Day 21: New York, Pt 2
It has been a busy week for us in The Beths. Some of you out there have might have noticed a conspicuous lack of updates being published on this website, and possibly even started to worry. I would like to reassure everyone that I have still been ordering and eating breakfasts and I am working to catch up on this backlog of tour documentation. While I will do my best to recall the details from our last four days I would like to apologise in advance if I miss any details or get anything wrong; at this point everything has rather turned into a fog of soundchecks and subway journeys. For simplicity’s sake I will employ the pretence that I am writing these updates the day after the event, as per usual, and deploy my opening sentence beginning with the word yesterday; just know that this is in fact a lie, but a necessary one.
Ben
Welcome
Yesterday we played our second show in Brooklyn, New York.
I remember yesterday’s breakfast well because it was a magnificent spread. My morning had begun at our accommodation in Crown Heights, where I had packed my bag for the day and walked the five minutes down to the Utica Ave subway station. Passing my favourite mosaics, I descended to the platform and less than a minute later boarded an A train, marvelling as usual at the convenience and frequency of the public transport system that serves a city with a high population density and luckily some level of forethought from infrastructure planners 130 years ago.
Fifteen minutes later I emerged into the bustle of the financial distract in Lower Manhattan, and found the tallest building in the United States, the One World Trade Centre filling the sky at the end of Fulton Street. The glistening exterior of this 2015 Best Tall Building, Americas winner (at the 2015 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Awards) was a magnificent sight that I quickly bid goodbye to, heading down into the Fulton Street Station and walking straight onto an No. 4 train that carried me up to Union Square, a short walk from my destination. *
I was meeting Jimmy for breakfast, a good friend from back home, now studying at NYU and keen to catch up and try out a Ukrainian Diner of some repute. He was waiting outside when I arrived and we found ourselves a table on the street, getting straight down to the business of figuring out the most crucial items on this dense, multipage menu. We ordered and then spent some time conversing until we were interrupted by a procession of plates which were laid out between us by the friendly waiter. There were several flavours of pierogi for us to try, both fried and boiled, and we shared a vegetarian reuben latke - two homemade potato pancakes topped with house-made sauerkraut, house special dressing, and melted Swiss cheese, served with a side of beet/horseradish salad. I also enjoyed a classic friend egg sandwich on a bread roll which was enhanced with cheddar cheese and kielbasa.
The author prepares to tuck into his meal.
It was good and efficient to consume my entire day’s food in one sitting and I ignored my discomfort as we walked a few blocks to Washington Square Park to sit and enjoy the warmth of the afternoon sun. The park was alive at this time of day with a jazz trio established on one of the walkways and plenty of other buskers around to entertain the university students and other lunchers that chosen this spot for a break in their day. Jimmy had to head to class after a while and I said goodbye and headed to the venue, an easy journey under the East River on the L train that had me arriving in Williamsburg half an hour early for soundcheck.
The entrance to Washington Square Park.
Everyone else trickled in a while later and we had our rehearsal up on stage, still enjoying the novelty of picking up our instruments from where we had left them the previous evening and blasting straight into some playing without worrying about technical issues or time.
Some of you out there might be aware that as well as an accomplished singer, guitarist, and songwriter, Liz Stokes is an excellent trumpet player and I had taken advantage of this fact, recruiting her to play in my band for a tiny show that was happening in Brooklyn in a couple days. After soundcheck we rehearsed our little acoustic duo set in the green room and afterwards were left feeling moderately confident about our impending performance.
Joanna Sternberg was the opener for last night’s show. They are a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from New York, and they present their music in the vulnerable and courageous format of acoustic guitar and voice, sitting alone in the centre of the stage. Joanna’s performance was raw and beautiful, emotional and funny, and they brought a great energy into the room to commence this evening of music listening.
Our second night at Williamsburg Hall of Music was very similar to the first and that was something we were happy about. The crowd were lovely and enjoyed the setlist, a selection of songs that had a few curveballs thrown in for the attendees who were determined enough to endure multiple nights of our show.
I caught public transport home at the end of the night, enjoying the quiet of the late evening subway and the walk that is a gentle way to wind down after a long day.
*Tricky sentence alert. Read slowly and carefully.