Sunday Afternoon in Williamsburg: Delorean at the Last 2010 Pool Party at East River State Park

We were tired after a little too much beach this morning and early afternoon, but naps - which we only learned to take after we hit 57 - are good, and we thought we'd stroll over to the last Pool Party of 2010 (itself barely rescued from cancellation) just to catch one band's set.

Luckily, we got there around 4 p.m. when Delorean was just coming on. They're really superb, even on a blisteringly hot day like today. As Pitchfork wrote in reviewing the band's new album Subiza, released in the spring:

Delorean helped define the bright, beachside vibe of last summer's indie landscape, but they also deserve to be placed in a broader context. On their new album, Subiza, the Spanish four-piece deploys the build-and-burst tempos of 90s house and techno music, and they do so explicitly, never shying away from arms-in-the-air piano bridges or incandescent raves.

This music is proudly informed by the resiliency and vigor of classic club music, and its title (named after the Basque town in which the album was recorded) recalls the famously nightclub-centric Ibiza and the Balearic dance music that originated there.

What surprised us today was how easy it was to get into East River State Park. We remember the old days of the McCarren Pool, when we sometimes couldn't get in (like to MGMT) or had to wait in line for half an hour or more. Even at the waterfront, there were some long lines along Kent Avenue last year.

But we actually got berated for not going in faster before the few people ahead of us. "Sir! You have no bag! Go right in!" the security guard snapped.

Just before Delorean - guitarist Guillermo Astrain, drummer Igor Escudeo, keyboardist Unai Lazcano, and bassist/vocalist Ekhi Lopetegi - came on, when there were DJs on stage, we stood in pretty much the middle of the midway before the stage and there was nobody within about thirty or forty feet around us.

And we had put on fresh deodorant after our post-beach shower. We swear!

Delorean was really killing it, but the mood - and maybe it's easy for us, two generations older than most of the audience to misread this - seemed weirdly subdued.

Maybe it was just so sultry that even the dancing and volleyball seemed desultory.

We still think that given how excellent the band was, there would have been more people there and more excitement and energy at the old McCarren Pool circa 2006 or 2007.

It probably got a lot more vibrant once we left for our old folks' early bird special.

Anyway, it looks like next year's Williamsburg Waterfront Pool Parties will be different.

The Open Space Alliance has been talking in the press about "more varied programming" (read: for non-hipsters).

Change is inevitable - hey, our mom entered a nursing home last night, which is freaking us out even though she's had Alzheimer's for many years - and anyone who's lived two weeks in Brooklyn knows nothing stays the same.

We're grateful we saw Delorean.

And we look forward to next year's Pool Parties, whatever they may be like.

Sunday Evening at the Williamsburg Waterfront: No Pool Party at East River State Park

Due to the severe thunderstorm, this week's Pool Party with Cap'n Jazz et al. was moved from East River State Park to the Brooklyn Bowl.

After the rain, it got much cooler and drier, we were eager to get out of the house. Though we would have loved to see Cap'n Jazz, it was beautiful at the park anyway.

Sunday Afternoon in Williamsburg: Fang Island and Pictureplane at East River State Park's First 2010 Pool Party

We got to the first of the 2010 Williamsburg waterfront pool parties at East River Park pretty early and hung out for the first two opening acts, Fang Island and Pictureplane.

It was a really nice day with lots of hipsters out, and improvements have been made in the venue since last year.

Most obviously, as we noted at the Fear No More show, the new, bigger, sturdier stage has been moved to near Kent Avenue. This loses the romantic backdrop of the river and skyline when you're watching the performers but gains a lot of open space by the shoreline and just generally makes more sense.

Also, maybe the new stage won't collapse.

The new, innovative entrance procedures were modeled after TSA's at JFK's JetBlue Terminal 5.

A big deal, though hardly of interest to us teetotalers, was the new, bigger, improved, much more people-friendly beer garden for those with yellow tags on their wrists.

There were lots of things going on. Vans was making custom T-shirts and tossing them away for free as they were hot from the presses or whatever.



It wasn't deadly-hot, but it was humid, and this cool mister fan at the Vitamin Water booth chilled these little kids, a lot of sweaty hipsters and us.

Early on, there was a short wait for the water to stop being as hot as the pool partiers.

The dodgeball has been moved to a smaller cage near the river, making it feel more confined, open and intense for the athletic masochists.

And how about this innovation? ATM machines! No bank affiliation, just the high-fee ones we first spotted on Bedford Avenue, well, it seems like decades ago.

There was food for carnivores. And for thinking people, too.

Pictureplane is the stage name of the Denver-based 26yo electronic musician Travis Egedy, who first made a name for himself at the warehouse where he also lives, Rhinoceropolis. His 2009 album, Dark Rift, got some good reviews.

