Day 17: New York, NY
Welcome
Yesterday we taped a performance for CBS Mornings, and played a sold-out show at Brooklyn Steel.
We woke up in Brooklyn. Golden Sparkle Face had been through the bus-wash at some point overnight and was looking particularly fresh. They would remain parked outside our venue while we took a shuttle into Manhattan. The morning appointment we were headed to was a filmed performance for CBS Mornings’ Saturday Sessions at their studio in Midtown.
We battled traffic for the best part of an hour before arriving at the corner of 45th and Broadway, right in the heart of the theatre district. Wicked, the musical was just down the street, and right below the CBS studio The Lion King musical was playing.
As we disembarked from our van we were met by a CBS page who guided us into the building and briefed us on the procedures we would be dealing with. The first was getting a covid test; these were administered by a health worker in the lobby who had an array of machines for generating the test result. While we awaited our fates the page guided us to a couple of couches, set in front of two screens that displayed a highly stimulating Nickelodeon ad repeating on a fifteen second loop.
The colour orange still burned in the back of my brain as we were led to our green room. On arrival I couldn’t comprehend the decor in there. Jake described it as Sex and the City. There was a decent breakfast spread waiting for us though from which I enjoyed a pot of oatmeal topped with syrupy pecans, raspberries, blueberries, and boysenberries. While we ate our food the page came and collected our shirts to take to the steaming guy.
Next we were taken to the studio to set everything up. The decor there took me by surprise, too. Our album artwork was plastered up on huge screens across every wall and this was augmented by lights and panels of similar hues. In a surprise twist we also accidentally wore clothes that belonged to this colour scheme.
Our shirts had been returned to us in a much improved condition so we donned them in preparation for the taping. There were a huge amount of people involved in the taping process. Four or five cameramen, several people to move the cables around, audio engineers, the director and staff in the control room, plus the many helpers that carry things around and show you where to go.
We did three takes of the first song. The first was a rehearsal so the cameramen could plot their movements. Then another one where they didn’t quite nail it. The third one they were happy with, and so were we. As we sustained the final chord of the song the cameramen all began clapping. It was a sparse applause and it was sustained for an awkwardly long time, at least twenty seconds, as we stood there smiling.
We completed the second song in only two takes, and same with the third. Both were followed with the same sparse claps.
Afterwards while we waited for our transport back to Brooklyn I took in the billboards in what I think was Times Square, but it wasn’t really a square, just an intersection.
Possibly Times Square.
The exterior of Brooklyn Steel, with Jack White’s grafiti in the forground.
Brooklyn Steel is an 1800 capacity venue set inside a former steel manufacturing plant in East Williamsburg. The building itself is a huge brick cuboid with a stage at one end and balconies at the other. As we looked out during soundcheck this room seemed immense. Later in the evening it was packed with the largest American audience we have performed to. We had a lot of great friends attending this show so it felt nice to play for some familiar faces as well as a bubbling sea New Yorkers.
If you sell out a night at Brooklyn Steel they give you a nice cake with cherries, and a congratulatory note printed on luscious card in a stylish but readable Arial CAPS font.
Last night I finally managed to get to a decent vantage point and capture a usable video of some of Sidney Gish’s performance. She has been opening all the shows this tour with a captivating set of her intelligent and catchy songs, constructed solo with loop pedals and drum machine.