Week in Rock: Siren to CMJ Edition

Spank Rock Brings the Beach to the Bridge

This is pretty much what we feel like half way through Siren Fest every year, which is why we played it smart and didn't go this year! Here's what we missed: The Ice Cream Man was in town, describing the scene with more outsider eyes and romantically describing the scene as a "Blend old school Las Vegas and Hunter S. Thompson, and a beach in Brooklyn with amusement rides that are older than your grandfather." Some highlights included A Place to Bury Strangers, Amanda Blank, Built to Spill and Spank Rock... but the real show happened a few hours later on the Williamsburg Brige. The rumor mill was in full effect and anyone with a Twitter account knew that Spank Rock would be playing a midnight set on the pedestrian pathway. We followed the show on Amrit from Stereogum's Twitter, because we are lazy, and after 1 a.m. he reported that nearly 200 people were bouncing around the bridge. The big surprise: no one got arrested.