NYC Popfest - night 1 pics (My Teenage Stride, Knight School, The Ballet, Soft City & more...)
photos & words by Dominick Mastrangelo
My Teenage Stride
NYC Popfest, the four-day love affair with all things indiepop started on Thursday (5/14) with a lineup featuring all New York City bands. A full Cake Shop watched Knight School kick things off, followed by Soft City‘s first-ever show. Girl group, Dream Bitches, The Metric Mile (now a five-piece), My Teenage Stride featuring one of drummer Brett Whitmoyer’s last shows with the band, and The Ballet rounded out Day One.
“Best band of the night was My Teenage Stride who seem to shed members after each Popfest performance. Last year, they lost a bassist and guitarist. Tonight was MTS’ final show with longtime drummer Brett Whitmoyer, and frontman Jed Smith seem genuinely broken up about it. “New York is a shitty place for bands,’ he admitted to the crowd before clarifying, “Well, a shitty place for bands to try and make it.” It’s especially shitty, as My Teenage Stride are at a creative peak if you ask me, with their current string of monthly Emusic singles being some of the best stuff they’ve done to date. They played their May single, which has yet to actually drop and the name of which I missed, and it rivals “Creep Academy” for awesomeness. (I shot video of it, which is below.) They’ll have to rebound quickly, though, as their next gig is Monday night at The Bell House.” [Bill Pearis]
The full lineup of Monday’s show (5/18) is My Teenage Stride, The Beets, and Tom Hamilton. It’s just $5.00 to get in, and there’s free beer from 7:30-8:30pm.
More pictures from Night One of Popfest at Cake Shop, below…
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Knight School
Soft City
Dream Bitches
Metric Mile
My Teenage Stride
The Ballet
