Northside festival

Sure was a festival this weekend. Northside Festival in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, very young, very much an in utero sister festival to sxsw, which in my opinion, is a nice thing. Now that i live here among the thick of the area of said festival,i can honestly appreciate the compact geography and smaller size of the northside fest.. versus the beast that is SXSW. even living on the outskirts of sxsw, where i had to bus or car it ,i could still bitch about the shows taking over my favorite venues and bars knowing i didn't have a space to call home...that means YOU Nomad bar, Longbranch Inn, etc..i love you but i want a quite calm amongst the storm ;) But here, yeah, it was small enough to where the venues didn't amass into a complete takeover and a lot of the shows were in sepparate rooms from the hangout bar area. Plus, I could walk everywhere, including home, yeah!! That said, i enjoyed both aspects..the shows and the scene. i must say i was most enamoured with X-Ray Eyeballs, an apparent brooklyn fave introduced to me by my go to goer of shows, craig (!!!) They had me hooked on first listen and nearly took down the ceiling at death by audio at an unofficial showcase this past weekend. I had visions of shapes have fangs or the apeshits or one of Penny's many projects at beerland as i listened. Ass shots, weiner shots, you name it :


also caught The Oh Sees as said venue, the sweatiest, DIYest, smokiest indoors, you could walk by and miss it totalliest venue i've been to here. They killed it.

Surprise sneak in to Music hall of Williamsburg brought Thelonius London, and honestly was captivated. Never a fan before. Clueless in fact. But i see the rage now...

Other highlights included a decent outdoor set by wavves, who was much funner w/ KSpot at FFF BTW...it was a weird setup..the crowd was blocked 10 feet from the steve madden stage and apparently nathan was a lil under the weather..Still played my faves and i was happy to see it, big as all Jesus pot leaf T shirts and all. Beirut gave me a new reason to love them playing on the same stage...go figure. Surfer Blood gave me chills with Catholic Pagan, and GBV did 3 fucking encores. yes emphasis on 3 and fucking, cuz these dudes have been around the block and still do kicks and mic swinging, yelling.. and 3 encores. Woven Bones show also blew my mind and cant hardly believe the transformation of Andy and his new crew. A +

Last day i opted for Blair and Airwaves at Glasslands... super duper cool to see Blair solo, WOW! and despite sound and mix issues, Airwaves brought the songs that made me smile. Go Knock Out.

I also became infatuated with Fergus and Geronimo..a brooklyn band that i'd heard of but never experienced. I heard TV personalities, The Clean, Gogol Bordello, and all kinds of gypsy craziness and i figured an accordian would make its way on stage at some point.
In other Hardly Art news, i saw Collen Green (the east coast version of Best Coast) and was amped TTM hearing her solo and electric. Sweet lady and a drum machine, a guitar, pink sunglasses, and a voice that made me jealous. YES.

Above and beyond, a great weekend.. missed diamond rings and the strange boys, atlas sound, porcelain raft, reading rainbow, and Dom. whatcha gonna do? I was able to work and see shows and get paid. That spells FUCK YEAH in my lil book.
Speaking of pay, more of it woulda resulted in a splurge to see Foster The People and Gardens and Villa ... or a venture out to see Hooray for Earth DJ in Greenpoint last night.. but rest was much needed.
Many more brooklyn musings to come... so many more i could type for hours..but the sun comes up early here and i have readily available project runway to watch..more to come after a lil R and R and cable TV xoxo