McCarren Park Pool

Did you ever really have that much fun at McCarren Park Pool, whose reign as one of New York’s most popular summer show spots will end tomorrow when Sonic Youth brings the curtain down on two years’ worth of weekend concerts at the waterless Williamsburg swimming hole? Sure, it’s hard to complain about free shows by A-list indie bands (Superchunk last summer was our favorite). But the crowds? The stifling heat and lack of shade? The Porta-Johns? Having to navigate through all those nauseating clown-hipster posses? Maybe we’re just getting old, but we’d rather be lounging at a real pool and listening to Daydream Nation on our headphones.  read more »

CONCERTS:

The Hold Steady have single-handedly turned “bar band” into a term of endearment. Blame it on frontman Craig Finn, whose half-sung, near-Joycean rants about drugs and alcohol and teenagers and Minneapolis and drugs are shot through with so much wit and wisdom they manage to turn bar chatter into a kind of high art. Anyway, without Finn—or with a lead singer who actually sung—the Brooklyn quintet would be little more than arena rock nostalgists churning out scads of decidedly uncool rock clichés (guitar solos, piano interludes) for middle-aged audiences. In other words, they’d be a bar band in the old sense. With Finn, though, all those dad-rock histrionics go down real easy.  read more »

Williamsburgers will weep with sorrow at the end of this month when McCarren Park Pool closes its gates. On Aug. 30, Sonic Youth will play the final show and all the kiddies will have to say good-bye to their Sunday funtime activities. The New York Times wrote an obituary of sorts for the pool, since the city will soon take back the cement-filled space and return it to its natural state, a public swimming pool.  read more »

CONCERTS:

This heat sucks … we know. So what better way to beat it than by dancing yourself into a sweaty mess surrounded by hundreds of your under-hydrated peers in a shadeless pool? That’s the question JellyNYC poses all summer long with its free weekend "Pool Party" shows at McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg. If you’ve missed any of the fantastic acts (Liars, the Hold Steady) that have already performed this season, be sure to catch Brooklyn’s MGMT (It’s pronounced “M-G-M-T,” not “management,” by the way) and England’s fashion-pop duo, Ting Tings, this Sunday. MGMT's debut, Oracular Spectacular, is a pop intellectual’s feast—a giddy mix of disco beats, glam guitar and baroque synths.  read more »

During the summer, a lot of people do summery things like relaxing on the beach, barbecuing in the park, going to baseball games. Maybe even, if they have rich friends, getting a little sailing time in. But on those hot and sticky days in Williamsburg, the kids like to hang out in a big, empty, concrete, waterless, treeless, shadeless swimming pool with festering port-a-potties for toilets. To each his own!

At least McCarren Park Pool hosts free concerts—“Pool Parties,” as they are called—all summer long. (If you missed Superchunk last year, we feel sorry for you.) Brooklyn Vegan has this season’s lineup, which is sure to please the early-20-something hipster set with performances by the likes of The Hold Steady, Liars, Deerhunter and the Black Lips. Also, rumor has it the Breeders are headlining the July 13 slot. Full schedule after the jump.  read more »