#189 - time to get away.

back when i was in my mid-to-late twenties, i went to a handful of concerts every month. these days, not so much. in 2010, i think i went to four, maybe five shows & i haven't been to one yet this year. other than the usual financial reasons, it's mostly because at some point along the way i burnt out on constantly standing around for hours in packed clubs to see my favorite bands. lucky for me, technology now lets folks stream their concerts LIVE on the interwebz, allowing me to see bands whilst lounging on my couch in whatever stage of undress & inebriation i so desire.

this past saturday eve, NYC's lcd soundsystem, arguably one of the more important indie bands of the last decade, played their FINAL SHOW EVER here in the city. after a decade of typically playing venues that hold a few thousand people or less, for their FINAL SHOW EVER they booked a show at MSG & sold it out in a ridiculously short amount of time. i didn't get a ticket but pitchfork was streaming the show live online & i'd been out watching the red sox lose the previous eve, so i decided to stay in on saturday & watch the show...from the comfort of my couch...pantsless.

for those unfamiliar with lcd soundsystem, they're a band fronted by james murphy that's been around since 2001 (also the amount of time i've been living in NYC). in that time, they've put out three albums, each of which contain a handful of amazing, anthemic songs. their sound's considered "dance-punk," as it features a mix of electronic & rock elements to it. the electronic elements usually dominate though. anyway, they're one of the few bands whose songs actually make me want to dance & the lyrics are usually clever & the two times i saw them live over the years they were awesome, so i like them.

they opened the night just after 9pm with "dance yrself clean," the opening song off of their final album, this is happening. it's a song that starts off nice & quiet before getting loud & dancy and when the loud part kicked in, the crowd went nuts.

from that point on, they had me. over the next three & a half hours, with four quick breaks along the way, they played almost thirty songs, including a couple numbers that they'd never played before. since i'm an ol' softy, i got a little misty-eyed during both "all my friends" & their final song, "new york i love you, but you're bringing me down." they brought out a bunch of guests, including reggie watts & a bunch of peeps from arcade fire, who made up the canadian contingent on the song "north american scum." it was like one huge dance party, with choirs & dancers & horns & lights & keyboards with thousands of knobs rocking MSG. it was an amazing way for lcd soundsystem to go out & even though i wasn't there, the online stream captured the energy of the show just fine.

snack: brad's organic veggie cosmic blasts
drink: chelsea brewing co. sunset red ale

as a lover of the indie rock, i read a number of indie music blogs, including brooklyn vegan. one of my favorite parts about reading BV is the comments, where there are always a few folks bashing the other commenters about how hip or unhip they are, calling them names like "hummus eater." on saturday, i didn't have a big tub of hummus to snack on but i did have a snack that i believe captured the same spirit that hummus would have--brad's organic veggie cosmic blasts. they're made by a company out of haverstraw, NY, a town about an hour's drive north of the city. they've been around for thirty years & in those thirty years, although they've been successful at putting out a range of organic foods, they haven't quite learned lesson #1 of packaging: don't use 10000 different fonts. also, at some point they should probably get a website that's from this millennium.

as the below photo shows, the veggie cosmic blasts are covered in a green powder that photographs a bit brighter than it actually is. it's made from beet sugar & the powders of spinach, onion, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, kale & celery. totally veggie, right? together, all those powders manage to be flavorful & slightly salty while not being overwhelming. the texture of the cosmic blasts is pretty similar to that of pirate's booty, as they're light, airy puffs made of cornmeal & rice meal. overall, they're a pretty dry snack & after eating a few of them, i found that i had dissolved bits of cosmic puffs stuck all over my teeth. i enjoyed them but without a cold beer to go with them, i wouldn't have eaten as many as i did.

fortunately for me & my dry mouth, i had 64 oz of cold beer sitting in the fridge. for the evening's drink, i picked up a growler of chelsea brewing co. sunset red ale from bierkraft. i figured it was an appropriate beverage for an evening where the sun set on one of NYC's great bands. i know. i'm SO clever, right? the sunset red's one of the main beers from manhattan's chelsea brewing co., whose pumpkin pie ale was my #4 drink of 2010. according to their website, the sunset red is "a truly rightous red ale." despite their inability to correctly spell "righteous," i have tried it in the past & i remembered it being sort of worthy of that word.

it pours a reddish-amber color & gives off a scent that's both sweet & hoppy. as i mentioned early last month, i've been drinking lots of green flash brewing co's hop head red ale lately. it's because of its well-done mix of sweet & hoppy. while the sunset red also does these flavors well, in the end the green flash is better. still, with its notes of caramel & hops, the sunset red is a tasty, easy-drinking beer. in fact, it was so easy-drinking that i managed to polish off 3/4 of the growler during the three-plus hours of the concert. i even danced to a song or two or seven along the way...carefree & pantsless & carefree.