Yo La Tengo @ McCarren Park Pool Party

The good folks at JellyNYC decided to give the McCarren Park Pool Parties a blowout sendoff with a more established band, Yo La Tengo. A crowd of thousands came out to watch Ira Kaplan’s Sonic Youth-esque stylings, and several more came to try and figure out why they kept hearing the band’s name everywhere.

It was almost odd to see the huge difference between the band members. Bassist James McNew hardly moved the entire time, hiding behind the keyboard he occasionally plucked, while Kaplan seemed restless, switching from sitting behind his keys with a brass band at his back to furiously strumming his guitar.

The best story I have from this show would be meeing a Spanish couple in line for the photo booth. Turns out they were taking a week-long vacation to New York City and just happened to open the paper to find that their favorite band was playing for free! Other news from Spain: it’s nearly impossible to find any good music.