Northside Festival: Benjamin Booker and Mac DeMarco @ House of Vans, New York 06/12/14

Read More Mac DeMarco It was a quiet night along First Avenue last night with the Main Room act, Tricky, postponing until October and the headliner for the Seventh Street Entry, Mac DeMarco, canceling. …

The Northside Festival is New York City's largest and most accessible discovery festival. From June 12-19, 2014, hundreds of bands, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, innovators, and over 80,000 fans will converge on Brooklyn over eight days to witness an incredible showcase of what’s next in music, film, entrepreneurship and art.

Benjamin Booker

As a giant warehouse, renovated into a concert venue, House of Vans sits in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Thursday’s show started off with Benjamin Booker, a New Orleans guitarist accompanied by Max Norton on drums and an additional guitarist. Having only heard one song, his single “Violent Shiver,” I only had a vague idea of what his music would sound like. “Violent Shiver” seems to be the most pop-ish of his mainly garage, punk rock sound with an extra mix of blues. With about a hundred people in the crowd, Booker managed to ignite a slight most pit by the third quarter of the set. Booker has a traditional rocker (doesn’t that sound like an oxymoron) stage presence, swinging his guitar around (to the point where the microphone stand fell, though it remains to be seen if that was purposeful or not), seemingly not giving a shit, and screaming his lyrics at times.

Mac DeMarco crowd surfing

Mac DeMarco was a crowd favorite that night at House of Vans, creating a crowd five times bigger by the time they began their set. With their chill rock music, Mac DeMarco played crowd favorites (though it seemed like all the songs were met with extreme enthusiasm) like “Salad Days” and “Passing Out Pieces.” With a tucked in shirt and his signature cap, DeMarco acted grandpa-like throughout the set, from the way he plays his guitar to his dancing to his extremely polite tone of voice. There were, of course, moments where he definitely was not so well-mannered, like when he decided to put the security guard in the pit between his legs, or when he mentioned the band would be by the merch later and said, “and if you don’t want to hang, fuck you!” Though his music does not inspire mosh pits (in the traditional sense), there was an almost consistent one in the middle of the crowd by the fifth song to the end of the set, where DeMarco crowd surfed for a good minute.

DeMarco's tour dates:

06/23 7th Street Entry*^ Minneapolis, MN 06/24 The Park Theatre*^ Winnipeg, Manitoba 06/25 Saskatchewan Jazz Festival*^ Saskatoon 06/27 Starlite Room*^ Edmonston, Alberta 06/28 Republik*^ Calgary, Alberta 07/01 Vogue Theatre*^ Vancouver, BC 07/02 Sugar*^ Victoria, BC 07/04 Trois-Rivères FestiVoix Trois-Rivières, PQ 07/06 Ottawa Bluesfest Ottawa, Ontario 07/08 Great American*# San Francisco, CA 07/09 Great American*^ San Francisco, CA 07/10 Loma Vista* Big Sur, CA 07/11 The Fonda*^# Los Angeles, CA 07/14 Bluebird Theater* Denver, CO 07/15 Vega* Lincoln, NE 07/16 Old Rock House* St. Louis, MO 07/17 Skully’s+ Columbus, OH 07/18 Tralf Music Hall+ Buffalo, NY 07/19 9:30 Club*+ Washington DC 08/01 Osheaga Festival Montreal, Quebec 08/02 Pickahon Happy Valley, OR 08/03 Pickahon Happy Valley, OR 08/08 Stay Out West Festival Gothenburg, Sweden 08/09 Oya Festival Oslo, Norway 08/10 Flow Festival Helsinki, Finland 08/13 Barby Tel Aviv, Israel

08/14 Pukklepop Hasselt, Belgium 08/15 Green Man Festival Glanusk, Wales 08/16 La Route du Rock Saint Malo, France 08/17 Dockville Hamburg, Germany 08/18 Pumpehuset Copenhagen 08/21 Parades de Coura Festival Parades De Coura 08/22 Rock En Seine Paris, France 08/24 FYF Fest Los Angeles, CA 08/30 Bumbershoot Seattle, WA 10/04 Austin City Limits Austin, TX 10/11 Austin City Limits Austin, TX 10/12 MANA Wynwood Miami, FL 11/11 The Fillmore San Francisco, CA 11/21 Heimathafen Neukölln Berlin, Germany 11/23 Concorde 2 Brighton, England 11/25 The Forum London, England 11/27 Epicerie Moderne Lyon, France 11/28 Sala Apolo Barcelona, Spain 11/29 Paloma Nimes, France 11/30 Magnolia Milan, Italy 12/01 Clubraum Rote Fabrik Zurich, Switzerland * w/ Calvin Love ^ with Meatbodies # Holy Shit + Delicate Steve

Mac DeMarco @ House of Vans, New York (06/12/14)

justina ♥ weheartmusic.com