Music to warm
the soul

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

It’s February, and that means plenty of foul weather, prognosticating rodents, plastic roses . . . and an incredible jam-packed week of music in Northern Liberties.
The gents over at the Fire know just the cure for these dark days, and it’s the sixth annual Northern Liberties Winter Music Festival.
Derek Dorsey, a longtime booking agent at the Fire and a notorious hater of February, said the "No Libs" fest was put together in 2002 to inject winter’s doldrums with a little warmth and musical love.
Starting on Sunday evening with a bluegrass jam, the fest spans a full week and will include more than 40 bands.
"This is our sixth festival, and it is bound to be one our best," says Fire owner Dan McShane. "A lot of these bands are bands that are typically headliners, so I’m thinking we’ll have sellouts on three or four nights."
McShane declined to say which night he thinks has the most going for it, but we have a few ideas of our own. Take Wednesday night — what McShane calls "a very unofficial kickoff." Wednesday’s bill is decidedly the most concentrated dose of straight-up rock ’n’ roll. Local favorites Surgeon will deliver their searing guitar rock in a style that has served the Fire well on so many other occasions, while Seizure 17 will showcase its equally ferocious energy with a more punk-oriented attitude.
Bands like Infinien and New York’s Consider the Source bring a more experimental edge to the evening with their psychedelic and jam-band tendencies.
Perhaps the band with the biggest clout is Papertigger, a local indie rock five-piece that garnered national attention with an EP release last year and will head to the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Texas next month.
Also playing at Fire are Nu Cultures, We Are Castles, Neighbors on the Moon, and the Victor Victor Band.
The latter is a lively duo who offer a bluesy take on psychedelic rock along the lines of the White Stripes, and will be using the occasion for an album-release party.
Called Chatterbox, the album was recorded upstairs in a newly retooled studio that will also see the release of Live at The Fire Volume One. McShane says those two albums — released under IOU Records’ Fresh Produce imprint — are the first of plenty more to follow. The recent addition of a new mic line that feeds directly to the studio has allowed the Fire folks to record nearly every show played there since the summer, and with live music available nearly seven nights a week, that equates to a lot of potential Live at The Fire comps.
And yes, you will be able to grab recordings of the upcoming fest sometime in the future.
McShane is pondering other crowd-pleasers that might work at his venue. With the festival’s first-night bluegrass jam featuring Mason Porter and Wissahickon Chicken Shack, McShane is looking into doing a weekly bluegrass-theme night that will incorporate an open mic for any fiddle players who want to join in on the stomp.
Another potential preview of a new feature at the Fire will be an all-ages show next Friday. Starting the night out early will be the raucous Brooklyn hip-hop ensemble Gonna Get Gone, preceded by a few unnamed openers.
Following the two-hour all-ages set, it’s on to the big boys, with more hip-hop oriented artists like folk-rap freak Don McCloskey, The Dialects, Jawnzap7 and Anam Owili-Eger.
Dorsey and McShane say that each night does tend to have a loose musical theme, including Tuesday’s "singer-songwriter" bill and the stellar pop-rock lineup for Feb. 16.
One of the harder-to-define nights comes from the musicians cast for Valentine’s Day. That bill includes The Extraordinaires (also a SXSW ’08 feature), These United States (D.C.), Hezekiah Jones, Wes Mattheu and the New Way Down, Matt Jones, Bee Team, Sisters Three and local fave Birdie Busch.
The show fashioned for Feb. 16 has plenty of potential, depending on your preferences. It includes the Bucks County pop-rockers Illinois, who took the radio by storm last year with their sugary but sophisticated songs. They’ll fit in quite well with the easygoing sounds of Drink Up Buttercup, Cheers Elephant, Brooklyn’s Crooked Looks, and a handful of other bands that are loaded with promise.
As far as the last night (Feb. 17) goes, it’s hard to say just what will play out, but a grand Radiohead tribute night, featuring a mish-mash of the various bands, is scheduled.
Clearly, picking the best night of these seven is no easy task. Music fans will be glad to know that the Fire is keeping each show affordable, with a door charge that would amount to a payout of just $56 for the entire week. ••
For more info, visit www.iourecords.com/thefire

Check it out . . .
Who: Forty of the best bands stretching from Brooklyn to D.C.
What: Northern Liberties Winter Music Fest at The Fire, 4th Street and Girard Avenue
When: Sunday, Feb 10, to Sunday, Feb 17. Most shows start at 8 p.m., tickets are $8 per night.