The New Alternative Music Festival at Asbury Park's Convention Hall, Night 2, 9/17/16

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.

Vagabon

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.

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.

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.

Mal Blum and The Blums

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Live and Commercial-Free

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.

Don Giovanni Records Announce Lineup for the New Alternative Music Festival in Asbury Park

The Don Giovanni Records New Alternative Music Festival is jam-packed. It may include break-dancing from label co-head Joe Steinhardt.

Convention Hall

Our friends over at New Brunswick's Don Giovanni Records have just made an epic announcement about their New Alternative Music Festival, coming September 16th-18th, 2016 to Asbury Park's Convention Hall. Billed as an alternative to the corporately-run major festivals that have proliferated over the last decade, the one-time only NAMF will reclaim -- if only for one weekend -- the terms "alternative" and "independent" from the branding and marketing speak of the music industry.

From the announcement:

"Who will be there: Antibodies, Aye Nako, Daniel Bachman, Big Eyes, Mal Blum, California X, Chain And The Gang, Nato Coles, Downtown Boys, Dusk, Dyke Drama, Giant Peach, Girlpool, Izzy True, Jamie Kilstein and The Agenda, Kindling, Amy Klein, Longings, Mikey Erg, Mirah, Moor Mother Goddess, Nude Beach, Ought, Outer Spaces, P.S. Eliot, Painted Zeros, Pinkwash, Puff Pieces, Radiator Hospital, Roadside Graves, Sammus, Screaming Females, Selector Dub Narcotic, Shellshag, Laura Stevenson, Tenement, The Max Levine Ensemble, The Rememberables, Trophy Wife, Try The Pie, Upset, Vagabon, Worriers + MORE ANNOUNCED SOON

Who will not: Multi-national corporations

The New Alternative Music Festival is not just a concert it is also an intentional event. It's an attempt to gather together bands with diverse sounds, but common values. The performers are independent artists without ties to major labels or corporate music distribution. There will be no sponsors, no backdoor advertising via branded content, or other base money-making schemes.

This is a pro-weirdo event held in direct opposition to the apolitical sludge that has come to pass as "indie" and that has nothing to do with operating independently. Where many festivals reflect critical acclaim, the NAMF lineup is meant to reflect a community. In addition to making great music, many of these artists are involved because they are peers, tourmates, and friends."

I can speak from having attended a few of the annual showcases put on by Don Giovanni Records, and the one thing that I have always taken away from those events is the sense of community and togetherness that they foster. In addition, this is an unbelievable lineup of great bands (including a P.S. Eliot reunion??!!??) and promises to be one of the best weekends of the year.

Tickets for the event are on sale now and are eminently reasonable at $28 per day ($30 at the door) with a $75 3-day pass.

This is a great event for music and a great event for Asbury Park. Keep it tuned here for more information as it becomes available.

Lost In Society and dollys Released Records at Convention Hall with gods, Kyle Trocolla, and Derek Rossi, 2/26/16

Lost In Society

Upstairs

When I saw the announcement that Lost In Society and dollys would be holding their joint record release "upstairs at Convention Hall," I became intrigued. I wasn't exactly sure what they meant, but I'm always interested in new places for shows.

It turns out that Friday's show took place in, I guess, what you'd call the western, upstairs lobby of Convention Hall -- the one with the bars. Even though I've been up there many times, the space registered with me as quite a bit bigger than what I thought I remembered. There was a temporary stage at the south end of the long hallway with merch tables at the opposite end, at the top of the stairs. Lights and having the stage backed up to the south-facing windows made for a pretty dramatic look. Sound was going to be a challenge, I thought, as Convention Hall is pretty much a huge, boomy, concrete box.

Friends and former tour mates of Lost In Society, Derek Rossi and Kyle Trocolla, started things off with acoustic sets. The pair had driven down from Boston together that day to hop on the show as they set off on their own tour. Both delivered sets that moved between the folky and the punky, the heartfelt and the humorous. Like the carousel house over the summer, the natural reverb of the space made both acoustic sets sound very big.

The full-band portion of the evening started with gods. I popped in my earplugs as gods set about filling the room with their manic psych rock. I was glad I had them. If the acoustic acts sounded "big," then gods were absolutely massive, Sam Bey's drum hits ricocheting around the place like artillery fire. gods are great at what they do, and I'm always happy to see them on a bill.

