Middle Aged Rock Made Comfy For Your Convenience
There seems to be a new trend afoot in the NYC popular music performance venue scene. I’m not sure what to call it: dinner theater rock or comfort clubs or “aren’t you a bit old to be out seeing this kind of music in small venues buddy?” spaces. Whatever you want to call it, I have to say that as a middle aged fat guy with bad knees, I sorta like it.
The venues I’m talking about are places like City Winery and Highline Ballroom and Le Poisson Rouge to name three.
The concept here is that these venues offer seating, waitress service and, if you get there early enough, dinner. City Winery in particular goes upscale on the food; last Friday I saw Bob Mould and Jon Auer there and over the course of the evening we had a round of prosecco, a few bottles of wine, a cheese course and a hummus and olives platter. Hell, they even go so far as to suggest wine pairings with the food offerings.
This, my friends, is a far cry from standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow music enthusiast/East Village drunkards-potheads-whatever in a fire-code-violating, disgustingly sweaty basements or storefronts like I did years ago. And, in concession to my age, I will say that I don’t regret seeing music performed in this atmosphere. It does take away all those worries about concert-going rules for a man my age, that’s for sure.
Having said all that, I’m going old school tonight. Mission of Burma is playing at the Bowery Ballroom. The Bowery Ballroom has a basement bar where one might get a seat but the main performance space is upstairs where, in all likelihood, I’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow music enthusiasts as we have our ears blown out by a legendary band. So it’s time to dust off all those old rules again, I guess, and hope that while standing in a corner under an air vent with beer in hand (safely curled into my chest for stability, of course) tonight I’ll feel young again and be so captivated by the music I won’t notice my aching knees.
Just to be safe, I’m bringing a packet of ibuprofen into the show. And buying ear plugs. Better safe than sorry at my age.
On the bright side it'll cause less worry than the things we used to try to smuggle into shows in our younger days. Rock on, aging hipsters.
The venues I’m talking about are places like City Winery and Highline Ballroom and Le Poisson Rouge to name three.
The concept here is that these venues offer seating, waitress service and, if you get there early enough, dinner. City Winery in particular goes upscale on the food; last Friday I saw Bob Mould and Jon Auer there and over the course of the evening we had a round of prosecco, a few bottles of wine, a cheese course and a hummus and olives platter. Hell, they even go so far as to suggest wine pairings with the food offerings.
This, my friends, is a far cry from standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow music enthusiast/East Village drunkards-potheads-whatever in a fire-code-violating, disgustingly sweaty basements or storefronts like I did years ago. And, in concession to my age, I will say that I don’t regret seeing music performed in this atmosphere. It does take away all those worries about concert-going rules for a man my age, that’s for sure.
Having said all that, I’m going old school tonight. Mission of Burma is playing at the Bowery Ballroom. The Bowery Ballroom has a basement bar where one might get a seat but the main performance space is upstairs where, in all likelihood, I’ll be standing shoulder to shoulder with fellow music enthusiasts as we have our ears blown out by a legendary band. So it’s time to dust off all those old rules again, I guess, and hope that while standing in a corner under an air vent with beer in hand (safely curled into my chest for stability, of course) tonight I’ll feel young again and be so captivated by the music I won’t notice my aching knees.
Just to be safe, I’m bringing a packet of ibuprofen into the show. And buying ear plugs. Better safe than sorry at my age.
On the bright side it'll cause less worry than the things we used to try to smuggle into shows in our younger days. Rock on, aging hipsters.
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