Northside Festival Wrap Up: Part 1

Savoir Adore at Spike Hill, 6.13.09

Last year summer the NYC area got it’s first real festival with All Points West in Jersey City. This past weekend, The L Magazine brought its first Northside Festival to Brooklyn! The festival was a four-day event consisting of art exhibits, DJ sets, showcases and gigs scattered all over Greenpoint and Williamsburg. Jess and I were excited to be a part of all of the fun and most importantly make it out to support the local businesses and bands.

In this post I will be sharing some insight and pictures we snapped at the gigs we saw on Saturday and Jess will be following up in Part 2 with coverage of the shows we saw at Studio B on Sunday for the finale. We have a lot of fun and encourage you all to make it out next year!

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MATCHLESS: THE BATTERING ROOM PRESENTS

The first stop on our Saturday outing was to check out pow wow! at Matchless. We caught the end of Appomattox but dipped back out because the sound at Matchless was kinda harsh especially with the loudness of the band.

We slipped back in to the stage area when Brooklyn-based pow wow! began setting up and chatted with Jen of The Music Slut. The crowd seemed to be scared to get near the stage but began to migrate closer once they caught wind of pow wow!’s non-threatening indie pop tunes. We’ve seen the boys of pow wow! play live before (and interviewed them a few months back) so it was great to see them so active in this festival (anyone got the final tally on the number of gigs they played for Northside?) Make sure you catch them in the area before they hit the road.

pow wow! at Machless, 6.13.09

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SPIKE HILL: THE L MAGAZINE PRESENTS 8 BANDS YOU NEED TO HEAR

Our next stop on the Northside circuit was Spike Hill to catch Savior Adore‘s set as a part of the L Magazine’s 8 Bands You Need to Hear. We caught the end of Xylo‘s packed set and grabbed a seat for Savior Adore’s 6PM set.

I first heard SA after catching labelmate Rumspringa‘s awesome gig a few months ago at Mercury Lounge. Rumspringa is signed to Cantora Records (home of MGMT) which brought me to Savior Adore. I really dig SA’s experimental and melodic sound layered with sweet vocals and was really looking forward to seeing their impressive live set.

Brooklyn formed Savoir Adore will be touring through the summer, check their MySpace for an up to date list of tour dates.

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CAMEO GALLERY: STARK & JINNERS NORTHSIDE SHOWCASE

After Spike Hill we decided it was time to take advantage of the $1 off frozen margaritas at San Loco (as if I needed more booze in me) then it was off to Cameo for the Stark Online and Jinners showcase.

Tristen at Cameo, 6.13.09

We finally had the pleasure of meeting Jinners as well as enjoying the ambiance of Cameo (we loved the jellyfish-esque installation above the stage.) Tristen was first on the bill, a cute singer-songwriter who played a folky acoustic set to a very frat-boy crowd (interesting.)

The Stark and Jinners showcase was the last stop on our Saturday Northsidery. Overall we were quite impressed with the organization of the festival. From picking up our badges, to enjoying free Heineken and of course scoping out some great local bands. At press time, the L Magazine has confirmed plans to bring the festival back next year which is quite exciting. Unfortunately we were unable to see everything we wished this time around but at least we’ve got next year!

MP3: pow wow! – So Weird or zShare
MP3: Savoir Adore – We Talk Like Machines or zShare