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The Rolling Stones-Metlife Stadium-8/5/19

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment
In Marc Maron’s 2017 special, Too Real, he recounts seeing a Rolling Stones reunion show and all his fears that it would be bad.  One of the jokes many twists is that almost immediately after the show started, Maron starts weeping in awe of seeing The Stones live.  While I was not as nervous as the WTF host on Monday night, I was certainly on the more reserved end of excitement in Metlife Stadium for The Stones’ No Filter tour, and, like Maron, I was absolutely floored by how great the band are fifty years into their career.

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Titus Andronicus-6/21/19 at Rough Trade, Brooklyn, NY

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

Jack White was in the building earlier that day.  On a day when The Raconteurs put out their first album in over ten years, the band played a small in-store that afternoon at Rough Trade in Brooklyn-the first of three intimate NY shows for the band.  The Raconteurs would go onto play Rough Trade Saturday night and Coney Island Baby Sunday afternoon.  Jack White exists within a realm that few working rock musicians do; Dave Grohl is probably his only true contemporary.  This is all to say that these 200-250 cap rooms are a rarity for someone of Jack White’s stature to perform in.  He’s a rockstar in the truest definition of the word, which is very different from how someone would perceived Titus Andronicus who headlined Rough Trade on Friday Night for the release show for their new record An Obelisk.

 

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STS: Bigg Mozz

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

Savor the Season is a new column from Burger-A-Day where writers discuss seasonal favorites.  Today, we’re breaking down mozzarella sticks that we found in Bryant Park.

Mozzarella sticks are a food for drunk people and children.  If you’re sober and order mozzarella sticks, you’re trying to recapture some childlike sense of wonder or the emotions of being borderline blacked out at a dollar slice pizzeria.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with this.  Mozzarella sticks are a simple pleasure that the appetizer gods have bestowed upon us mere mortals.  Big Mozz captures that and only that. Continue reading →

Thoroughbreds (dir. Cory Finley)

/ Marisa Winckowski / Leave a comment

Thoroughbreds is only a mildly exaggerated representation of the elite of suburban Connecticut, or Westchester, New York. Greenwich is filled with beautiful yoga moms and their children dressed in matching blazers, designer-bred show dogs and cars worth more than your house. This is an expose of the young and privileged, who both comfortably occupy the bubble they’ve grown up in and desperately long for freedom from it. They’ve grown up financially secure but emotionally neglected. Privilege is a necessity and empathy is a weakness. Continue reading →

Imperfect Attempt: The Killers-Barclays Center, NY-1/9/18

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

killers-brooklyn

After the first two songs of The Killers’ set on their Wonderful Wonderful tour, frontman Brandon Flowers quotes Evil Knievel: “People don’t pay for the perfect landing; they pay for the attempt.”  Unlike Knievel, The Killers don’t land as much as they attempt, and their performance at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center left me wondering if I’d pay for another attempt. Continue reading →

Pickle Me, Pete-Bryant Park, NY

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

Continuing our exploration of Bryant Park’s Winter Village…

Fried pickles are an underrated masterpiece.  Fried mac-and-cheese bites reign supreme, but there’s something about a nice juicy pickle, covered in breading that makes them a savory appetizer.  They can burn your mouth, but having the hot pickle drip on your tongue is also a skill that makes them excellent. Continue reading →

Sigmund’s Pretzels-New York

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

sigmunds-bryant-park

Continuing our exploration of Bryant Park’s Winter Village…

When you think New York street food, you think hot dogs, but the closest runner up (and arguably, the underrated superior street food) is the big pretzel.  More often than not, these pretzels are a little dry, overly salted, and occasionally much heartier than you’d expect, but when you get a good pretzel, you know you’ve got a good one.  The truffle-cheddar pretzel that I tried from Sigmund’s Pretzels was a pretty damn good one. Continue reading →

The Truffleist-Bryant Park,NY

/ James P. Crowley / Leave a comment

 

Continuing our exploration of Bryant Park’s Winter Village.

Cheesesteaks are a reliable food.  They’re easy to do fine, but they’re difficult to make more interesting or better than they typically are.  Also, most people are sure to be more dismissive of cheesesteaks from outside of Philadelphia.  There’s no real reason for this, because you can get a solid cheesesteak pretty much anywhere.  Most are passable.  That being said, the truffle cheesesteak from Cheesesteaks by The Truffleist are excellent and a must-have from Bryant Park’s winter village. Continue reading →

The Front Bottoms-Going Grey

/ James P. Crowley / 2 Comments

The Front Bottoms were at one time leading figures in the emo-revival.  A weird pop-punk band from New Jersey that let indie rock and folk influences bleed through.  They had lyrics that masked emotion through humor and wits.  Also, they were huge.  They could book their own festival at New York’s Webster Hall with their friends and favorite bands and sell it out.  They toured with emo-vets Brand New on numerous occasions and wrote one of the decades’ best songs about life on the road.  Back On Top was a major creative leap for the band, adding much more electric instrumentation than before, and it paid off.  The best songs off Back On Top could square off with any number of songs from their self-titled album or Talon of Hawk.  Unfortunately, Going Grey shows them doing just that: greying into a mediocre band. Continue reading →