Day 12 in New York

Yesterday, Friday, both of us were feeling a bit under the weather so we had a major sleep in and hung around our room until about 2 pm. We've both been feeling unwell and really drained the last few days. Anyway, so that our day wasn't a complete waste, we headed down to Pier 17 which looks out over to Brooklyn and gives a nice view of all the buildings in the Financial District (where we are currently staying). We wandered around the pier for a little while, making a mandatory stop in Gap and spending money. We then had 'lunch' at one of the restaurants on the pier and sat out in the sun (it was a chilly 12 degrees yesterday but the sun was lovely). We then headed back to the room and got ready to head out to Brooklyn to see Angus and Julia Stone play.

Over the bridge to Brooklyn

The Financial District from Pier 17

As the majority of you all know, Angus and Julia are one of my favourite bands and we couldn't believe our luck that they were playing here while we were in the US. And tickets were only $16! So we set off for Brooklyn, with directions to the Bell House written on a scrap of paper. When we got off the subway we had been assuming that it would be much like the area we were in on our second night in NYC when we went to see the burlesque show. We were wrong. Trying to find this venue was the first time we have really felt unsafe our entire trip. We thought that any second we could get jumped. There was no one around and it was blocks and blocks of empty run-down warehouses. Walking quickly, with our wits about us and hoping we would find the venue soon, we finally got to the Bell House, which wasn't actually very far from the subway, but those 4 blocks felt alot further.

The support act was Gareth Dunlop who is a singer/songwriter from Belfast. He was really good and I went and asked him where I could buy his EP from after he had finished. He laughed and said he didn't know but was trying to find out. Haha. I did get one at the end of the night. Angus and Julia played a good set with a few new songs mixed in. I especially liked one that Julia wrote which I think might be on her new solo CD and an unreleased song (it's new) that Angus wrote while he was on a road trip to Big Sur (I think it was also written about Big Sur). It wasn't the best show I have seen them do (although I have seen them 8 or 9 times now so I have a bit to compare it with) but it was still good and it was cool seeing them in a small venue like I used to before they were so popular in Australia.

Gareth Dunlop

Angus and Julia

We found a closer, more populated subway station to get home via. What we found out, once we got back last night, was that the area we were in is called Red Hook, and this is apparently one of the unsafest areas we could have been in. Oh and it was a very cold 4 degrees for those of you interested :)