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03/05/2005: "new york."
So I know I've been a little down on New York lately, what with all these posts about how great Berlin is and stuff. You've read it all before about New York (if not, pick up this week's Voice and read the 'Elegy for the Bowery')--that it's hellishly expensive here, that much-loved venues keep closing, that relentless gentrification keeps ratcheting upwards, that art scenes keep getting priced out of the neighborhoods they helped to build up in the first place, et cetera ad infinitum. I bought a new 30-day Metrocard mere hours before the fares went up yet again, only to realize that the trains at the stop near me weren't running (fuck you, MTA!)
Yesterday I was trying to get to Subtonic for the Triple R gig. I wasn't about to mess with the take-the-screwy-C-and-then-switch-to-the-F game, so I figured I'd trek down to Atlantic-Pacific, the Brooklyn nerve center for transit. Every train I tried to take had something up with it. But that's okay; if something was up with the 4/5 at Atlantic-Pacific, we'd still have the 2/3. If something was up with the 2/3, we'd still have the N/R. If all of those disappeared, we'd still have the Q, the B, and (dear God) the M. Ha ha! Try and stop us from getting to Manhattan, you bastards! I ended up taking the D train to Subtonic. It was the very first time I'd ever taken the D, I think, in my three years of living here in New York.
Subtonic--the dark grotty basement of Tonic that I've been to a thousand times--seemed somehow different, transformed. It felt like the smaller clubs I've been to in Cologne (almost literally, what with Triple R on the decks). The vibe was so open and friendly and generous, almost loved-up! The floor was absolutely packed (but not uncomfortably) with enthusiastic people dancing, and hollering and applauding between trax! I love New York! Triple R? Fantastic and inspired, and a lot meatier and stomping-er than I remember his sets being (one tune he played, I'm searching madly for--Sherburne or Matos or Finney or someone, help a sister out--all I know is it's something new on Trapez, feels like a happiness-injection to the brain, kind of like Ada's 'Maps' taken a few steps further into the bliss-vortex...not trancey really, but it's got this warmth, this delicious lustrous whoosh goin' on.)
To give you an idea of how long it's been since Triple R's been here: The last gig he played New York was at Twilo. Mad props to Spinoza and the rest of the Bunker crew for bringing him back to NYC, and I hope he comes back again soon.
