Modest Mouse had their set at the Williamsburg Waterfront on Friday cut short to a parse 5 songs due to ominous clouds, lightning, and a tornado warning. I was in Brooklyn around that time. It wasn’t that bad. Regardless, the show’s organizers, The Open Space Alliance, have announced a rescheduling of the show for “Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 5-10:00pm.” If you can’t make it, you can hit up TicketMaster before 5pm on August 27 for a refund.
MIA, whose HARD Fest set was ruined by the stormy weather (maybe?) sent out a tweet yesterday reading “fuck it! im gonna do a free show in nyc when i get back, tho i dont have powers over rain! if u still have the hard ticket u free! xxxo,” followed by “if u do me a lil dance , ill let u in too!”
This past Sunday, the free Williamsburg Waterfront show, featuring The Death Set, Lightning Bolt, No Age, and Cap N’ Jazz was rained out and moved to the Brooklyn Bowl, a venue with a capacity of only 700. Lots of folks got turned away.
It’s a tricky situation with outdoor shows, but when the show is promoted as”Rain or Shine,” it damn well better go on if it’s raining or shining. Some ornery fan sued Rush for canceling their July 7 show due to rain even though their tickets said “Rain or Shine.” The weather forecast for the Cap N’ Jazz show said it was going to rain for a bit from 3-4, and that’s exactly what happened. The organizers could have planned ahead and waited it out for a bit.
It seems as if show organizers are using kids gloves when it comes to handling large crowds. Anything to avoid another Drake fiasco, right? But when I was looking for other shows that got rained out this summer, you know what show didn’t get cancelled due to rain? The fucking Warped Tour in San Antonio.
My SA News reported that “An estimated 12,000 punk rockers, tweens and everyone in between braved the rain swept into South Texas by Hurricane Alex to attend the tour’s San Antonio stop at the AT&T Center. Ponchos and umbrellas stood out from the tattoos, piercings and multicolored hair at the concert.” Though the main stage was indoors, all the other stages and stands were outside. The bands that played through the weather? “Sum 41, the All-American Rejects, Motion City Soundtrack, Alkaline Trio and Texas talents such as the Dallas-based Rocket Summer.” Who would’ve guessed that a festival representing the commodification of punk (not necessarily a bad thing, I would LOVE to see Sum 41 live) was harder than MIA and Lightning Bolt?
