Day 40: New York, Day 2

Nau mai,

Yesterday we played at the Brooklyn Paramount.

I had to do it once. For the readers. For the curious. For the seekers of truth, I braved the hotel breakfast at the Hampton Inn Brooklyn Downtown. One of the elevators was down for maintenance and this was ill timed for the morning rush of people attempting to grab a quick bite before checkout. There were muttered complaints of ‘I waited ten minutes for the elevator’, but fortunately I was not subjected to such humiliation and I flew down from the fourteenth floor with only half a dozen stops along the way.

The breakfast area was busy, and I had to elbow my way in, swearing and threatening the other hotel guests to get my way to the front of the toaster line. I ran my bagel through the toaster twice and then served it up on a paper plate alongside a pottle of Philadelphia cream cheese which I would dispense with my knife. The technique for eating this breakfast relied on a mouthful of coffee with every bite to provide the necessary lubrication for chewing and swallowing.

It was a ten-minute walk to the venue, and it was a cold ten minutes as the temperature hovered just below freezing; it was refreshing though, this dry chill that was visiting upon the city of New York.

The Brooklyn Paramount was constructed in 1928 as a 4000-seat cinema, owned by Paramount Pictures. As well as being a popular movie house it would become known for hosting Jazz, Blues and Rock’n’roll shows up until its closure in 1962. It was purchased by Long Island University for its Brooklyn campus and for the next fifty years would serve various uses, most famously becoming a gymnasium with a basketball court for the LIU Blackbirds.

*By Acroterion - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,* *https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82172882*

It was in 2024 that this building finally reopened as a theatre after seven years under the knife. Entering through the side door we passed through a large atrium decked floor to ceiling in marble and brass and then made our way into the cavern that would hold the 3000 souls that were attending our largest ever New York concert. It was as tall as it was wide, and it was easy to see how the flight of an errant basketball would never have troubled the ornate plaster mouldings that graced the ceiling and walls.

We went deep underground to find the backstage and found a generous network of dressing rooms with amenities like a fitness centre and a pinball centre. It was all fitted out with familiar items from the industry standard Live Nation furniture catalogue that we know and love - the leather ruched sofas and semi-industrial shelving with enormous televisions and record players that never seem to hook up to any speakers.

All the crew at this venue were fantastic, setting the stage in record time and providing us with the technical assistance we needed before we even had the chance to ask.

It was a majestic cave that we were playing in, but the stage felt comfortable and there was not the errant bass rumbling around that sometimes happens in the larger venues. Once the room had filled with people and every decorative feature had been embellished with its own precise piece of lighting equipment the atmosphere was magical. The ceiling lights and many of these other details were controllable from the lighting desk and Erin had a great palate to play with throughout the show.

Three bands had their moments on this grand stage beginning of course with Phoebe Rings, this quartet sounding exceptional after five weeks of honing their set to a razor’s edge of colourful, intricate arrangements and brilliant melodies.

Illuminati Hotties played second and delivered a ferocious collection of catchy rock songs, heavy guitar riffs, and great crowd work with their seemingly limitless energy.

This Brooklyn crowd were in great shape when we went on. Seeing three thousand people stretched out in front of you is a sight to behold and it felt very special to share this experience with them all. Although the heckling may not have been as clear and precise as we have heard at other venues, I have to hand it to the folks in the front row who made a pair of t-shirts that laid out their song request and stood bang in front of Liz where it was unmissable. The innovations in this field that we have seen from crowds across this tour has been nothing short of inspiring.

I would like to thank my good friend Julie Hubschman for this exceptional set of photos from our Brooklyn Paramount show.