Hunting the Bird

It’s jazz night for us in The Big Apple so Debbie, Lily-Rose and I walk along 44th Street, through Grand Central Station and past Times Square where it's getting busier and busier. The Birdland venue is what you imagine a NYC jazz club to be with lots of photos on the walls. We’ve booked a table which is above the stage so a great view of the band, Artemis, who are five women and play a great mix of what I’d think of as classic jazz with a few weirder bits and a fair few solos. I won't try to describe the music further as I'm not a jazz expert. A lovely atmosphere and the evening passes quickly. After that we wander back home through the thronging streets and gridlocked roads.

Purgatory in Brooklyn

Debbie and I are in New York and she’s found a great looking gig in a great looking venue. We’re staying in East Mid Town Manhattan so we get the metro out to Wilson Avenue in Brooklyn then a short walk to the Purgatory venue. There’s a trendy looking lot hanging around outside in a venue provided wooden open shack type thing. It’s a lovely quirky bar in a standalone building with a young trendy crowd and friendly woman behind the bar. It’s billed as “when heaven is full, and hell is just too damn hot! queer bar / venue” and I can’t describe it better. We get seats at the bar which seem to be reserved for us as the gig venue is upstairs and every time we come back down to the bar they are free. After a drink we go upstairs to the smallish venue but it never gets crowded, which is a shame for the bands but nice for us punters. Kai Weinkauf is the name of the front man and band name playing a great set on the poppy side of indie which has a New York feel harking back to late 70s New Wave rather than hard punk. It’s a great start to the evening. Back downstairs we order another drink and I ask our friendly bar server what the 2 shots are that a couple have just necked, as in 2 shots each. The locally invented Pickleback is explained to us which is a shot of American whiskey chased by a pickle juice shot. Sounds hideous so we give it a go with our bar server insists on buying for us despite me saying that we should buy one for her as her hourly rate is $10 which doesn’t go far in New York. She joins us for the pickle shot which seems to be the raw end of the bargain. There’s a pretty decent DJ downstairs who’s working her way through a list of British girl bands of the 1990s. I think with all that excitement we miss Sharkswimmer as when we go back up Human Fade are about to come on with an extended tuning up which to be honest makes them sound slightly psychedelic as they do for the between song interludes. Their main songs are a hard rap rock type affair recalling RATM or RHCP. They show a lot of enthusiasm and are very happy to be here tonight. They are New York through and through and sound great after a couple of drinks and a Pickleback. Last up are Canadians Customer Service who tell us they had to drive 16 hours to get to us which shows a real willingness to share their music with us New Yorkers. They play an excellent set of rockish shoegazeish indie that gets into a great groove and gets at least a few of the crowd nodding appreciatively and even a bit of jigging about. Not much as this is shoegaze country. After the headliners we wander back to the metro and get as far as Grand Central Station. As it’s raining and a bit of a walk we catch an iconic yellow taxi back home, well, it’s a classic thing to do to catch a yellow cab late at night isn’t it and written about and in all the best novels, filmscripts and reviews of NYC – as this will be seen in time.