  We use a nonequilibrium implementation of the dynamical cluster approximation
(DCA) to study the effect of short-range correlations on the dynamics of the
two-dimensional Falicov-Kimball model after an interaction quench. As in the
case of single-site dynamical mean field theory, thermalization is absent in
DCA simulations, and for quenches across the metal-insulator boundary,
nearest-neighbor charge correlations in the nonthermal steady state are found
to be larger than in the thermal state with identical energy. We investigate to
what extent it is possible to define an effective temperature of the trapped
state after a quench. Based on the ratio between the lesser and retarded
Green's function we conclude that a roughly thermal distribution is reached
within the energy intervals corresponding to the momentum-patch dependent
subbands of the spectral function. The effectively different chemical
potentials of these distributions however lead to a very hot, or even negative,
effective temperature in the energy intervals between these subbands.