When Pitchfork's Amy Phillips caught his set at SXSW, she had this to say: "Pictureplane reminds me of that time in high school in the mid-1990s when all the punks I knew suddenly turned into ravers."

Treble named Pictureplane's Dark Rift its album of the week and wrote:

Those in need of a dance record that emphasizes the bizarre without sacrificing beats or soul need look no further than Dark Rift. Pictureplane's approach is disorienting and grimy, but just so carefully measured as to provoke the senses without completely blowing them out. Dark Rift might just keep this freaky and freakish summer going all year long.

And he did have people dancing this one summer afternoon.

The next performance came from Fang Island is the Brooklyn-based, Providence-formed band made up of guitarists Jason Bartell, Chris Georges and Nicholas Andrew Sadler, bassist Michael Jacober, and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. Andrew Sadler, bassist Michael Jacober, and drummer Marc St. Sauveur. Their self-titled debut album on Sargent House was released in February.

Pitchfork called "Daisy" - to us, their best song of a nice set today - "deliriously infectious. . .", an emphatic crossbreed of the Go! Team and the Promise Ring's "Is This Thing On?" The dance routine in the song's video feels like the only natural reaction to hearing it."

Consequence of Sound's review of their album asked,

[I]s Fang Island worthy of your unexpected attention? Damn right it is. If I were allowed to write a one-word review, it would read: Exhuberant. Trust me, you know you have heard this kind of enthusiasm before and it always comes across as special. Think The Unicorns, The Go! Team, or Andrew W.K. Fang Island come across a notch above enthusiastic, inspiring images of someone carrying the Olympic torch up a mountain, planes landing in Top Gun, a badass fatality in a Mortal Kombat tournament, a party montage that involves lots a beer spilling and men hugging each other.

Wandering around the park, we wondered if the old McCarren Pool feels lonely on summer Sundays.

There was, as always, interesting stuff to look at besides onstage. The view is more gorgeous than ever without the rickety old stage to block it.

A lot of people had a lot of other people to look at.

And with Veoba joining Jelly as the people behind the pool parties, the old blue JellyNYC thin balloon guys are gone. Miss them much?

As usual, we were the oldest man there not running for re-election to the United States Senate. (We are, however, currently running for running for the House of Representatives.)

We saw two of our students from the School of Visual Arts from 2007 separately and then together and it only took us two hours to recall their names were Zach and Nigel, both good animators.

By the time we were leaving, around 4 p.m., there was a large crowd of hipsters, hipsters, hipsters.

We didn't stay, of course, for the excellent band Why? but we don't have to answer the question for you. And we missed Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof, whom we've seen before and know were great doing the songs from Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures,

but we heard the originalf about, oh, 31 years ago.

For comprehensive coverage, better pics and more informed commentary on today's Pool Party, see the intelligent posts by Eric Rex at King of the Gigabitches, Jason Glastetter at ...The End of Irony, and Sheena Beaston.

Sunday Evening in Williamsburg: Kent Avenue Crowd Outside the Final 2009 East River State Park JellyNYC Pool Party, Listening to Grizzly Bear

Around 6 p.m. we moseyed over to East River State Park after remembering today was the last pool party of 2009. We weren't sure we could get in, but we figured we might be able to hear Grizzly Bear. After all, at the McCarren pool, we enjoyed hearing some groups, such as MGMT, over the past few years even when we couldn't get in.

What we didn't expect was the massive crowd of hipsters who'd shown up and either were wary of waiting on the long line on Kent Avenue to get into the park or just decided it was fun enough to wander up and down the street.

It was like an Easter parade for hipsters. Nobody seemed particularly angry. Nobody was grousing or growling. It felt festive.

The cops were on bullhorns and even in a police van rolling down Kent Avenue (closed off for traffic) imploring people to get out of the street and onto the sidewalks. The cop in the police van kept telling people to get on line if they wanted to get in to the park and get drunk and see Grizzly Bear.

The cop even smiled and waved to the kids hanging out on the sidewalk.

Actually, the line was long but it was moving.

People who'd been there all day were coming out little by little despite Grizzly Bear. Maybe some people were tired or just don't like Grizzly Bear.

There were pizza deliveries to the crowd sitting on the sidewalk on the east side of Kent Avenue by the vacant new condos.

Dig in! It's Fornino's best!

These people are too young to know about sit-in strikes, right?

Or "up against the wall, motherfuckers"?

There was lots of texting going on, quite a bit of cigarette smoking, and yeah, some people were listening to the music, which was surprisingly clear, even as far away as Wythe Avenue.

Anyway, some of us on Kent Avenue enjoyed ourselves immensely. If you can have a pool party without a pool, why do you need a park? And don't we see enough of Chuck Schumer, Beyonce and Jay-Z without having to look at them in person?