So last week, amongst the last throttles of summer, a friend was kind enough to throw me her extra ticket to FIEST at McCarren Pool. This great brooklyn venure, was at one time the largest public swimming pool in North America. It is about the size of a parking lot for the standard Suburbian Mini Mega Center, but full of people and graffiti.
we arrived too late to catch Grizzly Bear and heard most of Broken Social Scene's set whilst standing in line for giant kielbasa's. Broken Social Scene seemed to be just working out a lot of their new tunes, as sheets of lyrics were passed around during the rough spots. But when Fiest took the stage, everything seemed to tightened up. Still backed by Grizzly Bear she packed a fun 90 minutes of playing. The mostly mellow music seemed to fit the summers night, and the twinge of country to her voice made it seem as though at times you were listening to a canadian version of Emmy Lou Harris.
While Handling most of the guitar parts herself, Fiest apptly made use of her voice, looping parts on top of each other, as the song progressed while in the background, members of Grizzly Bear could be seen switching instruments on and off.
sadly enough, at the end of a good show, I was told that this is the last year of McCarren Pool. That is at least as a venue. Next year the pool will be turned back into a pool, and although a little smaller in size, it will still be the size of a parking lot.