Northside 2018 Recap – Thursday

Northside '18 started with some high-draw ladies....
Snail Mail

Northside 2018 Recap - Thursday

Northside Festival has come a long way since its founding almost a decade ago, L Magazine’s sub-CMJ (or sub-sub-SXSW) music fest taking place in venues in Williamsburg & Greenpoint (QRO recap of inaugural year). L Magazine and CMJ are no more, but Northside has since expanded significantly with its Innovation portion, featuring talks on the music industry, tech, and much more.

However, Innovation has come to overshadow Music more & more (such as a music badge costing around $70 – Innovation around $1,000). This year also didn’t see any of the big outdoor McCarren Park shows of years past, either free or ticketed, a major loss on the big-name front. But the festival was still a chance to scour the streets of Brooklyn (and stops on the L train) for new music in small places.

 

 

Maybe the biggest name at Northside ’18 was Liz Phair, who was playing the twenty-fifth anniversary of her seminal nineties alt-woman release, Exile In Guyville, at National Sawdust. Unfortunately, that draw meant a huge line, with particular limits on press, and no photos anyway. But that also meant missing buzzed about opener Soccer Mommy.

 

Northside showcase @ Music Hall of Williamsburg – Ted Chase

Corridor

Corridor

Click image for photo gallery – Ted Chase

So instead headed a few doors down to Music Hall of Williamsburg (QRO venue review). While not every Northside venue was right next to each other, a number were, making it easy to bounce over to Music Hall for Montreal’s Corridor, making their first ever visit to New York City. They had some nice indie-pop with just the right level of airiness, and while there were only a handful catching them at their start, Music Hall started to fill as they played.

 

Lionlimb

Lionlimb

Click image for photo gallery – Ted Chase

Unfortunately, the following Lionlimb was not as gripping. That often comes when the lead singer/frontman is also playing keys, and is seated at his board, perpendicular to the audience – a trio that also had a drummer, that meant only one standing member. Given how popular synthesizers have become, maybe it’s time for the return of the keytar (Belle & Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch rocked it the following day to the big Forest Hills Stadium crowd – QRO photos).

 

Snail Mail

Snail Mail

Click image for photo gallery – Ted Chase

But these were distinctly the openers running up to the headliner of the night, Snail Mail. It was a pseudo-release party for the group, as their album Lush was coming out the following day. Like Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail came into Northside with some serious indie-buzz (including a New York Times piece on frontwoman Lindsey Jordan), and largely seemed to deserve it. The pleading indie-rock was the right sort of pleading indie-rock, with Jordan & co. reminiscent of Elizabeth Powell (QRO interview) and her Land of Talk (QRO spotlight on) – a major compliment from this reviewer.

 

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