We were so close! Driving up to NYC on Friday, we had clear, albeit mostly drab and grey, skies all the way until Newark, when the sky opened up. The weather alternated between drizzly and pouring for the rest of the night. There was a 10 minute break in the rain while Mike, L Boogie, Ms. Smith and I were across the street from the Seaport having a drink in the Heartland Brewery with Les, Super Furry Roadie Extraordinaire, and he lept up and dashed to the stage to get the band ready, but alas, they couldn't get everything set up before it started raining again.

The Furries ended up playing three songs before the torrential downpour did them in, which was unfortunate, becuase they gave it their all. But understandably, standing in large puddles with an electric guitar slung over your shoulder is not exactly the safest thing to do on a Friday night. So the gig was pulled after three songs, but Gruff, God bless him, grabbed his acoustic guitar and jumped down from the stage and performed four songs acoustically for the small crowd that remained. So some people went home happy.

That was the bad news. The good news was that the Furries didn't have to pull the show entirely, something they proudly noted they've never done in the band's entire career, and more importantly, we simply started the after-party earlier. So we eventually went around the corner to a local bar on Beakman Street and set up shop. We stayed there until the wee hours of the morning and I tired to drink my weight in Boddingtons. The result: Close but no cigar.

Despite the show being so short and abrupt, it was a really fun night. I got to see Chris Shaw and a few friends and former co-workers that I hadn't been in contact with since moving from NYC two years ago, had a heated debate with Guto over the best Wu-Tang solo record (he voted for Liquid Swords, I was repping the new Ghostface record) and heard Bunf profess his love for vodka gimlets numerous times over the course of the night. I also vaguely recall Coolfer turning up before the end of the night. Actually, Friday night was so fun that I spent most of Saturday in bed.

The rest of the weekend was spent tooling around Manhattan desperately trying to rid myself of my hangover, eating pizza (Two Boots and Grimaldi's) and attempting to stay dry. Paramount had most of the Wall Street area blocked off while they were shooting the new Spiderman movie and we also stumbled across a crew shooting a new VW ad, so I'll have those pics tomorrow.

To see all my pics from Friday night, head over to Flickr.