THE WILD BROUHAHA THAT WAS NORTHSIDE DAY 2

My second day of the Northside Festival started with a daytime showcase thrown by the music-booking outfit Ears to Feed at Williamsburg’s coolest coffee joint/DIY side-room venue Muchmore’s. I spent my whole Friday afternoon there taking in a slew of amazing talent from the wonderfully rich and complex brew of artsy noise rock of the Russian Baths, then the wacky and twisted trio Sic Tic that conjures sounds somewhere between Love and Rockets, Primus, and solo-era Adrian Belew, and after them even effortlessly jumping over to the jangly, foot-stomping, bluegrass-infused Brooklyn outfit OxenFree. The whole room sat cross-legged and chilled out to the gorgeously mellowed out tunes of guitarist Sam Yield, and thereafter chillaxed to the charmingly harmonic swoon of the Poppies.

Russian Baths

Sic Tic

OxenFree

Sam Yield

Poppies

Soon, however, it was time to move myself along to the Music Hall of Williamsburg for a big showcase there. There, the Amsterdam trio Bombay kicked things off with a glorious space boogie of Dutch garage rockin’ kindness, and that was followed by an even more impressive trio called Flasher from D.C. that really kicked up the volume of the same sort of formula of raw post-punking rock. The headliner of this show was the rockin’ brother brouhaha two-piece from Nashville called JEFF the Brotherhood that, as always, took the whole bare-bones guitar and drum pairing sound back to it’s devil-riffing roots. They have a real flair for keeping it real and making you fancy chugging a whole bottle of whiskey and tearing up the party.

Bombay

Flasher

JEFF The Brotherhood

After all that, it was back to Baby’s All Right for another late showcase, this one featuring a number of female-centric acts that really rock. I came in just as the first band had started; the guitar/drum duo of a whole different breed called Diet Cig, whose singer/axe swinger was zealously bounding abouts the stage like a Tigger on crack. Next was the hilarious Seattle female trio called Childbirth, who seems like a crass joke at first, but once you get past the cheeky humor, the band actually rocks just as much as it mocks popular culture. As the headliner, the eternal teenage stoner Colleen Green played with just a pair of thick sunglasses and a guitar in front of a mic with the occasional help of a tiny drum machine to produce her extremely charming and breezy wry songs that just hook you in and doesn’t let go.