august 20

as far as days spent in brooklyn go, yesterday was tops. i got back from boston round about 2:30 and made it to my new hostel--and by hostel, i mean a ymca that rents rooms--around 3:30. the ymca is in greenpoint (down the street from the apartment i had to check out) which is a mostly polish neighborhood north of williamsburg and on the river bordering manhattan. and it's polish to the point that many streets have only polish signs on them. but it's a cool place--very lively, lots of things to do, and a short walk to great coffee shops and whatnot. and now i have a reason to figure out what a pierogi is.


after seeing the apartments and wandering around the area, i headed over to the oft discussed williamsburg to spend my first significant amount of time there. it didn't disappoint.  there were, it's true, oh so many hipsters on fixed gears. but also some great thrift stores and fruit stands and cool looking bars. at one point i wandered into a record store i happened upon (academy records) and, as i'm likely to do when i wander into a record store, wandered out with an lp--the jam's this is the modern world. but, on my way out, i happened to ask the cashier if they were hiring. predictably he said no, but he did tell me it's worthwhile to drop off an application because "everyone is always on the verge of being fired." i thought it was a strange thing to say. until i realized that both he and his coworker were openly knocking back beers as they worked. he even had a tall boy--because twelve ounces just isn't enough when you have to sell records all day.


i left the store in an attempt to find death by audio, a venue that was hosting the a place to bury strangers show that night that i was determined to go to. now, the back story behind this space is worth explaining. death by audio is a company that makes effects pedals, founded by oliver ackermann, who also happens to be the frontman for a place to bury strangers (you can imagine how loud and distorted their music is if you think about the fact that their frontman specializes in making pedals). the venue is actually just the factory where they make the pedals that they decided to start hosting shows in. as an effect, the place is on kind of any empty block in williamsburg by the river and there is no indication of what it is. predictably, it's not really legal--they don't really have any permits to host shows, nor sell the alcohol that they do, etc. so, all those pesky laws you normally have to follow--don't bring your own beer, don't smoke inside, etc.--are just kind of ignored. 


but if you go through the trouble of finding it, oh god is it worth it. the place is small and has a biblical good and evil, sin and temptation painting of multiple mickey mouses (mickey mice?) behind the stage. the first band was from montreal and went by no joy. the frontwoman was one of the nicer people i've ever met at a show. the second band--a sort of no age-ish band of noisy guitar followed by thrashing guitar over looped vocals--was called weekend and they were spectacular. a place to bury strangers' set was predictably loud and raucous and worth the damage to the ear. the set ended in such a haze of feedback and fog and strobes that i just barely made out the fact that instead of diving into the crowd, ackermann just tossed his guitar in and stayed on stage. this is the kind of thing that i want to do every night.