Maria and I arrived at the East River waterfront on a ridiculously beautiful Saturday afternoon. The event was a NY Magazine BBQ with Islands. It was held at the Solar One stage which is basically a little building with a huge solar paneled roof and a stage built off the back. There were more than enough rays that afternoon to keep the juice moving I think.
We spent a little while getting the lay of the land, which wasnt very hard as the whole even took place in a small area right on the promenade. We checked out the food, which looked delicious, the corn especially. Then we got in line for some beer which was brought in by the Harlem Brewing Company, it was their Sugar Hill Ale which was so nice on such a warm afternoon. At one point they ran out of beer and the entire party essentially became a line which was cool to see everyone standing in a single file that snaked around the stage and back. But while we waited for the beer and Islands to come on, we did get to groove to the sweet sounds of DJ Tanlines and DJ Never Forget. Always a pleasure with these guys.
The replacement beer showed up right in time for Islands to take the stage with a crowd. They played a pretty similar set to the one they did at Siren earlier this summer. We heard some stuff off the new album like The Arm and Pieces of You and some older stuff like Dont call me Whitney, Bobby and Swans. Also we saw the return of Death Spot, the rapper from Queens, to fill in Subtitles shoes on Whalebone. It was a great set, though there was a moment of confusion when Nick walked off stage and into the house while the band was clearly gearing up to finish out the set. Not really sure what happened there, but after some clapping and audience coaxing the band came back on in its entirety for an encore.
We completely missed the cook off/ grilling contest because they did it in the back while Islands were playing, but whoever won is a G richer so yay! Great day. From there Maria and I headed back inland for some perogies at Veselka because we missed all the food. Mmmmm..