The space had been filling steadily since the first acts; and, by the time we saw Natalie Newbold's small drum kit being set up at center stage, the audience stretched to near the back of the room. dollys played every song from their just-released low year during their set, and the crowd up front sang along with most of it. At one point, ROMP's Mike Linardi took over on drums as Newbold came downstage for lead vocals on a cover of David Bowie's "Suffragette City." That was a fun moment; but when dollys are locked in on their own songs, they're hard to beat. Jeff Lane's solo on "how charming." Erik Romero's bass part on "friendly." Newbold's vocal on "i know" or "cornerstones." As usual, when the band announced the last song, everyone wanted more.

Lost In Society closed things out in front of what, at this point, felt like the old crowd from Asbury Lanes. Frontman / guitarist Zach Moyle and bassist Nick Ruroede are non-stop motion onstage. I was, unfortunately, once again unsuccessful at satisfyingly capturing Moyle during one of his airborne moments. There were plenty of photographers in attendance, though, who got great shots (Phil Shepherd, Jeff Crespi, Chris Spiegel, and, and, and, ...). Look for those.

Lost In Society's set covered material ranging from "this is a really old song" to songs off of the band's latest release, Modern Illusions. Many of the new tracks have been part of the band's live show for some time, so I noticed quite a few people mouthing every word throughout. As I said, a scan of the crowd made it feel a little like we were back at Asbury Lanes; and that just felt right.

In all, the show in the new space was a success. All of the bands turned in great sets. The room looked great with the stage, the light show, and balloons strewn all around. It is incredibly challenging from a sonic perspective, and there were times when we were swimming in a wall of noise. That did little to dampen anyone's enjoyment, and it will be interesting to see how the powers that be adjust to that if they hold more shows in the space. I'd like to see them give it a few more tries.

Pictures from the evening are up in the galleries (hi rez) or over on the CoolDad Music Facebook page (Facebook rez).

dollys

Photos from "Convention Hell" at Convention Hall, 10/31/15

Screaming Females as X

What Were You for Halloween?

Asbury Park's Dark City Entertainment and Promotions ramped up their Halloween covers show this year, moving it from the friendly confines of Wonder Bar to the cavernous Convention Hall and adding Screaming Females to the formerly all-local bill. With the stands in the space hidden behind blood red curtains, inverted crosses hanging from the ceiling, and coffins adorning the stage, Convention Hall had the feel of a purpose-built SRO venue decked out for Halloween. Costumed partiers filed in past the Dark City / Arcade Radio step and repeat banner for red carpet-style pictures, and they just kept coming as Convention Hall eventually packed out pretty nicely.

Ether Sunday / Yawn Mower opened as Nirvana, bringing Angie Sugrim out for one song and then ending their set with the destruction of their instruments during "Sliver." Dentist played it, probably, the least straight of any band doing a zombified Green Day. Billie Joe Armstrong was split into his masculine (Justin) and feminine (Emily) halves, and Dentist put their own twist on several Dookie classics. Des and The Swagmatics delivered an ambitious, super hero-themed and pretty amazing set as Stevie Wonder. They brought out horns, backup singers, dancers, and Sandy Mack. Jeff Plate, Pete Steinkopf, and members of The Parlor Mob had the crowd singing along to the blockbuster hits of Hall and Oates as Hall (Plate) and Oates and Oates and Oates and Oates.

Screaming Females went on just after 11:30 as X. They didn't break character for a second, Marissa Paternoster doing her best disaffected and blasé Exene and King Mike singing all of the John Doe parts. The late set went to Lost In Society as The Clash. Frontman Zach Moyle put his usual wild energy into a sing along set to close things out.

While Convention Hall is no Avery Fisher Hall in terms of acoustics, the night left me wanting to see more events in the space. Screaming Females doing Screaming Females could be nice. Throw one or two of our favorite locals on there doing their own songs, and you've got yourself a show.

Congratulations to Dark City Entertainment and everyone involved in pulling off Convention Hell for a great evening in an iconic space. See you before next year, I hope. Click through the links below for photos from all of the sets.

Screaming Females

Lost In Society

Jeff Plate / Pete Steinkopf / Parlor Mob

Des & The Swagmatics

Dentist

Ether Sunday / Yawn Mower