For the second year of L Magazine‘s Northside Festival, QRO not only bumped up from press to presenter, but also doubled our manpower, with duties shared between Ted Chase & Mike Gutierrez. But even though our badges came thanks to the QRO Mag/Ampeater showcase on the final day (QRO event page), we still did our journalistic duty to cover the festival:
The final day of Northside had QRO wearing a couple different hats because the joint QRO/Ampeater showcase (QRO event page) pulled us away from general coverage duties in the evening. Throw in the creeping exhaustion of three whirlwind days of showhopping and I was one tired puppy. The net result was that I only got out to a pair of gigs in the afternoon before hightailing it to Bar Matchless for our Boy Without God/MiniBoone/PS I Love You/Thieving Irons lineup. I don’t think I was the only one dogging it on the last day either. In the early afternoon while I was still waking up, surfing the Twitterwaves from Ted’s couch, I saw someone had uploaded a live photo of the ARMS (QRO album review) crowd, or lack thereof, for the 1:30pm show. The picture was of a stage and empty parking lot. That’s tough. With A. A. Bondy (QRO album review) and Elvis Perkins in Dearland (QRO live review) coming on after, that should’ve, would’ve, could’ve been a more populated gig at some other time of day.
– Mike Gutierrez
The Battering Room Presents @ Bar Matchless
Shark?
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Made it to Bar Matchless though to catch Shark? for maybe the third time at Northside, at the Battering Room showcase. It was probably my favorite gig of theirs during the festival. Nothing over the top; just solid rock n roll, and the guys seemed like they had settled into a real nice groove. The big bear of a frontman had a great sound going on the guitar and reeled off some cool noisy intro/outros that segued one song into the next, and gave the set a smooth organic feel. Shark? had the look and sound of a weathered touring band, though they never left New York. It’s a great town for scoring gigs if you’re a solid band. Try gigging that hard in Boston and you’ll get blacklisted by clubs for sapping your draw.
– Mike Gutierrez
Engine Room Recordings & Tijuana Gift Shop Present
The Canon Logic
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Ducked over to Public Assembly (QRO venue review) for the very tail end of the last afternoon showcase of the day, Engine Room Recordings & Tijuana Gift Shop Presents. There was a robot mascot in the house for some reason. I think Engine Room has some sort of relationship with Middle Distance Runner (QRO spotlight on – a band I’m fond of, though have mostly given up on as a ‘real’ ensemble. I think they’re just trying to make songs they can flip into commercials and soundtracks these days. I heard one of their songs in the background of a scene from that now-canceled ABC show Flash Forward). The Canon Logic were finishing up a set; the band is a whitebread collection of perfectly nice fratbrother-looking dudes that plays a somewhat soulless brand of rock/pop. Rock/pop, like those row dividers you see at major record stores, Virgin, Tower Records, etc. The only thing that jumped out at me was that the frontman looked sort of like the frontguy from Arcade Fire (QRO live review)… and as soon as I realized that, the group broke out into a cover of that big single from Funeral, which still gives me goosebumps even through the mucked up filter of the Canon Logic.
– Mike Gutierrez
I spent the day at World Financial Center Plaza (QRO venue review) to catch at least some of River-to-River Festival’s twelve-hour ‘Bang On a Can Marathon’ (QRO photos), then headed to our showcase at Bar Matchless.
– Ted Chase
Ampeater Music & QRO Magazine Present @ Bar Matchless
And all of a sudden it was QRO/Ampeater’s time to shine. Bar Matchless made for a cozy little hangout spot for the night. When I arrived the indefatigable Ben Heller of Ampeater was already running around looking frenzied. God bless him; he’s one of those busy little bees that make a music scene.
The first drama of the night consisted of some border trouble for Canada’s PS I Love You. Apparently you need some heavy-duty visa crap to cross the border as a working band. To throw the pigs off PS I Love You only brought their most critical gear, a guitar and a few pieces of the drums set, but they were still missing various odds and ends that, thankfully, the kind guys from MiniBoone were able to provide at the last minute (no thanks to the Boy Without God drummer, by the way, who took off with his equipment right after his set to have dinner with his ‘mother’).
– Mike Gutierrez
Boy Without God
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I knew Gabriel Birnbaum, the man behind Boy Without God, as a colleague at Ampeater, but I didn’t know much about his music until recently. Very pleasantly surprised. He’s got a mixed jazz and rock n roll background, so he can fire away at a lot of different angles. L Magazine tabbed BWG as an artist to watch out for during the festival, and his set didn’t disappoint. He had the full band up and running, brass, drums, guitar, and a dusky, winsome vocal reminiscent of a Bon Iver (QRO album review). At a highpoint 
in the set Birnbaum threw down his guitar, picked up a sax, and blew a howling crescendo front stage and center that roused the crowd. Nice work, a nice opener. Boy Without God had an expansive set. Impressive for an outfit that’s not gigging weekly- you get that feeling that if they were, they could really open up.
