Concert Notes: Brooklyn Northside Festival, Clearwater, & More This Week

It's going to be an absurdly full weekend of music in the New York area, and it starts early tomorrow with Laura Marling at Celebrate Brooklyn and the beginning of the Brooklyn Northside Festival. The dB's, who are reunited and back with a new album, play at Le Poisson Rouge on Friday. And there's another great free show on Saturday, when Dawes and Kurt Vile and the Violators play SummerStage in Central Park in the evening.

And there's a solid musical lineup at the Clearwater festival on the Hudson River in Westchester.


Holiday Surprise 1, 2, 3 by Olivia Tremor Control, which is playing the Northside Festival. 

* The music portion of the Northside festival runs from June 14th to 17th (there are also film, entrepreneurship, and art programs). On the slate are Brooklyn bands such as Dinosaur Feathers and A Million Years (who I was impressed by a couple years ago at the Union County [NJ] Festival), as well as national and international acts such as:

Asobi Seksu, Buke and Gass, Caveman, Exitmusic, the Felice Brothers, Grass Widow, GZA, Jens Lekman, Kitty Pryde, Leda, Of Montreal, The Olivia Tremor Control, ?uestlove, The Thermals, These United States, Tinariwen, and Widowspeak, among many others.

Having trouble picking what to see? Check out Free Williamsburg's choices for the best things to see at the Northside Festival. [Update: The Village Voice's "Sound of the City" column put up its guide to the top seven Northside concerts, with videos, on Thursday.]

It all kicks off Thursday at 7 p.m. On the following days, the music starts in the afternoon (4 p.m. on Friday; earlier on Saturday and Sunday). Find the complete Northside music schedule here, and get Northside badge and ticket information here.

* Clearwater's annual Hudson River Revival (Saturday and Sunday) has quite a strong musical lineup this year, with top-notch artists from the festival's traditional roots-oriented genres of folk/Americana, rock, blues, and more. Below are some of the highlights from each day. See the full Clearwater stage schedule here.

Saturday: 

Arlo and the Guthrie Family, Aoife O'Donovan, Donna the Buffalo, Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band, Joan Osborne and the Holmes Brothers, Forro in the Dark, Bela Fleck, Tom Chapin, Guy Davis, and Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Sunday:
Deer Tick, Ani DiFranco, David Wax Museum, Jose Conde, Martin Sexton, Alejandro Escovedo, Dawes, Loudon Wainwright III, Jill Sobule, The Klezmatics, Holly Near, Sara Watkins, Ollabelle, and Balkan Beat Box

I'm sure there's a festival or two that I've forgotten about; if I remember what they were I'll post info on them.

Brooklyn Northside & Other Festivals this Weekend; Tickets for Foo Fighters & X On Sale

The annual Clearwater festival in Croton Point Park takes place this Saturday and Sunday.

There's a mish-mash of news and events involving live music today and this weekend in the greater New York area. The live stuff coming up:

* Clearwater's Hudson River Revival takes place tomorrow and Sunday at Croton Point Park in Westchester County. Saturday's lineup includes Josh Ritter, Janis Ian, the Low Anthem, and the Felice Brothers, among many others. Taking the stage on Sunday are Drive-By Truckers, Suzanne Vega, Indigo Girls, Justin Townes Earl, Joel Plaskett, and many more.

* Brooklyn's Northside Festival began yesterday in Williamsburg and runs through Sunday the 19th. There's plenty of music going on during the day and evening, in venues ranging from Brooklyn Bowl to Bruar Falls. A number of the shows are free, and others have low admission of between $5 to $10.

One of the Saturday night Northside shows features Eleanor Friedberger of Fiery Furnaces, Ida, and Rebecca Gates of The Spinanes at Europa; tickets are $15 and $17.

The most high-profile event of the Northside Festival is tomorrow's show at McCarren Park Pool featuring Guided by Voices (scheduled to hit the stage at 7 p.m., preceded by Wavves (6 p.m.), Surfer Blood (5 p.m.), and The Babies (4 p.m.) Tickets are available here for $30 or $35 day of show.

* The Governors Ball on Governors Island takes place Saturday, beginning shortly after noon. The festival has music all day and into the night and claims no overlapping sets, so fans can see all the music. Acts include Girl Talk, Pretty Lights, Empire of the Sun, Neon Indian, Big Boi of Outkast, Das Racist, and Passion Pit doing a DJ set.

And, tickets went on sale Friday for what are sure to be two in-demand shows later on this Fall:

* Foo Fighters at the Prudential Center, Newark on Mon., Nov. 14

* Legendary L.A. punk band X plays Irving Plaza for two shows on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The show is billed as "X - the Unheard Music and Los Angeles," so I'm guessing they'll play the Los Angeles album in its entirety, as well as songs from Unheard Music, the 1980s documentary about the band.

Also, I got an e-mail today that Steely Dan will perform "The Royal Scam" album and "select hits" at the Beacon Theatre on Fri., Sept. 20. Tickets went on sale a few weeks ago.

These should all be fun shows.