I want to start this throwback post with an even older tangent. It’s 2004 and I am going to art school in Richmond, VA. In my free time I am managing this two man dance pop band called The Gaskets. They are one of the biggest bands in Richmond, but they have just about zero following anywhere else. So when we got a slot on this electronic music showcase in NYC we couldn’t have been more excited about the opportunity.
We drive up to NYC the night before the show and stay with my friends in downtown Brooklyn. The next day we jump on the subway and see some movies or whatever we did, it was 20 years ago, my memory is a bit hazy. But what I do remember is that when we get back to Brooklyn, our car is gone. Apparently we parked too close to a hydrant and got towed. We have to be at this show and their one instrument, a Yamaha RM1X sequencer, is locked in the truck of the car. Turns out our car is at the impound lot at the Navy Yard and it’s gonna cost $250 to get it out, and that doesn’t include the ticket. The lot closes in in less than an hour. We don’t think we are going to make it but we get on the Subway and get down there as soon as we can. I can only imagine what it looked like to locals when they see three hipsters absolutely sprinting through a pretty bad neighborhood trying to get there before the lot closes. I think we actually got there slightly after it closed but we somehow managed to get it out anyway.
When we get to the show it’s in the basement of the Delancey. There might be 25 people there max. The show was pretty fun anyway. These days when you hear electronic music you are probably thinking EDM, but this was a lot of supremely weird noise acts and the kind of rappers that are more influenced by jam bands than hip hip. The Tom Tom Club because their son was performing. My friend Luca, aka Drop the Lime/ Curses also played that night, but I didn’t we didn’t become friends until years later. There was another artist there who would hit play on his laptop and then just kinda run around the crowd. I didn’t get it at all. He went by the name Girl Talk.
A year later The Gaskets get asked to play this big art party in Richmond. Half gallery, half show at one of the bigger venues in the city. Not a lot of local acts could headline there, maybe us, Municipal Waste and Avail so we just sort of assumed The Gaskets were the headliner, but when the flyers went up, Girl Talk was headlining. I was legitimately pissed. Not only were we not headlining, but we were opening for some guy who played other people’s music and just ran around the club. I didn’t get it. We almost dropped off the bill. But when that night came I finally understood what Girl Talk was all about.
Girl Talk doesn’t make sense when there are 20 people in the crowd, but when there are hundreds, it is absolute chaos. I have photographed him a half dozen times and his shows are more fun than probably any other DJ although he used to have t-shirts that said I’m Not A DJ so maybe I shouldn’t call him a DJ. But whatever the case he’s so much fucking fun live.
Okay, now, after all that, we finally get to these photos that I am re-uploading. We go back in time to summer 2009 and the infamous Jelly NYC Pool Parties are on the Williamsburg waterfront, which I guess is now Domino Park. These parties were always a blast, but they also brought out a bunch of randos and as someone who was very serious about being a hipster, they were a little to basic or something for me. I pretty sure that’s a joke, but I would always rather be in some small bar than outside at festival or something. That being said the Jelly parties were legendary.
Going back through my original blog post apparently it started raining in the middle of the show and that’s why I started shooting the crowd more than the actual performance. I was trying to protect my camera a bit and there was as much chaos in the crowd as on stage. People were pushing through trying to get on stage to join the fun. A bunch of photographers were up there too, ruining my shots so the crowd was the better option anyway. Nothing annoys me more than photographers getting in the way of the show. Stop making that shit about you. The only exception if if you are working directly for the artist or the event, and even then, get your shots and get out of the way.
Anyway, the show was still a blast and after the show I ran into a bunch of friends. Man I miss just knowing people wherever I went. RIP Curtis. A few of us went over to Brooklyn Bowl for the after party. I honestly just went because Brooklyn Bowl had pretty damn good food and I wanted some BBQ but I did take a some photos there too that are at the end of this gallery.
These photos really capture a moment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You can just see the beginning of the end of the short time period where it was the center of cool. The waterfront is still there but apartment buildings were going up where there were factories. The Jelly NYC parties were still happening but they were no longer at McCarren park pool. The crowd was becoming less hipster, and more finance bro. You can just see it changing in these photos.
Okay, once again I have written 1000 words for no reason. I need to make these shorter and sweeter so I can do them more often, but I like writing and hopefully a few people are getting something out of this stuff. Hopefully I will be back soon but in the meantime enjoy some photos from August 2009.
