And so ended the Pool Parties, at least in the form in which we know them. That is to say, they ended with fun and sunny sets from the previously confirmed Florida booty rap party starter Dominique Young Unique and Barcelona’s blissed out dance rock blog-beaters Delorean, and a series of special guests that ran a rap line rarely toed there over the past five years: the Cool Kids, Doug E. Fresh, the latter-half of Run-D.M.C., Big Freedia, and big pleaser/not-so-secret special headliner Gucci Mane. Yes, thrown in there was D.M.C., as in the man who’s flanked Reverend Run, here joined by Andrew W.K. (and full band, for “Tricky”) and Tim Harrington, for “Walk This Way.” If it sounded somewhat unhinged, it was. If it sounded fun, it was that, too. It also felt nostalgic — turns out it’s a good morning for that.
Stereogum’s relationship with the series goes back to where it all began: We co-curated the very first Pool Party, bringing Les Savy Fav to a slightly elevated stage sitting on the lip of the deep end of a disused, dried out McCarren Pool. Five years on, McCarren is becoming an actual pool, the parties take place at the Williamsburg Waterfront where it is a Pool Party in name only, and Tim Harrington’s presence yesterday served as a bearded bookend, fitting as he’s cemented a status as the neighborhood elder/mascot/ubiquitous trickster over the past half-decade.
Will there be parties here, at the Waterfront, next year?
