Same Song, Different Tune
Northgate Music Festival brings bands from around the
nation to College Station
By Lycia Shrum
THE BATTALION
The music festival once known as North By Northgate has changed
identity.
Not only has the name changed to the Northgate Music Festival, but other
changes — some large and some small — have occurred.
The 2002 Northgate Music Festival was modified for a more festive
appeal since its debut in 1998.
The charities have changed, the number of performers has increased, a
new stage has been added and vendors will be selling everything from
food to crafts.
Debbie Coleman, Northgate Music Festival Event Coordinator, said the
changes that were made should provide an exciting music festival this year.
“We wanted the festival to have a more festive atmosphere, both
inside the venues and outside,” Coleman said. “Our hope is that
people will come to Northgate for dinner, look at some of the local
artist's work and then enjoy the music, making it an entire night’s event.”
Coleman said the stage added will highlight local bands, and it
will be behind Freebirds.
Not only will the festival promote local music from across the
state, but the festival will have a charitable purpose.
Since its beginning in 1998, the festival has raised money for var
ious local charities. Coleman said this year’s proceeds will go to
Caring Aggies ’R Protecting Over Our Lives (CARPOOL), Scotty’s
House and Twin City Mission.
Adam Sheedy, director of marketing for the festival, said
booking headlining musicians is not centered on how much the
festival will profit.
“It’s not about how much money we can spend to get somebody
like Neil Diamond to play at Shadow Canyon,” Sheedy said. “It's
about how much money we can save to give to CARPOOL, Twin
City Missions and Scotty’s House.”
Sheedy said there is a fine line between offering the most enter
taining festival possible and being able to donate as much money as
possible to the underprivileged of the Brazos Valley.
During the past four music festivals the increase in proceeds went from
$7,000 to $15,000.
With an increase in the success and growth of the festival, it was
inevitable that more man hours were needed to run the festival. The
Northgate Music Festival, like many music festivals, will be run by
volunteers.
Nearly 230 volunteers will contribute their time to this year’s festival and
Michael Miori, volunteer coordinator for the festival, said the festival would
not be possible without their help.
The volunteer application deadline was extended because there were not
enough volunteers signed up. However, Miori said they now have more than
enough volunteers to ensure the festival runs smoothly.
The Northgate Music Festival has grown to become one of the most antic
ipated festivals in Bryan-College Station and this year will consist of 169
musicians, 230 volunteers and a 10-person planning committee.
Amanda Torres, a member of the planning committee, said she only sees
the festival getting bigger and better.
“I already see possible future opportunities opening up,” Torres said. “As
the amount of bands that apply continues to grow, so does the festival’s
future. I see the festival continuing to provide the local area with a way to
experience live music and help the local music scene as well as continue to
provide help to local charities.”
Eden Automatic
will perform at
Fitzwilly's
Upstairs Friday
at 11:45 p.m.
Photo Illustrations by Guy Rogers, Graphics by Ruben Deluna, Page Layout
by Lizette Resendez and Lycia Shrum
Single Frame Ashtray brings innovative music to Northgate Music Festival
One of the best things about the
Northgate Music Festival is the bands that
travel from out of town to give Bryan-
College Station a taste of music from the
other realm.
One band that will be adding flavor to
the festival is the Austin-based group
Single Frame Ashtray.
Brendon Reilly, guitar, bass, vocals,
synthesizer: Jason Schleter, guitar, bass,
synthesizer, piano, organ, vocals; and
Adreon Henry, drums, synthesizer,
turntable, vocals of Single Frame
Ashtray are always stoked to be
playing for crowds in Bryan-
College Station.
“We have more fun playing in
College Station than any of the
other cities we play in,” Reilly
said. “The Bryan-College Station
audiences we’ve played for seem
to be really hungry for innovative
art and entertainment.”
For Single Frame Ashtray, innovative
entertainment is one of the best ways to
describe the shows. Henry said the vibe of
their shows could be best described as
the bands’ shows stand out. The band has been
known to use a slide show to communicate with
the audience in various ways.
