New York City’s famous Webster Hall housed a five-hour mini rock festival this Wednesday, featuring acts like Kurt Vile, Speedy Ortiz, Screaming Females, Waxahatchee, Titus Andronicus, Hop Along, Superchunk and Perfect Pussy. The booking agency Ground Control Touring had teamed up with music site Noisey to put on the event in the basement Studio, Marlin Room and Grand Ballroom in Webster.
Stereogum reported that though the bill featured mostly rock performers – six of whom were featured on the music site’s list of 50 best albums of 2015 – many of the acts showcased “stripped-down” renditions of their sets: for example, “Steve Gunn, who’s recently fleshed out his brand of contemporary folk with full band treatments, was up there alone with an acoustic guitar, singing highlights from last year’s Way Out Weather.”
Gunn then joined Kurt Vile and Kim Gordon to cover Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray:”
Vile also joined Woods onstage for a rendition of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” which Stereogum dubbed “a song very well-suited to Vile’s whole aesthetic.” Watch the clip below:
Stereogum’s had some final words about the night:
The bands on the bill felt like they were all part of some large extended family and/or scene, despite them being, at times, far removed generationally or geographically. But when they were all under Webster’s roof, it came off like a giant house party, with artists flitting between each other’s sets, sometimes thwarting audience expectations, but mostly offering up a weirder and more gratifying show than you’d usually reasonably expect on a Wednesday night.
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