Anishinaabe is my Love Language at Pianos on Sunday, 10 March 2024.

Subsonic Eye, Outer Shapes, and airu get their last licks in for the final showcase.

The New Colossus Festival played out from March 6-10, highlighting new sounds in underground music from here, there, and all points foreign and abroad.

New York City is a destination that international acts are going to set their sights on regardless. But the stakes were raised as the fest has fit itself snugly into the week before SXSW, attracting bands from all over who wanted to hopscotch through town on their way to more storied Texas festival.

The fledgling festival wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and you wouldn’t either, trading between showcases at dives and clubs dotting an electric neighborhood in one of the most exciting cities in the world.

Sights, sounds, food, drink, and lodging if you can afford it.

Let’s go see some music!

Pianos, Round Deux, Trois, Quatre, Cinque! The music staple on Ludlow Street did the majority of heavy lifting during the five-day festival. It’s where journalists picked up their press credentials on the first night of the fest, and it’s where the exhausted and insane showed up for a final showcase on the final day.

No wonder it became progressively harder to get a drink at the bar. Five days of day & night bills will raise your hackles. Shout out to the awesome staff that made the machine hum.

Airu, Part Two! Bands filled as many slots on as many showcases as they could find the time and energy for. You would too, if you traveled a long way to spread the Gospel of your sound. There’s always something new to learn from hearing the same band twice, thrice, or more in a short window of time. For example, when I caught the band at Heaven Can Wait on Saturday night, it was not readily apparent that there were four members. Or maybe it was readily apparent if you were surfing clean & sober in the late evening, but my crossed eyes only spotted three musicians at that time. Confirmed by the Pianos set at the closing showcase of the festival: four members.

In the words of Randy Jackson, the vocals coming off the local two-piece Outer Shapes were “a little pitchy, dawg.” Artists were having trouble hearing themselves in the monitors at Pianos all weekend. But the DIY duo gets more mileage out of energy and heart than pinpoint musical precision. One of the pair shared the serious backstory of one of their songs, a backstory about getting diagnosed with epilepsy and using art to navigate the trauma. It was probably a more real moment than the room – out of its mind, drunk, and exhausted on the fifth and final day of the festival – was prepared to process.

Anishinaabe singer Tashiina Buswa led the way on vocals for Montreal’s Love Language. The indie rock outfit mixes a strong pop sensibility with thoughtful reflections that wrestle with dual and dueling identities in an intersectional world. Case in point, two songs off the set list: “Off Rez” and “Indian Cowboy.” The monitor bug bit the guitarist in the middle of a song, but that stone cold motherfucker powered through it, working some cable magic to get back on track, while the rhythm section floated the boat merrily along.

If I have my Country Codes correct, ‘SG’ means Subsonic Eye is from Singapore. How’s the music scene out there? Far way, for starters. It’s a 19-hour trip, but the five-piece pop punkers didn’t look any worse for the marathon flight. The front woman served as lead vocalist for the all-male backing band that rocked hard and fast ditties about…nature? That’s the nut of it. The singer had a dry sense of humor, serving up the lyrics like a ham sandwich on a deli counter. The crowd dug it – what more can you ask for?

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