A Wedding, A New Year and an Angel in a White Nissan

It's January 2nd, 2011. Another year has gone by in that fast blowing wind we call time. This year my boyfriend (Noah) and I made the trek down to Long Island because he was shooting a wedding on New Year's Eve. He's a hard worker. Eight hours in the car to photograph a wedding for my sister's good friend. This was my first wedding I've attended since my own, which went surprisingly well for me. Single me used to cry at weddings. Newly divorced me cried at weddings on television. But the healed me just kind of smiled and thought about the new union these people were taking on as they said their vows to eachother. Something in me was happy for them to have found each other. It probably reminded me of how lucky I was to find a new and strong love of my own - something entirely different than I've had before. I smiled a lot that day, even though I played assistant to whoever I could in the wedding party.

New Year's Eve was not all business. We left the reception to head west of NYC to Monclair, NJ to see Passion Pit play what they said was their "last show for awhile". Good, I would be delighted to see a new album or even EP from these guys. A short story about the troubles of a GPS: Going though a tunnel going past the city, the GPS lost our global position. Exiting the tunnel, not 100 feet away was a three way fork, each labeled with equally confusing signs that sounded not at all familiar to me. So I went straight, which ended up being staight in to New York City, at about 8pm on new year's eve. I fought back panic as I navigated 32nd street seeing the signs for "Broadway" and "9th ave", amidst throngs of pedestrians, whistle blowing police, and pissed off taxi cabs. No time to look for Ben Bailey here, just had to get the heck out of there, fast. Fifteen minutes later we entered the Lincoln tunnel and I made my flee to the New Jersey turnpike bordering a small heart attack. We survived, the police have a good handle on things there.

On to the show. Slick Rick was supposed to open but we learned from friends that were already at the show that Slick Rick had canceled, and a band named Man Man (no joke) was going to open. We made no attempt to rush to the show and called a cab around 9pm to head there from the hotel. Fifteen minutes and a really sketchy cab ride later we made it to the Wellmont Theater. Some dude was playing his iPod on a completely random mix in lieu of Slick Rick. But that was the better of the openers. Man Man came on. In a very painful 45 min I watched the train wreck that was Man Man. A really messed up front man with cut off jean shorts who repeatedly changed his shirt from sailor striped crew to a green glitter tunic. A few drummers who completely covered up the one electric guitar. And they all had mics, actually screaming in to them in unison at multiple times in one song. At one point the bartender told me that the band was making it hard to do her job because she couldn't hear anything. Train wreck. The best parts of the set were the breaks in between songs. But Passion Pit redeemed Man Man with an incredible set of the full Manners album. "Little Secret" was played just after midnight with a perfect rendition of "Sleepyhead" closing the set. There was even a Cranberries cover. They were wonderful. Confetti filled the plaster ceiling venue with much delight to the crowd, and myself as I got some New Year's kisses. Wonderful night. See closing number below (at least someone had a good camera, not I).

Leaving the venue with 4 other friends we decided to split up to find a taxi. I called two taxi services, who each had over an hour wait. Four miles to the hotel, wandering along aimlessly with no jacket in 30 degree weather. I had my mind set that we were walking back. This was not like Church street in Burlington where there were cabs waiting everywhere with nothing to do. As I was Google-mapping walking directions to the hotel, imaging how I was going to keep warm for an hour and a half, when an unmarked white Nissan pulled up to us and rolled down the window. She mumbled something to Noah asking if we were from a completely different hotel, he replied no, but she told us to get in anyway, she would take us to our hotel. I thought, what great luck this is. Three hours in to 2011 and we get a one in one hundred taxi ride back to the hotel.

I hope this is foretelling of the new year. Good luck, to good people like us. Given the craziness of of new year's eve drive through NYC, a terrible opening band...but then a great band, great set and an angel in a white Nissan. Good things are to come this year, I can feel it.

I leave you with my favorite Pretty Lights track...

Pretty Lights - Final Countdown LIVE Mix - Vic Theatre Chicago 2009/10 by inxsingh

Confetti drops in the Wellmont Theater - Montclair, NJ