Northside Festival, expanded and invigorated with a healthy Innovation portion, returned to Williamsburg & Greenpoint, June 11th to 14th.
Green Label showcase @ McCarren Park
Against Me!
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It was an enthusiastic crowd when Against Me! took the stage at McCarren Park. Playing old songs as well as from most recent record Transgender Dysphoria Blues (QRO review) – singer Laura Jane Grace (formerly Tom Gabel – QRO interview) was ‘celebrity transgender’ well before Vanity Fair got interested in the cause – they also did an encore return cover of The Replacements’ “Androgynous”.
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Brooklyn Live at the Inlet showcase @ 50 Kent
Alvvays
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Sunny sounds on a sunny day, Alvvays are a hit in their native U.K., and a new alt-hipster favorite, opening for Best Coast & Built To Spill at 50 Kent (QRO venue review).
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Northside showcase @ Baby’s All Right
Bashira Webb headed to Baby’s All Right (QRO venue review) for The Holydrug Couple and Heaters:
Heaters
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The Holydrug Couple
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‘Almost Summer’ showcase at House of Vans
DJ Envy
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But your correspondent headed north a few blocks (still able to hear Alvvays on the water) to House of Vans (QRO venue review) for the final ‘Almost Summer’ event there. There were mega lines outside (including for VIP) when doors opened, and after they did DJ Envy did a good job psyching the crowd (later playing from the stage floor before the headliner).
Vince Staples
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Contrastingly, the crowd took a little time to warm up to Vince Staples. These free drink free events often have that as an issue, because people are first concerned with getting in before doors close (and the place very definitely hit it’s relatively low capacity), and then with getting their drinks before those run out (and they did, before headliner even went on). However, the crowd did heat up for Staples, whose new album Summertime ’06 comes out on at the end of the month.
Pusha T
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Despite the alcohol running out early (bars closed perhaps in response to some girl fight in VIP…), Pusha T & crowd was full on to close out ‘Almost Summer’. But this series was merely a nice prelude to the regular season there, starting soon.
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Other notes:
-Packed photo pits for Against Me! – transgender is just so ‘in’ right now – and Pusha T – his presumed friends in there crowding out actual photographers…