Why Love NY

YouTube - Link to Daniel Johnston performs Speeding Motorcycle at Spiegelworld

My friends and I had the pleasure of seeing Daniel Johnston perform live at Spiegelworld last night. If you’ve never been to the venue, it is definitely worth checking out. It’s located on the northeast corner of Pier 17 near the South Street Seaport and consists of a number of tents, an outdoor restaurant and the main attraction, the Salon Perdu spiegeltent where the musical acts perform. Spiegelworld is also the home of the shows La Vie and Absinthe, which will be featured on this site once I get around to seeing them.

If you’re not sure who Daniel Johnston is, today is your lucky day. Daniel first entered my life about a year and a half ago when my friends and I drove from New York City to Louisville for the 132nd Kentucky Derby in May of 2006. John had recently watched the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, fallen in love and picked up The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered on CD. We listened to this 2-disc set over and over on the 32 hour round trip drive (track 11 - Go, is a personal favorite of mine). When all was said and done, Daniel had three new fans, and one guy who thought we were mildly insane.

The show last night at Spiegelworld was our second chance to see Daniel Johnston live. He performed at the Highline Ballroom as part of David Bowie’s Highline Festival back on May 16th which was quite an experience but I dare say that he outdid himself on Pier 17. The show was longer, contained more recognizable tracks (like Speeding Motorcycle, featured in the the YouTube clip above) and had some of those magic moments that made the show unforgettable. In addition to accidentally belching loudly in the middle of a song, he also managed to get the entire audience to sit down on the floor so everyone could see him while he played the piano.

I simply can’t wait for his next live performance in NYC, or the next 32 hour trip to Kentucky and back, whichever comes first.