The sun, alas, is about to set on yet another magical New York City music venue. For the past three summers, New York’s largest (and emptiest) pool has been a host to rock bands, slip-and-sliders, dodgeballers and hula-hoopers—a veritable indie-rock wonderland, conveniently located deep in the bowels of the hipster Mecca that is Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The unprecedented success of McCarren Pool as a venue has come thanks in no small part to the free summer Sunday shows, the collective result of the blood, sweat, tears and such of the people at JellyNYC. Before marking the untimely demise and subsequent re-flooding of McCarren Pool, as delivered by the sweet sounds of Yo La Tengo on Sunday, Aug. 24—Sonic Youth is playing the last show at the pool, on Aug. 31, but it’s a paid event and not one of the JellyNYC Pool Parties—we thought it appropriate to sit down with Jelly’s heads, Doug DeFalco and Sarah Hooper, to talk about the highs, lows and in-betweens of the past three summers.
NY Press: First off, can you give me a little history of the pool parties? How and when did it all come together?
Doug DeFalco: The Pool Parties started from an idea Alexander Kane had about doing shows at McCarren Pool after seeing a dance performance there. Alexander and I had started JellyNYC a little under a year before with monthly shows at Southpaw in Park Slope, which is where I’ve lived since. Alex has always lived in Williamsburg.
Not too long after that we hooked up with Sarah Hooper who also lived in Williamsburg, and we put on a really great show at SXSW as JellyNYC in March 2006. Alex and Sarah both started kicking around ideas on how to make a show into a real event. I was booking shows at Southpaw at the time, so I had some relationships with some booking agents already. We were able to connect with the right people very early.
Alex and Sarah followed all the necessary steps and took care of all the permitting and details with the Parks Department and all those logistical hoops we had to jump through. I knew folks who could do sound and security. It all came together very fast because it had to.
Sarah Hooper: Alex, Doug, and I planned the first Pool Party from basically March to June during 2006. It took every spare moment of our time and we basically all quit our other jobs and just focused on pulling it off.
Can you point to any specific favorite moments that stand out?
DD: It would have to be the Deerhoof show the first year. The first three shows were very respectable in terms of numbers and everyone’s execution. I just remember getting a call on the walkie-talkie when Apollo Sunshine was on.
I
knew it was important because they are one of my favorite bands and I was onstage when someone kept screaming into the walkie, “Doug, you and Alex have to get out to the front, the line is starting to wrap around Manhattan Avenue” I dodged through to the front and couldn’t believe it. I walked all the way down to [the bar] Matchless and there were still kids willing to wait to get in. I had a feeling then that we were really on to something here.
Any terrible moments—times when you suspected you wouldn’t pull things off?
DD: The MGMT show this year was gigantic in terms of numbers for us, clearly our biggest ever. There were times I got worried during that show with the threat of rain and the number of people, but everything just kind of fixed itself, including the weather. Folks were scaling the gates to get in; they did the same thing the year before for Blonde Redhead.
What’s the future looking like for Jelly, beyond McCarren Pool?
SH: We’ve been campaigning for a new place for these to happen in Williamsburg since we heard it was closing last year. Plus we are taking the free concert series to four other cities next summer as well, so it’s not going away. Jelly is going to keep growing in different ways too, sometimes bigger is just bigger...and we’re going to make sure that every time we grow and expand our ideas, they stay really focused on our aesthetic and audience.
We’d never plan a party or event we wouldn’t want to attend ourselves, and the greatest thing about Jelly is that the pool all came from being involved with a group of people who aren’t afraid to just try something. This is really just the beginning.
The unprecedented success of McCarren Pool as a venue has come thanks in no small part to the free summer Sunday shows, the collective result of the blood, sweat, tears and such of the people at JellyNYC. Before marking the untimely demise and subsequent re-flooding of McCarren Pool, as delivered by the sweet sounds of Yo La Tengo on Sunday, Aug. 24—Sonic Youth is playing the last show at the pool, on Aug. 31, but it’s a paid event and not one of the JellyNYC Pool Parties—we thought it appropriate to sit down with Jelly’s heads, Doug DeFalco and Sarah Hooper, to talk about the highs, lows and in-betweens of the past three summers.
NY Press: First off, can you give me a little history of the pool parties? How and when did it all come together?
Doug DeFalco: The Pool Parties started from an idea Alexander Kane had about doing shows at McCarren Pool after seeing a dance performance there. Alexander and I had started JellyNYC a little under a year before with monthly shows at Southpaw in Park Slope, which is where I’ve lived since. Alex has always lived in Williamsburg.
Not too long after that we hooked up with Sarah Hooper who also lived in Williamsburg, and we put on a really great show at SXSW as JellyNYC in March 2006. Alex and Sarah both started kicking around ideas on how to make a show into a real event. I was booking shows at Southpaw at the time, so I had some relationships with some booking agents already. We were able to connect with the right people very early.
Alex and Sarah followed all the necessary steps and took care of all the permitting and details with the Parks Department and all those logistical hoops we had to jump through. I knew folks who could do sound and security. It all came together very fast because it had to.
Sarah Hooper: Alex, Doug, and I planned the first Pool Party from basically March to June during 2006. It took every spare moment of our time and we basically all quit our other jobs and just focused on pulling it off.
Can you point to any specific favorite moments that stand out?
DD: It would have to be the Deerhoof show the first year. The first three shows were very respectable in terms of numbers and everyone’s execution. I just remember getting a call on the walkie-talkie when Apollo Sunshine was on.
I
knew it was important because they are one of my favorite bands and I was onstage when someone kept screaming into the walkie, “Doug, you and Alex have to get out to the front, the line is starting to wrap around Manhattan Avenue” I dodged through to the front and couldn’t believe it. I walked all the way down to [the bar] Matchless and there were still kids willing to wait to get in. I had a feeling then that we were really on to something here.
Any terrible moments—times when you suspected you wouldn’t pull things off?
DD: The MGMT show this year was gigantic in terms of numbers for us, clearly our biggest ever. There were times I got worried during that show with the threat of rain and the number of people, but everything just kind of fixed itself, including the weather. Folks were scaling the gates to get in; they did the same thing the year before for Blonde Redhead.
What’s the future looking like for Jelly, beyond McCarren Pool?
SH: We’ve been campaigning for a new place for these to happen in Williamsburg since we heard it was closing last year. Plus we are taking the free concert series to four other cities next summer as well, so it’s not going away. Jelly is going to keep growing in different ways too, sometimes bigger is just bigger...and we’re going to make sure that every time we grow and expand our ideas, they stay really focused on our aesthetic and audience.
We’d never plan a party or event we wouldn’t want to attend ourselves, and the greatest thing about Jelly is that the pool all came from being involved with a group of people who aren’t afraid to just try something. This is really just the beginning.
