Northside Festival
Brooklyn, NY
June 14-17

The fourth annual Northside Festival, Brooklyn’s own mini-SXSW, brought over 350 bands to venues and bars throughout the Williamsburg neighborhood. Northside fully inhabits Williamsburg, taking over dozens of venues within a ten minute walk from each other. For the price of a reasonably priced badge, music fans could wander around the neighborhood and catch various bands over the course of each night.

Friday, the biggest music night of the festival, saw Jens Lekman and Of Montreal take the stage at McCarren Park while dozens more bands entertained smaller crowds all over Williamsburg. At a Jameson-sponsored private party at Good Company, Olivia Tremor Control performed an intimate set that found the band maintaining their acid washed weirdness even in an acoustic setting. As fiddle, flute, mouth harp, clarinet, trumpet and more joined acoustic guitars, they blended endless musical creativity with breezy Beatle-esque vocal harmonies.

After Olivia Tremor Control, it was time to go around the corner where These United States celebrated the release of their brand new album at the Knitting Factory. Mixing new tunes like rocker “Dead And Gone” with a handful of older songs, These United States thrilled the crowd with a high-energy set of garage rock. As the band is currently opening for Willie Nelson, they nodded his way by inviting Kelli Scarr for a rousing cover of “Me And Paul” that found Elliott leaping down from the stage to parade through the audience while singing. Featuring plenty of dueling guitar licks from Justin Harris and pedal steel guitarist J Tom Hnatow, These United States gritty rock and roll perfectly suits Elliott’s frantic energy and clever lyrics.

After These United States finished up at the Knitting Factory with pulsing garage rock anthem “I Want You To Keep Everything,” The Felice Brothers took the stage at Brooklyn Bowl for a set of rowdy folk tunes. The band sprinkled in a few brand new songs along with material from their last album and older crowd sing-alongs. Midway through The Felice Brothers show, I left to catch Brooklyn locals Caveman, who packed the Music Hall of Williamsburg in one of the largest headlining shows of their young career.

Caveman opened with psychedelic instrumental “Vampire,” as lead guitarist Jimmy Carbonetti coaxed atmospheric textures out of his instrument. The jam gently floated into the catchy rock of “Old Friend” with gorgeous vocal harmonies and ripping guitar work. More than just a guitar player, Carbonetti also builds guitars professionally, and, using intricate knowledge of his handcrafted instrument, he colors Caveman’s songs with lush tones and creative playing.

Frontman Matthew Iwanusa traded off between guitar and percussion, often working with the band’s drummer to lay down interesting rhythms that formed the backbone of songs like “Easy Water.” With pounding percussive force, Carbonetti’s soaring leads, and haunting, swirling keyboards, Caveman’s songs are bursting with color while also containing an irresistibly catchy and anthemic rock and roll edge.

With their bombastic wall of sound, Caveman put on the most impressive show of the night for an audience of hometown fans. It was only appropriate that local bands like Caveman were spotlighted during a festival celebrating Brooklyn as a center of the arts and music world, but Northside Festival combined some of the best young bands in Brooklyn with bigger national names to offer a nice taste of today’s vibrant and creative live music scene.