July 31, 2006
McCarren Park Pool: The Beer Situation
Many of us have been enjoying McCarren Park Pool this summer. The Sunday afternoon Pool Parties are free and the music and dodgeball are reason alone to head out there, L or no L.
This weekend we went to our first non-free event at the pool, the Mew/Secret Machines/Bloc Party show. We went for the two openers and left prior to Bloc Party. We've been waiting for the Danish band, Mew, to come to town for two years and they definitely delivered, however both crowd and band were disappointed with the fact that their set only had FOUR songs.
More disappointing, or rather - mind boggling, was what we'll now refer to as "the beer situation". If you have been to the pool, you know it's rather large. Large enough for, say, 5 or more beer serving stations. There are, in reality, TWO beer serving stations. In order to get a beer, you need to first buy a ticket. We noticed only ONE ticket station, which was next to one of the beer stations, thus resulting in a single (very slow moving) giant line that wrapped around itself and a lot of people waiting over 40 minutes to procure a beverage.
The capacity of the venue is around 5500, please add some more stations, get rid of the ticket line...or better yet, make it BYOB.
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that reminds me of that david cross CD bit about being in atlanta and being unsure whether you're in the beer line or the line to get tickets for beer.
OK, I'm slow this morning, but what's the point of making people buy a ticket to buy a beer? Why the middleman?
There are at least three ticket stations for beer (two of them are on the side with the slip-n-slide), and two different bars. (At least during the free Sunday shows.) My gripe is that they should have two lines when you enter: one for folks with bags that have to be checked and one quick-moving one for the bagless.
And no cameras! What BS!!! Bunch of Commie Pinkos.FU Jelly!
Actually, weren't there 3 lines? One for over-21 bracelets, then the ticket line, then the beer line? Or could you get a bracelet in the ticket line? My sister and I stood there for 25 minutes before deciding that it wasn't worth it. I hate it when I want to spend money on some good or service and the vendor makes it soooo difficult that I give up.
Why didn't you stay for Bloc Party, Gothamist?
My gripe is that Clear Channel's spinoff Live Nation is charging $35 plus $10-15 service fees for these concerts in a public park. This must be the most expensive venue in Brooklyn. And Clear Channel/Live Nation already controls the Warsaw next door!
#4/Ethan: JellyNYC (the free shows on sunday) allows cameras, I have no idea what you're talking about.
The beer situation at the free show yesterday was fine. Nobody was hurting for beer - water was a different story. In this horrible heat, why would you make everyone ditch their water bottles on the way in but not even check to see if you had enough water to sell? Even before Of Montreal took the stage, there was no water available within the gates and every ice cream truck patroling the area was sold out of water. If it's people sneaking in booze in bottles, get over it - people will always find a way to do it. If it's for profits - let people bring their water in. They'll run out eventually and have to buy some off you. You can't gamble with dehydration in this weather.
The beer situation Saturday was terrible and disruptive, but on Sunday there seemed to be more capacity. I liked the neighborhood "festival" vibe of the JellyNYC show Sunday much better, and definitely feel that free/low-profit events are the ONLY way that a public park should be used.
thfs, At least at the first Jelly/NYC show, cameras were definitely not allowed. I saw a few people get turned away because they had a camera in their bag. Maybe they changed this policy; it would make sense if they did!
is gothamist now too cool to see bloc party since they were so 2 years ago? the way it's written in the above post sure as hell makes it seem that way. i don't even like bloc party but the way that post reads sure indicates that some music snobbery is afoot.
I've stopped in to 2 of the free shows, and I saw loads of annoying digital camera people, also I've walked in with a big bottle of water with no problems.
My complaint is that the pool has no water in it.
i left pre-bloc party because i had somewhere else i had to be. even if i didn't, i was just much more in to seeing mew, since i had never seen them live and i've been listening to their music for a while.
just preference, no "music snobbery". bloc party is really fun.
