The third annual Northside Music Festival kicked off on June 16th in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The four-day festival was created and curated by NY’s The L Magazine, and featured indie musicians, filmmakers and artists from across the US and abroad. According to Northside, the festival is a “celebration of these so-called dreamer types… at the center of the (creative) universe.”
Rock, punk and hip hop artists stormed the area around the Bedford L, playing in key music venues that included the Music Hall, Brooklyn Bowl, Glasslands Gallery, Knitting Factory, Public Assembly, and Cameo Gallery.
I don’t know how it took Brooklyn this long to get a large music festival considering all the venues in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, but each year the event has been garnering more attention and as a result Northside has been able to book some great headlining bands. This year the main outdoor stage was set up in McCarron Park and featured Sharon Van Etten, Beirut, Surfer Blood, Wavves, and Guided By Voices on days two and three.
Day one kicked off with the official opening party at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, with Gordon Voidwell and Theophilus London. Voidwell got the crowd warmed up and had some good dance moves, but it was the Trinidadian born, Brooklyn raised Theophilus London who packed the hall and killed it with his high energy soul/rock infused hip hop. I first saw Theophilus London during CMJ 2010 and since then he’s been quickly gaining fans across NY and the country. A highlight during the performance was the guest appearances of Telli Gramz of Ninjasonik, and the one and only Elmo who joined for a couple tracks. London is releasing his debut album Timez Are Weird These Days on July 19th through Warner Music.
Day two kicked the festival into a higher gear with more bands for the start of the weekend. After some pretty violent rain storms during the day, the weather seemed to hold for the crowd at the Steve Madden outdoor stage in McCarron Park. Sharon Van Etten played a beautiful set which included some new songs from her upcoming album she is recording with Aaron Dessner of The National (who also joined her on stage playing guitar for a number of songs). At one point fans yelled out “Do It,” which prompted Sharon’s response of she wasn’t sure if she would, and then launched into her track “Don’t Do It” from 2010’s Epic. This album is on heavy rotation at my house and I can’t wait to hear her next release.
Headlining the McCarron Park stage was Beirut. Zach Condon and crew put on a fantastic show of Eastern European influenced folk rock and Mexican Banda music, heavy in accordion and horns.
The second day at the main stage featured Surfer Blood, Wavves, and Guided By Voices. Bedford Ave was closed off to cars and the neighborhood was packed. The location of the stage was ideal. There was plenty of room to move about, and for those who couldn’t get tickets to the sold out event, you could easily sit outside and watch through the chain-link fence (although a little far away).
Surfer Blood and Wavves each played for about an hour. Surfer Blood’s singer John Paul Pitts brought some young kids on stage as he serenaded them and the crowd with the single “Take It Easy.” Wavves had great energy on stage. I don’t think those guys stopped moving for the whole time, with bassist Stephen Pope leading the headbanging.
Guided By Voices played a good long set. I checked my watch and it rang in somewhere around one and a half to two hours, and considering most of their songs are in the two minute range they packed in a lot tracks. Bob Pollard and crew rocked the crowd of die-hard fans who are notorious for traveling the country to see their beloved GBV. It was night of hard rock, tequila drinking (Bob drank from a bottle of Cuervo on stage) and chain smoking. I think the band must have smoked a carton of cigarettes collectively during the night. I only wished they had played “Everywhere with Helicopter.” Hopefully we’ll see GBV back in NYC on December 5th, which is the official GBV day in New York.
Another show during the fest that blew me away was The Idolator sponsored event at the Brooklyn Bowl, which featured Deluka, Rye Rye and Oh Land. Deluka opened up the night with some hard indie rock/new wave. Baltimore’s Rye Rye got the crowd jumping and dancing along with her hip hop and fast rhymes. She brought out two matching dancers in white tees and old school style American flag shorts. It was an entertaining set, and I’m excited to hear her debut album Go!Pop!Bang! (N.E.E.T. Recordings), which is slated for release this summer (and produced by M.I.A. and Pharell).
Oh Land (aka Nanna Øland Fabricius) is a Danish Electro Pop performer whose recent album (Oh Land) is one of my new favorites. I was excited to see Oh Land in concert, but I wasn’t sure if her style would translate well to a live show. Fabricius took to the stage dressed all in white, with a large Native American feather style headdress. She built the crowd up with her catchy pop songs and had everyone singing along with “Son Of A Gun,” “Wolf & I,” and my favorite track “White Nights.”
I had a solid time during the festival and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Northside Fest started to get the same attention and crowds that CMJ gets during the Fall.
