Day 4 of North Side Fest. June 14th, 2009.
North Side was finally winding down, but there were some interesting things going on…after doing the normal Sunday morning routine, I headed over to Bruar Falls, but first was a stop at Academy that produced Zork’s Tape Bruise (I thought the first press was out of print, but this copy was on clear wax…I guess I win!). If you get a chance to snag this Oh Sees album you totes should. It is basically John’s 4 track recordings, and a cd of all of the out of print eps. I was happy to find it, although the number of Oh Sees records I have is becoming exceedingly large.
I considered buying Enter the Vaselines, but didn’t…and then headed to see the Browns play.
When I got to Bruar Falls I was one of maybe 5 people there for the show…but more people trickled in slowly, and the Browns ended up playing to a decent sized crowd at 3 in the afternoon. They were tight, and the singer played on the floor. I caught them at Market Hotel sometime last fall, and I can say they have grown as a band quite a bit since then. I really enjoyed their set. They are making 90’s influenced indie rock…you can see bits and pieces of your favorite bands in their music, but at the same time it still feels fresh. I haven’t picked up their album yet, but I have been digging on these tracks that found in the mp3-o-sphere:
[mp3] The Browns- “For the Saints”
(off of the 1928 Label Sampler. Out of Print)
[mp3] The Browns- “Two Of You”
(off of Family History. Buy it here.)
Enter the Vaselines was still sticking around in my head, so I headed up to Permanent Records…and just as expected it was a couple bucks cheaper than the other shops in Williamsburg. So I snagged a copy of it…and well worth it too.
I met up with klk at Studio B for a totally packed out performance by the Dodos. I really enjoyed Visitor, and the first two times I saw the Dodos…but this time it wasn’t the same. Maybe it was that I was in the back of Studio B, but they didn’t have the same effect. The sound was boomy, and I just couldn’t get into it. We left after about three songs, and headed to The Diamond…which was a good decision. I am interested in hearing the new Dodos album when it comes out though.
I didn’t do much else for the rest of the afternoon except listen to my new Vaselines collection (which is totally awesome…thanks Sub Pop!). I headed over to Shea Stadium a little later than I was planning to, and unfortunately missed The Gutsies, but I did catch most of Knight School’s set and I was very happy that I did. Knight school totally rocked. I’m not going to say much more about them because I’m going to dedicate a post to them soon…but be on the look out.
Next up was So Cow, and as ya’ll probably already know his record on Tic Tac Totally has pretty much been my obsession of 2009. These guys were in California earlier that morning…traveled all day…showed up to Shea Stadium during Knight School’s set, and played about an hour later. Even though the three men that make up So Cow were exhausted from traveling they still managed to play for almost a full hour, and killed it. So Co is just one of those bands that doesn’t have an off night, or that was the impression I got from them seeing them play a hand full of times in NYC over the past two months. I also caught them again at The Bell House the following night. I’m a little sad that I won’t get to see them play for a while, but I’m sure they will be back. Oh and if you didn’t already see, So Cow’s album got a rad review on Pitchfork! (buy it here!)
At Shea Stadium…someone threw a chicken at So Cow (my first gif!?!):
I forgot to mention (therefore I’m adding this after I originally posted this) that the So Cow show at Shea Stadium was just about the most fun show I have been to in NYC…everyone was dancing (literally), having a good time, and just happy to be there. I was really glad that I got to be part of it. The chicken was thrown, but it was in good fun. A great end to the fest.
Lots of pictures of So Cow can be found here.
North Side Festival Wrap Up:
Overall North Side Fest was pretty cool, and I commend L Magazine for taking on something so ambitious. It brought lots of great music to the neighborhood, and overall I’m sure it helped out local businesses by bringing large groups of people out at all times of the day.
I think it was a great idea for there to be North Side Fest Badges, but I just feel like it didn’t give the badge holder enough benefits. And here is why:
- The Badge didn’t guarantee entry to all of the shows.
- Only 20% of the venue capacity was reserved for Badge holders, and if you weren’t there in time you didn’t get in.
- There was also no effective way for the festival to track badge holders coming and going
- Statements like “No Re-Entry for Badge Holders” were common, and I felt that it just wasn’t a fair way to treat people who had invested money in the whole weekend.
- This was the main problem.
- In order to get your moneys worth out of the badge you have to jump from show to show (it’s just not cost effective if you don’t), and not being guaranteed entry is lame.
- Even if a show wasn’t sold out to the public…if 20% of the capacity was filled by badge holders, no more could get in. This created problems with buzz bands like Real Estate.
- Also it was really hard to take advantage of the “free drinks” that were available…you had to try really hard, and in the end I only got two.
- I would almost like to see more drink specials at venues, rather than free drinks or drink specials at non-venues.
All in all, I think people would be willing to pay more for a badge if it ensured that they got into the shows they wanted to see.
My last questions about the Badges is how do bands get paid? I know that North Side Fest people are at all the venues to count how many badge holders enter…but how is this money distributed? I assume money got thrown toward Real Estate from North Side Fest because the badge holder capacity was sold out…but what about smaller shows that don’t attract that many badge holders? Is any money given to those bands? It is in the music lovers interest to buy the badge, especially if they are planning on seeing lots of shows…and while I wasn’t a fan of SIN way of dealing with NSF…their flier did raise some questions. I’m not siding with SIN (they knew what they were getting into when they sided with North Side Fest to begin with), but it did make me wonder where the money from the badges went. One would hope that some of your money from the badge purchase is going to the bands you actually got to see.
These were all thoughts that came up during the festival, and since I have a blog I feel that this is as good a place as any to air these opinions. I think a little better planning could go into pairing bands with venues of appropriate size (ie Real Estate, The Van Pelt, and the Beets could have all used a larger venue).
These things will all be worked out with time. I hope to see more national acts at the Festival next year (this year was a little bit heavy on the local, but there is nothing wrong with that…we have a great scene), but overall I congratulate L Magazine, and North Side Festival on a successful first year. Lots of great bands played, and I felt that it was really good to see all of the venues, bands, promoters, and local media working together to make this happen. North Side brought people out to Williamsburg and Greenpoint that might not normally venture into North Brooklyn to see bands play and be part of the festivities…we even got calls from friends asking what shows they should go too. because they wanted to check out a North Side event. Basically what I’m trying to say is: YR doing a great job, and I look forward to it next year.
Links:
More on So Cow here.
More on Thee Oh Sees here.
More on Permanent Records here.
All of my North Side Festival Coverage can be found here.
This concludes my North Side Fest coverage until next year. Now back to normal posting.
