I’ve been to coney island 4 times in my life.
Once when I was 4 years old, to visit my friend’s 102 year old great grandfather. I have a surreal memory of sitting on the beach listening to him say “i’m one hunnnndred! and two!!”
Once nearly 20 years later, for the Siren fest, I got as sunburnt as a marshmallow in a campfire, it was a good experience though.
Once to ride the cyclone and see the freak show
Once to see Phish on their final tour pre hiatus. This was the most damaging of all.
The show was terrible (i guess thats what smack does to a band….trey….asshole) and the venue just didnt suit it. It rained all day, and to be followed by a mediocre show, was just hurtful. I didn’t want to go back to this mythical island after that. Its pretty hard to get out there, so it better be for a good purpose. If you go too often, you’d probably see it for the rapidly crumbling wasteland it is, and now that all of the rides and games are gone, its probably depressing as shit. But one event will draw me out there again…
Initially the Wilco East Coast Summer Dates were unimpressive. Sure, they had the Keyspan park date, but i almost considered not going after the Phish Fiasco several years back. I dont want to see this band in a stadium, I’d much rather go to a nice indoor theater with some good sound. For me to skip this band, it takes a lot. And that bitch of a train ride, combined with the thousands upon thousands of hipster frat dudes, with possibly crippling heat might be the magic key to making me miss my first local show.
That is…until I realized the location. Keyspan Park is on Surf Ave, right off the water, 1 block off of…Mermaid Avenue. The actual Mermaid Avenue. So, its some serious business. Here is the story:
They did an album called Mermaid Avenue. It was a collection of songs, using lyrics written by Woody Guthrie, which were never set to music. Guthrie wrote furiously, all the time. it was said that if he stayed at your house, he would tear the bedsheets into paper sized rectangles so he could write songs on them. These archives were kept at his house on Coney Island, when it used to be a big ass swamp. Bob Dylan wrote about this in his fantastic autobiography “Chronicles”. He used to visit Woody in a NJ hospital, and was told there were boxes of unread lyrics and poems, so he made the trip out (he even mentions the terrible train ride in the book.) He trudges through the swamp, in mud up to his knees, nearly freezing to death. When he gets there, a young Arlo Guthrie answers the door, invited the young dylan in, but says he doesnt know anything about the boxes. So, Dylan goes back home, and these lyrics sat unread for nearly 40 years, until they ended up in the hands of Wilco. He even said “i’ll bet wilco wasn’t even born yet when this event took place”
So now, i’d like to think that this has all come full circle. The boys are returning to the homeland, and I’m incredibly psyched all of a sudden. I’m gonna eat some kick ass hot dogs, maybe get a knish, take the day off work, and head out to the island early, maybe do a little loitering. I know i’ve already built this show up too high, but if there’s anyone that can deliver, its Jeff and The Dudes.