– Mike Gutierrez
Knew nothing about Boy Without God going in, even that it was fronted by the same person who’d done much of the work putting together this showcase. Yet I was pleasantly surprised. Pretty damn alt-country, and it can be hard to work a saxophone into anything, but really liked the finish, where he stepped from the stage and onto a small riser in front of the stage & in the darkness, reminiscent of the closing numbers for Jones Street Station (QRO spotlight on) and Surprise Me, Mr. Davis (QRO photos).
– Ted Chase
PS I Love You
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Canada’s PS I Love You was a complete mystery to me before the show. I had heard some of their stuff on Myspace, but it’s hard to get a good feel for a band that way. Ben liked him, and they were his pick, so I wasn’t really worried about it either way. The group consists of two rangy rock n roll hosers: a scruffy bearded, robust frontman with a sort of lumberjack/skater vibe and a badass drummer. The duo makes for a relatively minimalist production, with artfully constructed riffs chugging along against spitfire percussion. This is a band worth looking into. Really good songwriting there, spare rock gems.
– Mike Gutierrez
Knew even less about PS I Love You than about Boy Without God (see above) – actually, heard that P.S. (main man’s initials) was from Canada while helping out a bit with finding them some extra gear 
(saying that they didn’t want to get hassled by the man when crossing the border just sounds so punk rock). The big, burly guy, decked in a beard & flannel reminded me of J. Mascis (QRO photos) and other guitarist/singers who got a random moment in the spotlight in the grunge era, but then MTV decided grunge didn’t sell and they disappeared – not having wanted the spotlight or the not-light.
– Ted Chase
MiniBoone
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Never mind about Ben Heller being indefatigable: that title goes to MiniBoone. Was this their 6th or 7th gig of the festival? Who knows? We were glad to have one of the hardest giggers at Northside on the bill, and the room definitely perked up as they took the stage. The guys didn’t seem to know which end was up, their heads probably still spinning from the last gig, but as soon as they landed on stage the pieces came together.
Their set bounced along nicely with high points during songs "Rosalina Must Dance Alone" (a personal favorite of mine because it’s got a real clear-cut climax, though the lyrical conceit of the song is a bit touchy-feely, and the guys, understandably ham up the delivery to make it less emo) and "Cool Kids Cut Out of the Heart Itself". Owl Mag was in the house and got great footage of one of the songs. There was even a love ‘missed connection’ during the set, which MiniBoone found a reposted later, of some lonely heart pining after a ‘Janeane Garafalo’-esque photog. Howling guitars and broken hearts, that’s a full night right there.
– Mike Gutierrez
The band of Northside, hands down – and would have said that even if they weren’t playing our showcase. Tons of energy & fun (though I was worried that they’d crash into each other on the small Bar Matchless stage) – and we can say ‘we knew them when’…
– Ted Chase
Thieving Irons
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Closer Thieving Irons was probably the class act of the night, putting in a real veteran set. The band’s got a new album coming out (This Midnight Hum – QRO review), so it was a great opportunity to hear the new stuff live.
During the set I couldn’t drag my attention away from one of the backing musicians who was plying away at what looked like a Darth Vader bong. Which it obviously wasn’t, but for the life of me, I couldn’t identify the thing. Hope to god someone got a good picture of that thing. I asked the guy after the set what it was all about: an electric trumpet. Go figure. They were produced for about two years in 
the ‘80s or something, when everything was going modern, and then quickly discontinued after the manufacturers came to their senses.
But Thieving Irons is a quirky group of guys, connoisseurs of musical minutia, and it looks like the electronic trumpet has become a regular part of their ensemble. Pretty damn cool.
– Mike Gutierrez
I could repeat Mike’s fascination with the electronic trumpet thing (see above), but no need to harp on. On their new This Midnight Hum, Thieving Irons hew more to the alt-country rather than alt-rock side of things, sweeter if not necessarily more awesome, but live, everything’s a little rougher around the edges. And "Tow the Line", my favorite off of Hum, killed it at the end, hitting the alt-country/alt-rock sweet spot.
– Ted Chase
And that’s all she wrote. Thanks to all the bands, Ampeater, Bar Matchless, L Magazine, all the Northside worker bees, and especially the free booze ‘n’ schwag. You rock.
Unfortunately missed:
– Hooray For Earth (QRO live review) at Brooklyn Bowl (QRO venue review), 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM: These guys are always great. Plus, Zambri (QRO photos) would’ve probably been in the house, but I’ve talked them up so much it’s almost embarrassing to meet them in person at this point.
– Mike Gutierrez
– Elvis Perkins in Dearland, A.A. Bondy & ARMS at Newtown Barge Park, 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM. Conflicted with Bang On a Can.
– Hooray For Earth at Brooklyn Bowl, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM. But ran into percussionist Josh Ascalon on Night Two (QRO recap), told him why we’d unfortunately being missing these ‘Friends of the Q’.
– Ted Chase
Fortunately missed:
– The rest of the Engine Rooms showcase at Public Assembly, 2:30 PM – 6:30 PM: I don’t know any of these bands so I probably shouldn’t talk them down, but that gig gave me bad mojo.
– Mike Gutierrez
– The Shivers at Cameo (QRO venue review), 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM: I saw them once, and that was one too many times for me.
– Ted Chase
