk, offkilter, improv, spastic jams of showtunes and classic swing numbers. It was perhaps the freshest thing I’ve seen in a longtime. The band were hilarious, I was totally enthralled the entire set, and their set will remain one of my fondest memories of America… there is some youtube footage that goes a little way to captuiring the moments here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zE8xNnOJE54
There were two other fantastic bands at this festival as well, USA is a Monster and Big A Little A (Aa) I was standing ontop of a table to watch the Aa set…very fun band, kinda like Pig Out but totally crazy, with two drummers. At the end of their set I tried to step off, but made a total spectacle in what can only be described as the most incredible Hollywood fall. I think Sally described it best in her bulk email here: “his chair tipped over and his legs flipped out over his head, nearly kicking a girl in the face and a dude in the crotch. He went crashing down in a really spectacular way, narrowly missing all the sharp metal objects sticking out everywhere. Chair went flying across the room. In typical Ian-style everyone was giving him high-fives and congratulating him on such a stylish maneuver.”
USA is a Monster at Goodbye Blue Monday
On the last day, Jordan from the band Polka Dot Dot met me in NYC to buy the car off me. It was Sunday and the DMV was closed so we couldn’t do the paperwork, he just gave me the money and I gave him the vehicle, we worked out that we would just do the paperwork whilst I was overseas as he didn’t need the car for a few weeks. Turned out to be one of the stupidest mistakes I have made in my life…more soon.
The guys had an awesome time in NYC, they wouldn’t stop going on about it. I pretty much spent 5 days on the internet, ate some Pizza with Sally and saw a few bands…kinda like my life in Wellington.