The Jersey Shore, and NYC, tour report #4

9-23-05 3:24pm, Arturo
This notebook has been in the car since we unloaded in NJ. The show there was great. We got to Long Branch early so we headed out to the beach that was only 2 blocks away. I didn't go in but it was great to stand there on the edge of the deep green sea, as our dear friend Robert Smith would say. Hartfield and Airiel were followed by the unstoppable force that is known to the world as Mau Mau Tsunami. They were fronted by the Brighton Bar's Jacko really loved my visuals and I was honored to get such a compliment. Basically, Airiel and I rocked, then we got rocked. Some other band played between Airiel and Mau Mau Tsunami but they were very forgettable. Mau Mau Tsunami plays old school hardcore, and they do it well. Very well. Cory and I got drunk and skanked up front in our own little mosh pit. Then the screaming started. Jacko yelled a call and response of "Bullshit!!" into the mic passing it back to us one by one to respond "BULLSHIT!!!!". It was only the third date but damn did we need to get rocked like that.
We drove into NYC at like 3am, while I drunk texted people in Chicago. I'm sure I made them smile as much as they made me smile. When we got to Brooklyn, we arrived at the space of A Place To Bury Strangers. Oliver their singer, guitarist, custom pedal maker (death by audio) was our host. He was awesome, friendly, and always smiling. He promptly took us out for a beer after our arrival.
The next day we met with some new friends who we met through Yuka (Jeremy's girlfriend who is joining us the rest of the way on tour). BJ, Dave, and John were great tour guides and took us to Ground Zero, which was very impressive and intense once you get to think of what actually happened there. It looked like a big construction site now. After that we got drinks at a cute small bar in the Lower East Side. To get there, we walked through Chinatown and Little Italy which was having the San Gennaro Festival seen in the movie Mean Streeets. Chris and I wanted a snack so we went over to Ray's Pizza for a snack. NYC pizza has weird sliced sausage not the small chunks typically known as sausage. This was cut like pepperoni. Weirdos. Either way, it's hard to meet a slice of pizza I don't like. We then walked (everybody walks in NYC) to get Japanese food in St. Marks which is an awesome neighborhood and it was a really good restaurant. We then walked to another bar where my old friend Scott came to visit us. As always it was so nice to see him and we laughed about how we're seeing each other all over the country. Since March, we've hung out together in San Francisco, Chicago, and now NYC. Where next??
The next bar we went to was Lit. They had a great britpop DJ who played Airiel and Hartfield to the joy of each band's members who were there. Taka gave him a sticker and John went over to say hello and thank him. We bonded over Panic and britpop and he played my requests.
To end the night, we took a cab back to Brooklyn and Cory, Chris and I went on to 2 more with the guys from A Place To Bury Strangers. I was so tired I left my camera behind at the first bar, Iona. I recovered the bag the next day after the bartender saw it and placed it in the basement for safe keeping. At the second and final bar of the night, we met a Polish immigrant who's been here in the states for 6 years named Darius. He loves Duran Duran and music in Poland in the 80's was beautiful. It had heart and feeling. He overstayed his welcome after we folded up his chair and placed it against the wall. We were outside. He didn't even notice the obvious gesture and came back and opened the chair and sat down. One of the guys, a photographer, took his picture. Darius' lady friend asked if I was a Chicago cop because of the shirt I was wearing and I gave the best drunken, exhausted run-around comment I could. I wonder if she bought it. Maybe she thought I'd bust her for doing business. She had a cowboy hat, a body like mine in a way-too-tight dress and had a Polish immigrant on her lap on a Wednesday at a Brooklyn bar at 3:30am. They met earlier that night. I love NYC.