July 20, 2008
Siren Music Festival 2008 at Coney Island
Yesterday was an appropriately blistering day for this year's eighth annual Village Voice Siren Music Festival at Coney Island, which, with the right frame of mind, can be a total blast. Yesterday had everything we've come to expect from the annual indie rock extravaganza: massive crowds of dehydrating hipsters, fresh clams on the mobbed boardwalk, and a bulging, unmanageable lineup of 14 bands on two stages.
Those who stuck through until the evening were rewarded with headlining sets from one of indie rock’s deans, Stephen Malkmus (joined by his Jicks) and Canada’s anthemic Broken Social Scene. Malkmus ended the festival on the mainstage with an absurd cover of Eddie Money's "Two Tickets to Paradise," which capped a varied set that included his requisite lyrical forgetfulness as well as a show-stopping rendition of "Real Emotional Trash," the title track off his last album.
Though there was talk last year that the Siren Festival’s days were numbered, it's still uncertain how the controversial development plans for the amusement district will effect the event. But nobody seemed too concerned about it yesterday, when the main priority was avoiding sunstroke. Our priority was getting total photo coverage of every single band that played yesterday, including the house band at Cha Cha's, whose cover of "Honkey Tonk Woman" while we were waiting for the bathroom edged out "Two Tickets" for best cover song of the day.
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Those stilt walking girls are so annoying. Every time I go to Coney they are hovering around desperate for attention. Typical transplants trying to be cool and fit in. I hope the freakshow, Astroland and Deno's made good money since they deserve to as New York institutions.
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Yeah! Those stupid transplants with their stilts! They're all over this damned city.. stilting around!
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Sounds like a lame substitute for pitchfork out here in Chicago.
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Perhaps, Matty. But Chicago sounds like a lame substitute for New York.
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@Nick S: Damn right, starting to drive up the prices for people who's grandparents have been wearing stilts here since before the great war!
It also appears that Andy Samberg is in the background ogling her with a half disgusted look on his face.
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Actually, Matty, pitchfork is a lame imitator of CMJ, which has been around since the pitchfork guys were in diapers.
You do know that having concerts isn't a competitive event between New York and Chicago, right? The Siren Fest is put on by the Village Voice and is one of many free outdoor shows this summer season in New York. I'm sure Chicago has many good free shows as well. Bands get some exposure, fans get to see their favorites for free, everybody wins!
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My recording of the Malkmus set is here:
Malkmus at Siren Fest
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Siren sucks, year after long year. Every year everyone leaves and says 'that sucked; i'm never going again' then they show up the next year and complain as they're taking the abysmal train ride again. and on and on and on.
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y'all mad son!
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matty, siren fest is a FREE event. it's been held since 2001. i believe pitchfork fest (which is a lame money-grabbing/band-wagon-hopping version of coachella, ATP and lollapalooza to begin with) only started in 2006.
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yeah well your rent isn't. you're all idiots.
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i get to go to NYC anytime I want. I pay less, life is better here, we have better restaurants and well, I'm only an hour and a half away from NYC. I go there, I eat, I leave my money, that's it! I'm NYC's favorite midwesterner.
seriously man, I empathize with real new yorkers who hate you people from wherever the fuck you're from.
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Without fail, every every EVERY post on Gothamist regarding artists doing something remotely fun in this fucked-up world will have a token native New Yorker who lives just a few miles from his mom's place in Queens bitching about midwestern transplants, and a token midwesterner who says "like" a lot bitching about how New York sucks.
Give it a rest already, and just look at the pictures and try to pretend that you have the ability to smile once in a while.
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Hot chicks on stilts.
I mean really, she's pretty cute.
And people complain?
I would love to have cute women on stilts walking around me throughout my day. Much more than "street art", Starbucks, AM New York handers, Mr Softee, many other things.
I there someplace I can order some?
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I actually love stilt walkers. There was a cute kid on stilts at the Mermaid Parade. I just can't stand these two douchebag chicks at Coney Island who walk around craving attention anywhere there's a group forming. There's a difference...
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I think that there's absolutely nothing wrong with hot chicks on stilts. Or hot chicks not on stilts. Or hot chicks on stilts who are actually hot dudes on stilts.
As for those two hot chicks on stilts? Well they got paid to be there. They're circus performers who do a heck of a lot of other things other than stilts. It's just, you can't really perform aerial acrobatics when there is no ceiling to suspend them from.
So...they wear stilts! And look hot!
And help make the day more fun, ya dicks!
Jeez!
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I have friends who do the stilt thing at coney. They are not transplants. They are also not circus performers, and pretty much have no other skills other than looking hot while walking on long pieces of wood.
I'd still do them though.
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You can see the footage I shot during Broken Social Scene's set right here on my work blog:
http://tinyurl.com/5u3g8c
I was able to get on stage so it's pretty close up.