You're not a good shot but I'm worse

Published on Tue 10 Aug 2010

I'm on the train back to Cambridge after another lovely weekend in New York. I've been away for 4 days but, as is the way with these things, I feel like I've been gone for months.

The journey there was a bit annoying - the entertainment system was broken in the plane and I spent bloody ages in immigration again - I always seem to get screwed at the point where the main queue turns into loads of little lines. There were people who were about 100 yards behind me that got through first.

Saturday was mostly spent wandering around Manhattan looking for somewhere that sold pants at a reasonable price, as I'd got myself into a bit of a laundry position the week before. I was hoping to buy some at Heathrow, but for some reason there's nowhere there to buy anything you might actually need when you go away. I went for H&M in the end. My friend Brian had told me about an art installation that's just a room full of soil, so we went to find that, but it turned out to be closed until September. I saw a photo - it didn't look that great anyway. Here are some photos of the walk.

Sunday morning/afternoon was spent exploring Queens and Long Island City. Highlights included the depot where all the city's hot dog stands are stored

a crateful of bagels on the pavement

and this park by the river which has some pretty amazing views.

I enjoyed the general sense of decay.

We also blew some bubbles.

In the evening Josh Ritter was playing a free show on Governor's Island, which is situated just south of Manhattan, has no running water and is only reachable by ferry. There's a free ferry from Ikea in Brooklyn to right by the place where you catch the Governor's Island one, though I got it into my head you needed to have spent $10 in Ikea to be allowed on it. I've never been to an Ikea before. The furniture is ok eh? There was nothing there to spend $10 on though, especially if you're about to go to a gig. I found it strange that you feel like you've done four or five complete laps before you end up back where you started. I'd be interested to see a floor plan.

The setting is one of the more spectacular I've been to.

The neon palm trees really did it for me.

First up was Dawn Landes, who is married to Josh Ritter. She was ok but a bit perky, and the songs didn't really grab me. There was a good bit where she had 4 people playing percussion. Three drumming guys in a row really going for it is quite a sight.

Justin Townes Earle was up second and was pretty good. A bit more traditional country than I expected, and a bit more traditional country than I really like, but he was excellent at it. His fiddle player was great too. He's obviously learnt his banter from his dad. He even used the "I remember my first beer too" put down that I first heard at a Steve Earle show in Harlesden probably 15 years ago when Justin played guitar with him for a song.

Josh Ritter was fantastic. Joy was just pouring out of him and you couldn't help but feel it too. I've only recently started listening to him really (thanks Severine!) having seen him supporting The Frames years ago and mentally dismissed it as a bit boring. I'm glad I did. My favourite of his is a song called "The Curse" (check it out on youtube, the video with the puppets is beautiful) I think at least in part because it reminds me of New York, and the version they did of that was stunning.

On Monday night Annie and I did a show in a bar in Long Island City, round the corner from that park above. I don't remember the name of the first guy we saw but he wasn't really my cup of tea. Annie was great though, and her emergency piano player/backing singer Arthur was ace too. I was pretty nervous about whether anyone would hang around for/not hate me, but it was good fun - Annie's guitar is much nicer than mine - when you hit it hard it sounds as if it's been hit hard. Maybe I should finally relent and get a decent one. I felt comfortable and think I played well. There was a big table of guys with high powered water pistols being a little bit rowdy I guess, but one of them came up after and said how much he enjoyed it so I forgave them. They were playing some kind of war game - they were in the street afterwards trying to pick off a water sniper who was hiding on the roof of the bar. Weird. though the weirdest bit was that they had someone following round with a big video camera. My banter was on pretty good form. I kept on complaining that nobody could ever understand what I was saying. It's true though - I reckon even fewer Americans understand my name when I say it than have passports. Setlist: Take it All, Muscle Memory, The Forked Tongue and the Blind Eye Turned, Watertight, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, A Folly or a Fortress (with lovely harmonies from Annie), So Finally a Love Song, 60 Miles With a Slow Puncture, You Won't Break My Heart, Edinburgh.

The plane back was a jumbo jet and I got to sit on the top deck which was much more comfortable than usual and meant that we had 2 stewardesses between about 25 of us, so I got to take advantage of more free wine than usual. It was also super fast - we got back in under 6 hours. I only had time to watch Hot Tub Time Machine and get a couple of hours sleep.

I'm feeling pretty fortunate at the moment. I wonder how long this can last.