Well, this was a learning experience. My previous experiment in seeing a show in NYC and sleeping in my own bed that same night was pretty successful. This time? Not so much. I got to see Greet Death play exactly one song before I turned into a pumpkin. Luckily it was the song I most wanted to hear, “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done,” whose title was also very appropriate for the moment.
As it turned out, I was overcautious on timing, scheduling a Lyft pickup for 10:30 to make it to Penn Station in time for my 11:15 train. Not only was the Lyft driver early, the trip only took about 12 minutes, leaving me with an extra 30 minutes I could have spent listening to loud live music. To top it off, with tip, that 12-minute, 3.6-mile ride cost me a whopping $38.81!
Other transportation options from Saint Vitus are less expensive but also harder to estimate timing. I might be able to hail a cab via an app, but they’re otherwise thin on the ground in that neighborhood at that time of night. A Lyft bike would require a ferry ride. And the subway would be a little bit of a walk and put me at the mercy of both the G and E trains.
So it looks like the takeaway here is that, at least for shows at Saint Vitus, I’ll either need Amtrak to offer a later train back to Philly or I’ll need to crash at a friend’s place.