There's no denying it's risky to book an outdoor show in the summertime in New York city and today the city felt more like a tropical rain forest than anything else. With strong thunderstorms in the forecast for every day this week the afternoon temperature today was in the high 80's and I'd guess near 100% humidity. Every time I looked skyward this afternoon on our walk back from lunch at a cafe called Serendipity 3, I thought it was going to pour. The forecast.....



Amazingly, it held off, not only all day but for the whole show. That is until 20 minutes or so into the load-out so the crew suffered a bit but not as much as they could have. They had to deal with a split-load-out too, meaning they unloaded the trucks down on 53rd street into smaller vans which took the gear up to 72nd and 5th which is where the park entrance was. All this was done in reverse of course for the load-out, during the deluge.



The outdoor meet and greet would have been canceled if the rain had come but thankfully the 70 or so guests were treated to the usual musical freak show that Folk Shag puts on at the pre-show event.



Backstage security, New York style.



Looking out at the New York skyline with the lightening in the distance was mildly biblical as the flashes seemed to be coming from all around and it felt like something was keeping it all away. A feeling confirmed as 20 minutes after we came off-stage whatever force was holding it off could work no longer and the heavens opened, literally just as we got into our SUV to take us back to the hotel. I stayed behind as my family are spending the last week or so of the tour with me, and John passed on the runner too since Heidi is here as well.



I got a few shots of the approaching storm during the load-out. The shot below was taken about 5 minutes before it came.



We got back to our hotel in no time and decided to go across the road to the pub. Most of the crew boys were in there so I called John and he brough along Heide, Danny and Richard so pretty soon most of the touring party were in there downing pints (American size, ie a bit smaller) of Sam Adams, Guinness, Carlsberg etc. etc. The fact that tomorrow is a day off in New York meant that the evening went on into the wee hours.....and why not.