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Tag Archives: North Coast Music Festival

North Coast Videos

A few snippets from last night’s unbelievably fun party.

God bless the children who rage (ATB @ NCMF).

 

Gogol Bordello was intense.  Everyone and your mom was dancing and singing and at one point I feared the crowd would push down the barricade.  Even the folks in the photo pit couldn’t help but get swept up.

 

Returning to the fest was Benny Benassi who ended his set with one of my favorites.  The best part was watching the security guy lose his shit (you can see part of that on the far right side of the screen).

 

Here’s the intro to Thievery Corp‘s “Lebanese Blonde” which has quite possibly the catchiest sitar hook ever.

 

 

 

North Coast Preview II

A preview of some the things I plan to see/hear Saturday:

Gemini Club:  TheChicagothree piece electro-dance band promise that no two shows are ever alike with their “on the fly” remixes which have also put them in high demand around the world.  Below is their first single, Ghost, which has since been remixed by the likes of Hey Champ and Golden Bug and those can be found on their SoundCloud page.

Common: We all know who Common is so really there’s no need to talk about it further. Love him. Love this song.

Fatboy Slim: Honestly, I’m picking Fatboy Slim just so I have a somewhat legitimate excuse to post this video:

Lolla Day 1: A Beautiful and Frightening Thing

Day 1 was aces all around  Random thoughts from poorly scribbled notes.

The additional 10k people at the festival could be felt.  I did like the idea of having all the food on one boulevard away from the stages.  It made for less of a clusterfuck in the food area; unless you were in line waiting for a burger from Kuma’s the food lines moved quickly and easily.

Taste-A-Palooza

Young the Giant’s Sameer Gadhita left a piece of his soul on the Bud Light Stage.   Los Bunkers, despite sound issues that plagued the Play Station stage all afternoon, were a delight with their 60′s pop soaked tunes.  They also can take credit for having one of the biggest crowd swells of the day.  I saw several kids walk by the Play Station stage on their way to the bar and they’d stop and join the crowd to dance to Los Bunkers.  Grace Potter & The Nocturnals brought their blues-rock to the Bud Light stage.  Despite the howling and Tina Turner-like dance moves, Potter seemed much more subdued than at last year’s North Coast Festival.  I caught the beginning and end of Les Butcherettes who were one of the most intense experiences I’ve had a festival ever.  Teri Gender Bender throws her raw fuck-all energy in your face and you can do nothing but stand in awe.  Gabe Serbian (drums) almost didn’t make it through their last song and at the end of their set puked on stage.  Rock ‘n-fucking-roll, kids.  I heard and saw a good chunk of Smith Westerns and they’ve remained the same: very polished performance, slowly coming through with band chemistry and audience banter.  The Kills were fierce; Allison Mosshart growled and Jamie Hince didn’t even break a sweat.  I wandered over to the south end of the park where the crowd was dense.  I sat for most of Two Door Cinema Club’s set and was surprised by just how big a crowd they drew and each person jumped and danced along.  A Perfect Circle was one of the few bands I was really excited to see and despite their reworked cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” (which fell flat) the rest of their set was note perfect.  How you imagine a big power rock festival band to sound.   At this point things took a turn for the very weird.  I finally found The Naughty Librarian in one of the south baseball fields.  We caught the last half or so of Skrillex who turned Perry’s tent into a dance party, Afro Jack (whose set started late) continued the party.  Festivals are all about the people watching and at Perry’s I had a blast sitting and watching/observing/judging/laughing.  That’s where this video happened:

We stuck around for some of Girl Talk before heading home.  The weather was gorgeous, the heat wasn’t oppressive, the kids had a great time and a few made a mess of things – not a bad Day 1.  Here are a couple more pictures from yesterday but the full lot will be up on the Facebook Page.

Teri Gender Bender

Jamie Hince

 

North Coast: Toast of the Coast Contest

If you’re looking to avoid jacking up your ComEd bill by running the AC tonight and you want somewhere to go and something to do: head over to The Mid tonight (306 N. Halsted) and check out the Toast of the Coast finalists.  Doors open at 8p, show starts at 9p, 21+ and is 100% FREE.  The lucky artists vying for the final three spots on the festival’s bill are:

Isaiah Grass

DJ Solo

Flow Theory

Mos Scoscious

Serotonin

Blah Blah Blahs

40oz Kings

DJ Row

Jaik Willis

The Right Now

Grab one of the remaining $110 discounted full-festival presale passes or any $45 Single-Day passes at www.northcoastfestival.com!