Camera's still not allowed, well unless you have a 'press pass'. There was a guy who wasn't gonna let me bring it in, but luckily a one of the female attendants was cool enough to let me slide.
yes, ag, it must've been snobbery. There's no other possible reason why Gothamist could have left early. Let's see maybe gothamist felt ill, maybe gothamist had a family emergency and had to leave, maybe gothamist already had other plans for the evening, maybe gothamist had already seen bloc party six times and didn't need to see them again, maybe gothamist had a horrific argument with their friends and left in a huff... Nope, none of these things are within the realm of possibility, gothamist must be music snobs!
ag...
this lady is the queen of music snobbery. if you're mid level indie garbage you gets no love from jen carlson
ag...
this lady is the queen of music snobbery. if you're not mid level indie garbage you gets no love from jen carlson
have to wait on line for beer?! tragic. really. if you were complaining about water, then that would be a legitimate issue.
Bloc party was "in" 2 years ago?
But, I just bought their "silent alarm" CD last week.
For I am, NERD KING. Not geek or dork but NERD.
Can we please stop refering to Clear Channel as "Live Nation"? They are one and the same. Live Nation employees all have Clear Channel email addresses and the company was created in response to an anti-monopoly lawsuit.
Ok, I'm a different ag than the one who accused jen of music snobbery. I just wanted to know why someone would pay for a relatively pricey concert ticket and then not stay for the main draw. Especially since Mew only played a very short set and Secret Machines were really boring. The other ag should find a different name to post under if s/he is going to be incendiary.
For the Bloc Party show on Saturday, we had three beer stations (the third was in the corner to the left of the stage) and two stations where customers could get a bracelet and beer tickets. This is similar to the setup for the Sunday Pool Parties. We will be adding more for the Live Nation shows.
Rich Nowak
Brooklyn Brewery
Sounds like the $$$ given to Live Nation/Clear Channel isn't going into event planning logistics. I went to a free Sunday show a couple of weeks ago, got free ice cream, hardly waited on line for some food/water, *and* got to slip-n-slide! What happened on Saturday is one more reason to make sure that events & plans for the pool are community (not corporate) run.
The other logistical issue that pissed me off on Saturday was the fact that there were 12 port-a-potties set up for men and only 10 for women. Who does this? The line for the ladies' room is always, always a disaster at shows.
I never counted at the Jelly NYC shows, so I don't know if this is a venue issue or a Clear Channel issue. Why guarantee that the ladies are going to have to spend more time waiting in line?
The alcohol situation at these things is really bad, especially if you've ever been to a similar event in Europe. What's the point of ID-ing every single person that buys alcohol? If the cops busted the place are they seriously going to check 5,000+ people to see if they have ID? Of course not. They should just let the beer sellers make a sensible judgement on whether someone is over 21 or not, thereby cutting down the need for another queue when you get in. Coachella is exactly the same, which is why it'll never be as fun as any European festivals.
It only took me a minute to get a water.
Isn't drinking alcohol in severe heat bad for you anyway? Alcohol dehydrates you.
There were 3 lines: One for a wristband (why this wasn't handled at the door, who knows...)the line was at least 150 people long; one for tickets, and one for beer. I guess they didn't want people to get drink beer.
Good thing the only reason to be there was MEW's half hour set.
The American social scene is centered around alcohol. 9/10 times people get together to drink. Whatever they are doing, if they dont have liquor, they will find liquor, go to liquor, or bring liquor with them.
Yeah, maybe they should change 'Land Of The Free' to 'Land Of The ID'.
The show was pretty expensive, but I would have paid more just to save myself the agony of sitting through Mew and Secret Machines. Ive never heard such boring sets, and I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Mad hipster chicks were doodling and nose picking the whole time. The guy next to me really liked the smoke machines though. Ya gotta love stadium rock!
The show was pretty expensive, but I would have paid more just to save myself the agony of sitting through Mew and Secret Machines. Ive never heard such boring sets, and I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Mad hipster chicks were doodling and nose picking the whole time. The guy next to me really liked the smoke machines though. Ya gotta love stadium rock!
I think Mew played 6 songs. 30 minutes of Mew isn't enough! :( I wouldn't have minded seeing Bloc Party, but I left after Mew since I went to the show just to see them and some of my friends had to leave early.
The beer line was frightening.
The show was pretty expensive, but I would have paid more just to save myself the agony of sitting through Mew and Secret Machines. Ive never heard such boring sets, and I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Mad hipster chicks were doodling and nose picking the whole time. The guy next to me really liked the smoke machines though. Ya gotta love stadium rock!
I'm gonna design a flask that looks like a camera...or vice versa.