concert review

This past Sunday I finally attended one of McCarren’s Pool parties. I had previously avoided the place because I kept hearing negative comments regarding this summer’s shows. One in particular was MGMT, which according to more than one person (probably the majority of the people who attended), was horribly organized and far too packed. Apparently some people were waiting in line for hours and did not even get through the door.

Luckily for me this was not case on Sunday afternoon. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I arrived at McCarren expecting a mass of profusely sweating, smelly people but instead walked into a relatively empty venue, and by empty I mean having room to walk around without bumping into another person every two seconds. So that was a plus. The first opening band (Panther) had already played their set so Chin Chin was on by the time I waltzed in.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear a funky drumbeat and a groovy bass line coming from the stage. Laugh all you want (all my friends seem to), but I am a fan of Ska and therefore the trumpets used by Chin Chin brought out the closet skank-er inside of me. Without being too extraordinary (that would have been too much of a good thing considering the fact that I could stretch my legs and remain dry at the same time - the pool has seen some serious rain this past summer), they maintained the crowd entertained with their mixture of rock, R&B, and 70s disco until Aesop Rock took the stage with El-P.

Aesop definitely seemed pleased to be playing in Brooklyn going as far as stating that Sunday’s show was one of the highlights of his career (which took me by surprise since McCarren is far from a perfect venue). But nonetheless it was nice to see a grateful artist for once. He kept the crowd bumping with classics like “Daylight” and newer songs from last year’s None Shall Pass. The words were a bit blurred by the speakers but DJ Big Whiz made a point to the lay down the law; I especially enjoyed his solo towards the end of the show.

I don’t attend many rap shows but Aesop, to me at least, is something more than the average rap show. Though the actual performance did not equate to a musical revelation per se it was definitely worth a trip into Greenpoint. And hey, it was totes free!