The New Alternative Music Festival at Asbury Park's Convention Hall, Night 1, 9/16/16

Screaming Females headlined Night 1 of Don Giovanni Records' New Alternative Music Festival

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It was a huge undertaking: 3 days and 50-plus bands inside Asbury Park's cavernous Convention Hall without corporate sponsors and without utilizing the infrastructure provided by the major monopolistic players in the live music business like Ticketmaster. About a week before the New Alternative Music Festival started, there was evidence that maybe it was too much too soon. Don Giovanni Records announced the cancelation of Sunday, the festival's third day, lopping off all but one or two of the bands that were scheduled to play that day. They were left with a two-day festival featuring bands like Screaming Females, Downtown Boys, P.S. Eliot, Laura Stevenson, Girlpool, Sex Stains, Ought, and more. Plenty for those of us in attendance to gorge ourselves on and, looking back, more than I could even imagine handling.

The festival had been underway for about 3 hours by the time I arrived after fulfilling my school pickup and swim carpool duties. Ithaca, NY rapper, Sammus, was just setting up; and it was a great start to my weekend. She was able to turn the vast space into something intimate as she rapped about frustration and anger while mixing in exhortations to positivity and self-respect. Sammus ended her set on the floor without a mic, weaving around the audience, shaking hands and thanking almost everyone personally.

Sammus

The huge Convention Hall stage was divided in two with one band setting up stage right as another band played stage left and vice versa. It was like a whirlwind. We sidled from one side to the other as acts took the stage at a relentless clip. Following Sammus, we got The Max Levine Ensemble, California X, Nude Beach, Radiator Hospital, Tenement, P.S. Eliot, Ought, and Screaming Females.

Each of those sets had something great to offer. I've been a fan of California X, Nude Beach, and Radiator Hospital for a while now; and all three were major reasons why I looked forward to NAMF as soon as it was announced. Montreal's Ought came highly-recommended; and, after their set, I'm going spend some more time digging deeper into their music. The highlights of the evening for me, though, were the sets from Tenement, P.S. Eliot, and Screaming Females.

Nude Beach

Radiator Hospital's Sam Cook-Parrott

I've seen Wisconsin's Tenement a few times, always as a trio. They come out onstage and deliver songs at a relentless clip. No bullshit. Singer / guitarist, Amos Pitsch, channels all of the energy from the band and just blasts it out over the audience. For their performance on Friday, they'd expanded with the addition of keys and backup singers. They steamrolled us all and concluded with a noisy set finale that saw the backup singers pick up a violin and a sax to add to the din.

Tenement

Ought

Then, it was back across the floor for the reunited P.S. Eliot. Katie (Waxahatchee, Great Thunder) and Allison Crutchfield (Swearin', solo) have produced some of my favorite music since I started CoolDad Music. Don Giovanni just re-issued the back catalog of the sisters' early band, P.S. Eliot, and the audience were ready to get back into it. A guy standing next to me had flown in from Amarillo, TX for the set and lost it at the opening chords to almost every song.

P.S. Eliot

In all the times I'd seen Katie Crutchfield with Waxahatchee, solo or fronting a full band, I'd never seen her just rock out the way she did with P.S. Eliot. The whole band appeared to be having a blast.

At one point during the set, an altercation over dancing / bumping / personal space erupted between a man and woman in the front row. Katie Crutchfield stopped the band and told both to "chill out" as she was forced to play elementary school teacher and direct a few people to stand between the pair to keep them separated. It was a tiny bump in a fantastic set, and people screamed for more when it was done.

Screaming Females played to the largest crowd of the two days. Things were running a little bit ahead of schedule (surprisingly), and the band started about 15 minutes early. They blasted through a set that was heavy on selections from 2015's Rose Mountain.

Something happens to singer / guitarist Marissa Paternoster when she puts on that black dress and starts to play. The music runs through her and she goes to another place. You can see it flick off when she speaks to the crowd while tuning her guitar, and it flicks back on again as soon as the next song starts. King Mike (bass) and Jarrett D (drums) are right there with her; and the whole band came together on some extended jams, facing each other and kind of reveling in the noise they were making. As the set went on, I could see sound people and techs standing in the wings or massing on the stairs just to catch a glimpse of what was going on onstage.

Screaming Females

When the set was done and Paternoster had thrown her guitar to the floor, several people up front chanted for more; but the band was done. The switch had flicked off again; and Paternoster was calmly shaking hands, introducing herself, and thanking fans for their compliments.

I was bleary-eyed and kind of in a bit of pain feet and leg-wise. Time to go grab a Korean burrito, head home, and re-energize for the next day.

I'll have a recap of Day 2 with some overall thoughts on the festival a little later. I'm still working my way through pictures, but I'll have shots from both days up in the Flickr galleries when I'm all done.