Concert Review: North vs. South Festival, 8/23/08
North Vs. South Festival
Saturday, 8-23-08
Better than: Getting slaughtered in an early morning raid by Confederate sympathizers.
By RICHARD GINTOWT
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Brothers and Sisters
Ever showed up to summer camp a couple days late and felt like you missed all the fun? That’s a bit how I felt Saturday night at the third and final evening of the North Vs. South music festival, where the crowd collectively looked like a zombie on a sleepless coke binge. I asked festival director Mike McCoy if he had a long night Friday and he deadpanned “a long two months.” Presumably he was referring to all the work that went into planning the festival, which invited 70 bands from Minneapolis, Texas, Kansas City and beyond.
The first four editions of the festival took place in Lawrence, using that town’s Civil War history as the symbolic inspiration for the North vs. South theme. The events provided a convenient way to inhabit another town’s music scene for an eve or two and check out a bunch of bands that are relatively unknown outside of their respective regions (and maybe inside them as well).
The festival’s first year in Kansas City was hindered by the fact that its five venues – The Brick, The Record Bar, Harling’s, Davey’s Uptown and a converted Crossroads warehouse called Big Al’s Speakesy – were spread across town, making it highly impractical to get smashed and drive from venue to venue. But with a bit of self-imposed restraint, I managed to get to four venues Saturday night and save the DUI for my dreams.
