July 31 2008: The Long Winters - Castle Clinton, New York NY

Drove down for the day to see the Long Winters. Hadn't seen them play a full set in almost two years, which happened the last time I saw them in New York. Livingston and I met up downtown to made a quick pre-show liquor run (me: Wild Turkey; he: apricot brandy. Sorry Josh, this is supposed to be impartial reporting and we can't just gloss over the facts), and found some folding chairs in the back of the free afternoon show. The back of which was pretty close to the front. As the initially-humid day turned into a pretty comfortable late afternoon we poured our liquor into cups that were otherwise being used to provide patrons with $10 servings of wine (note: these servings did not look to represent what, in my mind, $10 worth of wine looks like), and the time at which the Long Winters would take the stage approached. Good times loudly proclaimed their imminent arrival.

The band opened with "Give Me a Moment," which I hadn't heard live since Sean McCormick and I personally requested it from Roderick outside the Tonic Lounge in 2003. Unfortunately it's not the best song to open a daylight/outside/no-opener show with. But I still enjoyed it.

Aside from that first song, nothing much notable about the setlist. Old and new standards like "Scared Straight," "Carparts," "Fire Island," "The Commander Thinks Aloud," "Ultimatum," etc, all played well. I don't think I'd learned to really appreciate "Teaspoon" until about a year ago, so it was nice to hear it played live again. Fun set, but I think the Long Winters are much more a late-night/dark-bar kind of band, and the afternoon sun and the folding chairs didn't work much in their favor. But it was, I feel, an excellent use of my afternoon/evening. And afterwards Livingston and I enjoyed some tall boy High Lifes in that park across from the New York County Courthouse before I had to head for home. Good times!