 Thanks to Pancakes and Whiskey for pictures from the show http://pancakesandwhiskey.com On Tuesday, May 22, 2015 - almost five years ago - I went to see The Drowners at the Brooklyn Bowl. Back then, it was just an ordinary Tuesday night, two years after I'd moved to Hoboken, NJ, close enough and convenient enough to take the PATH to 14th Street and the L to Bedford Avenue and within minutes, I was at the venue. It was that convenience that drove me to move out of my "comfort zone" of central NJ suburbs into Hoboken, a city that offered the kind of fast-paced lifestyle I didn't quite know I craved until I got here and started living it, loving it, and never wanting to go back to suburban life again. As of May 1st this year, I will be entering my 8th year in Hoboken, after selling my home in South Brunswick, blowing all of my savings on an exorbitantly-priced apartment for two years, downsizing for a year, re-upsizing for 3 years and now back in a slightly-less beautiful still exorbitantly priced apartments in one of the buildings I used to live in and loving every minute of it. Until 2020. But back to The Drowners. Brooklyn Bowl is a kind of awesome and unique venue featuring bowling lanes alongside stage space with a sprawling bar and a food menu (that I'm not sure I ever ate from) and they stop the bowling when the bands come on. I've been there a bunch since moving to Hoboken. I've been to a lot of concert venues a bunch and seen a shitload of shows, which I believe is the technical term for "in the hundreds". The Drowners are (no offense) just one of the many shows I've seen. Not a favorite band of mine at all. They had (and I needed to look it up) two albums. Their debut self-titled came out on Frenchkiss Records in 2014 and I must have liked and their follow-up came in 2016, after the Brooklyn Bowl show. What I remember most about that performance, though, is that there were two opening acts that I had never heard of before. Slothrust was the first opener. A female-led punk band, I fell instantly in love and their 2016 album "Everyone Else" would feature multiple songs in my top 100 of the year, including the #3 overall ("Horseshoe Crab"). They were followed on stage by July Talk, a male-female led act that featured wonderful back-and-forth call-and-response vocals, a throwback rock beat, and a stage presence that captivated. Their 2015 self-titled debut was an absolutely thrill and included several songs that made my top 100 of that year ("Paper Girl" the highest placed). In fact, by the time that The Drowners came on, I was already enthralled and in the midst of one of the best shows I'd see that year. The Drowners were great but I think that was the last show I saw them in and they must have disbanded after 2016, while the two openers would go on to more live shows and more albums (July Talk's latest is coming out this July; Slothrust's latest came out in 2018). Still, a wonderful awesome show, and I miss The Drowners a bit. I miss July Talk and Slothrust a little more. I miss going to shows.  July Talk (thanks again to Pancakes and Whiskey) 2020 got off to a rough start for me. We got a puppy just before New Year's, a decision I have belatedly come to think on positively after falling in love with Elie, but at first it was hell. January was hell. My boyfriend worked every day, so I was home alone (working from home) for the first few weeks - potty-training her, feeding her, watching over her, responsible for the very first time in my life for another life and had no clue (a) what I was doing, or (b) why I was the one stuck doing it when I didn't like dogs (pre-Elie) and didn't want a dog (because of the responsibility that I didn't want and because I didn't like dogs). I just wanted to go to a show. In between the lack of sleep and the constant worry about whether or not she would squat and poop in our kitchen, and in between the constant arguments over who was at fault when she did poop in the kitchen, in between the 30-degree freezing long walks begging her to poop outside, I had several lengthy work trips that took me away (and put all the responsibility on Mike) and when I wasn't watching Elie, traveling, or working, I was spending every waking second working with my editor on I WILL BE OKAY (releasing June 30th!) and every other waking second working on my follow-up (sent to my agent last week!). There was no time for shows. Hell, there was no time for showering. I barely had any time for anything for the first 2 months of 2020 and then at the end of February, I was on a marine base in Barstow, CA and extended the trip for 3 days in my favorite place in the world Manhattan Beach, CA) where I worked on my novel, visited a couple friends, visited my favorite bars and coffee shops, visited Huntington Beach and talked seriously to my boyfriend about our potential move there next year, missed my Elie terribly, boarded the red-eye on Monday night March 2nd and watched as everyone around me disinfected their seats, shaking my head at all the "overblown" worries of Corona-virus, got home safe, went to jury duty that Friday, went to Jersey City that Saturday to write at a coffee shop and hit the Barcade briefly before aborting the trip to come home and see Elie, then sat at home watching Syracuse-North Carolina on Wednesday March 11th as news of the NBA postponing the season and Tom Hanks coming down with the virus reverberated through Twitter land and the rest of the world and then after work the next night I went to write at Greek for Greece on Hudson Street (my favorite writing spot in Hoboken), stopped by Ferryman on First for some Ballast Point Sculpin on tap on the way home, while everyone was talking about the virus that still didn't feel real, but the ACC tournament stopped that morning just before the games were about to be played and then that night at Ferryman became my last night out - anywhere - for going on 5 weeks now. I would get sick a few weeks later (so, unrelated to my night at Ferryman), I would finish my novel and send to my agent, and I would be stuck at home with my boyfriend and my dog like the rest of NJ and most of the world, and with literally all the reasons I moved to Hoboken suddenly taken away from me, I would write this post and try to stave off the hopeless feeling that gripped us all during the past few weeks of quarantine and isolation and illness. I miss going to shows. I miss going to the coffee shop to write. I miss stopping by bars. I miss my friends. I miss Brooklyn. I miss Manhattan. I miss running and I miss the dog parks and I miss the regular parks and I miss biking along the waterfront and I miss not coughing all day every day and I miss the movies with my boyfriend and I miss the movies at indie theaters in the city and I miss comedy shows in the city and I miss The West in Brooklyn and Littlefield and the Treehouse and Think Coffee on Mercer Street and Washington Square Park and I miss dinner with friends and I miss driving to places and I miss California and I miss the shows. I didn't go to a single show in 2020. It's likely if not definite there will be no more live shows in 2020. Sometimes with this illness I've felt like I was drowning. It's all a lot to take. I'm usually better at taking it.  The Drowners had a song called "A Button on Your Blouse" which is a little pervy-sounding in 2020 but this line sparked my memory of the band and that concert and a life that was way different just a couple months ago. To all of those who are missing out on bigger things than concerts in Brooklyn, please enjoy little blast from the recent past. "These days you know I rarely leave the house. And I hate the thought of you missing out." And bonus I just found... brand new LIVE July Talk ... from isolation! If this is the new normal well it fucking sucks but... it's better than watching The Office reruns on my couch :( Better days... Comments are closed.
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