“Most of the slides we pick are from
family vacation trips in
our crowd can remember and even though
the places and the people shown are not
directly related to individuals in our audi
ence we hope they can relate and identify
indirectly.”
The boys of Single Frame Ashtray said
the band's influences are endless.
‘As a whole, I think we could list sever
al thousand bands, movies, people, places,
ideas, chirps, beeps, statics and gurgles that
have affected our style,” Reilly said.
Reilly said each band member is
from a different background, and has
different tastes. While most bands are
easily categorized into a certain genre
of music, Single Frame Ashtray is a
bit more difficult to distinguish.
Single Frame Ashtray will be play
ing at the Crooked Path Ale House
Friday from 11:45 p.m. to 1 a.m.
—Lycia Shrum
Thanks For The Update plays their part
Feeding 5000 brings it back home
For Thanks For The Update band members Kevin Jordan, vocals and
guitar; Jason Tenner, guitar and bass; Tyler Lewis, bass, guitar and key
board; Logan Youree, drums, bringing a diverse music scene to College
Station is one thing they strive for. Bands such as Modest Mouse, Built
to Spill and Bright Eyes influence the style of music Thanks For The
Update creates.
Youree said one of the driving forces behind the band is to keep its
songs accessible to the fans.
“I think that you should be able to keep your music open and ready
for change as you feel that they need it,” Youree said. “We try to write
songs where each one is different from one another, but you can still say
'Hey, Thanks For The Update wrote that song’.”
With the release of its album, Place Insecurities Here, Thanks For
The Update has managed to bring diversity to its songs while having
cohesiveness throughout the whole album.
Jordan said he and Tenner decided early on that the music of Thanks
For The Update would be honest.
“All that matters is the song,” Jordan said. “Not the people playing,
and how talented they are at their instruments.”
Jordan said lyrically, he tries to speak plainly and avoid any phrase or
wording just because he thinks it sounds 'neat.' He said every element of
the song has to fit together.
The band’s music is a style that many Aggies may not normally be
exposed to, but that is all the more reason to listen to this band.
• “The people that might actually enjoy our music often don't realize
that this style even exists in College Station. They tend to journey to
Austin or Houston to see it,” Youree said.
As the house band for Big Pauly’s, Thanks For The Update has
chances to play more shows than most local bands. In retrospect to that,
it also gets a chance to grow and broaden its fan base.
“We still have room to grow in College Station, Jordan said. I
understand that our fan base may be smaller than other local bands, but
I believe there are still a few people out there who haven’t heard us that
might like us. As far as overall popularity goes, we have already done
better than I ever thought."
Thanks For The Update will be playing on the Promenade Friday
night at 9 p.m.
—Lvcia Shrum
These pop rockers began performing
together less than a year ago, and in 10
short months have become an established
local band.
Its guitar-driven sound mixed with violin
and keyboards descends directly from Blue
October and Better Than Ezra. The five-piece
band — Scott Taylor, vocals/rhythm guitar;
Aaron Brown, piano/violin; Jeremy Rocha
bass, Alex Geismar drums and David Farr,
lead guitar— has made a habit of performing
often and expanding its reach beyond its
College Station base.
“We just had a great week in Austin at
the South by Southwest music festival, and
it was really encouraging because there
were a lot of important people at our show
case on Saturday night,” Taylor said. “There
were a couple of independent labels that are
really interested and that don’t have many
bands to them, which is definitely a good
thing when you’re wanting a lot of devotion
from a label.”
Things look bright for Feeding 5000 and
the band will shoot its first video soon.
This weekend it will concentrate on
playing its
show in the
Northgate
Music Festival
where it will be
reunited with
Saving Dawn,
the band it
opened for at its
very first show.
Taylor said
he is not famil
iar with most of
the other bands
playing the fes
tival, but hopes
the Feeding
5000 fans will
watch other performers and other bands’
fans will watch the Feeding 5000 show.
“We’ve got one slot out of three days of
non-stop music, so I’m sure a lot of our peo
ple are going to come out and check out
other local bands, and vice versa,” Taylor
said. “We’re looking for other people’s
crowd to check us out and hopefully catch
on to us.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF FEEDING 5000
—Thomas Phillips