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| Downtown Boys closed out the New Alternative Music Festival at Convention Hall. |
You Can't Start a Fire without a Spark
Strangely, given how much I enjoy eating, I usually forget to eat during shows. I get kind of wrapped up in what's going on, and I don't make time to have dinner or whatever. Friday night was no different; so, after Screaming Females' set, I made my way over to Cookman Avenue to get a Korean burrito.
Asbury Park is actually a pretty small community; and, on a busy Friday night, you're likely to run into someone you know. I bumped into Gentleman Jim Norton outside of House of Independents, and we ended up chatting for a while as we've been known to do. When I finally made it to Mogo for some food, Renee Maskin (more on Renee in the next post) walked in; and we lingered over burritos discussing all manner of things. All of this is to say that it was pretty frigging late (or early, depending on your perspective) when I got home. I woke up the next morning and squeezed in a little photo editing before heading back to Convention Hall for Day 2 of Don Giovanni Records' New Alternative Music Festival.
Vagabon were just finishing up as I walked inside, and Jamie Kilstein and The Agenda were up next. Kilstein made it a point to acknowledge the importance of what the festival represented while delivering a politically charged and hilariously funny set.
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| Vagabon |
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| Jamie Kilstein and The Agenda |
Upset were next. Founded by Ali Koehler, formerly of NJ's Vivian Girls, the band are based in LA and rarely make it out this way. The lineup has changed since I last saw them a couple of years ago, and the focus has shifted from Koehler to be more evenly distributed among the rest of the band. Upset still feature the legendary Patty Schemel (Hole, Death Valley Girls, Sharkmuffin [on Chartreuse], and more), and one of the big thrills of the festival for me was awkwardly saying hello to her over at the merch table. The new, more democratic Upset were great; and I look forward to their new music.
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| Upset |
Other standout early sets for me were those turned in by Philadelphia duo Trophy Wife, San Jose's Try the Pie, Baltimore's Outer Spaces (whose A Shedding Snake will be very high on my personal year-end list for what that's worth), and Dyke Drama (the solo project of G.L.O.S.S.'s Sadie Switchblade). Anti-folk hero Jeffrey Lewis took us into what would have been the dinner break had I remembered to eat.
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| Outer Spaces |
Throughout the day, I saw the members of P.S. Eliot and Screaming Females among the crowd enjoying all of the bands. It's a testament to the community that surrounds Don Giovanni Records that headliners from the previous day would clear their schedules to stick around for Day 2 of the festival.
Things then really ramped up with evening sets from Mal Blum, Aye Nako, Sex Stains, Rye Coalition, Laura Stevenson, Girlpool, and Downtown Boys. Mal Blum was as charming as ever, easily chatting with the crowd between their upbeat, singable songs about depression and self-doubt. Aye Nako, a band I've wanted to see for a while now, were worth the wait. They draw from a well of 90s influences and challenge listeners with songs about sexual and racial identity.
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| Mal Blum and The Blums |
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| Aye Nako |
I wasn't prepared for Sex Stains. Fronted by Allison Wolfe (Bratmobile, Partyline), the band gave us probably the wildest set of the entire festival. I couldn't stop snapping pictures as Wolfe and co-lead vocalist Mecca Vazie Andrews bounced, twirled, high-kicked, and rolled around on- and offstage. At one point, they invited audience members up to dance with them (No surprise, Ed the Punk was first to take them up on the offer.). Short, intense blasts of punk / post-punk. Beer raining on me from somewhere as I was taking pictures. Just amazing.
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| Sex Stains |
Immediately following her band's set, Wolfe was right down front going wild for the reunion of Jersey City hard rock band, Rye Coalition. They played one of the longest sets of the night, and the Jersey crowd ate it up along with band-provided cupcakes.
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| Rye Coalition |
Laura Stevenson. One of my favorites. She and the band took the stage after 9, and that's when I got this weird feeling -- after having spent about 7 hours in the windowless box of Convention Hall -- that I didn't really know whether it was day or night anymore. Anyway, Stevenson's set was wonderful, as expected, if a little too short for me. It was hard taking pictures as I just wanted to close my eyes and listen to the music, but I managed. Stevenson's last two records -- Wheel and Cocksure -- are stunning in different ways, and all of that came across during her set.
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| Laura Stevenson |
Philly via LA duo, Girlpool, had the penultimate Convention Hall set. Harmony Tividad (bass, vocals) and Cleo Tucker (guitar, vocals) stood at either end of the stage right setup, their voices weaving around each other as they sang. The pair's friendship comes through on 2015's Before the World Was Big, and they brought the whole audience into that during their set.
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| Girlpool |
Finally it was time for Providence, RI's Downtown Boys. I've written before here about the band's passion. Singer Victoria Ruiz delivers rousing calls to action as intros while the sounds of the sax and the rest of the band build up behind her. The tension rises until everything explodes into "Wave of History" or "Monstro." At times, Ruiz held the mic to members of the audience who shouted "She's brown! She's smart!" along with the band.
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| Downtown Boys |
Downtown Boys included their cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" towards the end of their set, and the line "You can't start a fire without a spark" seemed appropriate for the entire weekend. Yes, the festival ended up having to cancel its scheduled third day. No, there probably weren't as many people in attendance as Don Giovanni Records (or even I) would have liked. But something important happened over those two days. For a weekend, bands had the chance to play not to help sell beer or energy drinks or to up some corporation's street cred with millennials, but simply to share their art with people who cared about it. They got to play as part of a bill that included women's voices, LGBTQ voices, the voices of people of color -- voices that are often lost in the white, male-dominated bills of major "Indie" rock festivals.
Following the festival, bands went back out into the world of gigs sponsored by beer companies and huge music-industrial complex gatherings. But, for two days in Asbury Park, they got to see that an alternative is possible. The New Alternative Music Festival didn't burn the corporate music industry to the ground, but maybe it was a spark.
Pics are all done. I'll be uploading them to the Flickr galleries this afternoon.
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