Earworm: Moby – Lie Down in Darkness

So up until last year’s North Coast Music Festival I wasn’t a Moby fan.  There were a couple songs on Play that I kinda liked but unlike Mr. Bee, for example, I didn’t really seek out his music and just brushed him off as another pretentious New York vegan (you can tell me to fuck off at meanlittlebumblebee-at-gmail-dot-com).  Seeing him work up a sweat as he DJ’d at NCMF turned every ignorant idea I had of him around.  I went through his back catalog last fall and came away with a new found appreciation for the man.  Listening to him on a recent NPRs All Songs Considered podcast I learned that with while working on today’s earworm he worked the entire production end and ran the most pristine vocals every recorded through filters and noise until they were no longer pristine and had a gritty feel to them.  This song is the first single from his new album, Destroyed and I’ve been obsessing since first hearing it.

North Coast Music Fest Day 3 Recap

Dirty Dozen Brass Band

It has taken me this long to recover from NCMF.  I can still feel the cramps in my calves – oy!  As you know, the full photo albums from each day can be viewed on the Facebook page and if you see yourself in a pic – tag away!

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North Coast Fest Recap Day 2

Van Ghost

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North Coast Music Fest Day 1 Recap

Cloudy skies at North Coast

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Summer’s Last Hurrah

I’m getting ready to head out the door and induce a music coma at North Coast Festival but before I do let’s talk about some of the fun stuff going on around town this long weekend:

First up is Brighton Park Fest. Starting tomorrow you can head out to Archer Ave (between Sacramento & Kedzie) for food, rides and 2 stages of live music featuring local acts: [.DESCARGA.] (my favorite latin alternative band), Maladicto, Legion, Soul Pollution, Maria Blues Trio, the lovely La Gitana, Malafacha and DJs Angelfuk and Nando to name just a few.  Descarga’s very own Jose Calvo says, “people should come out and enjoy this festival because it’s something special for the community, there are few festivals like this in the city that celebrate latino unity, but the number of them is growin! So come out and enjoy the food, the rides, the arts, and the music, which will be awesome because the line ups are made up of talented local latino bands. I am very honored to be part of this great festival.”

Also, don’t forget that last weekend’s featured girl crush, Rita J will be at Schuba’s Saturday night with Bumpus.

Jazz Fest returns to Grant Park and the always awesome Chuchito Valdez goes on Saturday at 5.

Lastly, the inaugural run of Joyous Outdoor Event (J.O.E.) kicks off at South Belmont Harbor this weekend featuring a main stage ‘curated’ by the Metro and Smart Bar and will include hometown rocks The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir Saturday at 7p.  A $15 ticket gets you all day general admission, for $25 you get all day access plus entrance to that evening’s main stage.  You can get the full schedule and more info HERE.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend! Check back for North Coast recaps, follow me on Twitter for live updates and check out the Facebook page for more photos and video.

North Coast Festival Preview: The Chemical Brothers

Preview 6 – The Chemical Brothers have been around forever haven’t they, or at least it feels that way.  When they first arrived on the scene you felt as if you were listening to the future, always one or three steps ahead of their contemporaries.  They weren’t like the Prodigy – they didn’t make big fat acid beats; their sound was smarter, lighter, much more danceable.  Unlike the Prodigy they never saw a real lull or dry-spell in their careers; they have plugged along producing albums like clockwork for almost 20 years.  But it’s the ‘second wave of dance’ (thank the likes of Deadmau5) that has put them back on mainstream music’s radar.  Their latest release, “Further” is a throwback to their original danceable beat-heavy sound and they wisely ditched any collaborations with vocalists this time around (remember that Noel Gallagher collabo everyone went bananas for a few years back) and have focused on making “Further” a multi-media experience for fans.  Check out the video for Galvanize below. They’ll close out Friday night on the North Stage at 8.30p

Official Site

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