Papisa brings São Paulo to the stage at Rockwood Music Hall on Thursday, 7 March 2024.

Keegan Powell, Radio Trapani, The Band Cope and more fill the international bill.

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 New Colossus 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!

The festival schedule noted that shows at Rockwood Music Hall were in ROOM 1. Was there another room beside the one? A fun, charming, lively hole-in-the-wall venue – palatial, it was not. The better to see and hear the bands, my dear. Grab a seat at the table right below the lip of the stage to experience the show up close & personal. On Thursday night it was an international lineup, with late acts that included Brazilian, Italian, and Canadian groups.

A United Nations of Sound – or better yet a chill G20 afterparty.

The four-piece band dashed off medium fast tempo indie pop bangers with four members. Or maybe five? It’s The Band Cope.

The stage was so small in the front room of Rockwood Music Hall that musicians were just about falling into the crowd the whole set, and the house drumkit was positioned offstage against the wall.

In fairness to the square footage of the platform, it would have been more than enough to accommodate the average quartet or quintet, except the space was dominated by a grand piano. It was a gorgeous old beast, but festival be damned, it wasn’t going to be budged an inch.

The four-piece Papisa treated the room to some Brazilian rhythms. It’s a country that loves music, and makes sounds in a thousand different directions. But no matter the genre, there’s a special sort of tender loving care that shines off the faces of musicians from the Land of Parrots.

The drummer has a smile that wouldn’t quit as he made beautiful mincemeat out of the beat-up house kit, making that sad sack sing.

The set was mostly psych rock originals, though there was one tune that the fronter announced as a “classic.” Unless it’s “The Girl From Ipanema” she’s going to have to be a little more specific.

Whatever it was, it sparkled.

The guitarist and lead songwriter for Radio Trapani bought his guitar the same day of the show. Some checked baggage must have gone missing for the band from both Italy and the Netherlands.

Every musician knows that a new instrument needs a little time to settle in. Played right off the shelf, a guitar’s strings will rebel. Go tight, go loose, go wherever except where you want them to be. Tuning shenanigans aside, the three-piece played light synthpop fare for waiting rooms.

Extra points awarded, though, for cooly and confidently negotiating a drunk in the crowd, who wasn’t exactly a heckler, but wasn’t someone you want at the gig either. Bills that push past midnight can be exciting adventures, or they can be slogs filled with drunks who should've gone to bed hours ago. Be on the right side of history.

Canada’s Keegan Powell completed the international trifecta to finish the night. The outfit performed as a guitar-driven four-piece that was short on talk and long on jammy, rock n roll instrumentals. You could tell that the band had the last song earmarked weeks ago for closing out a festival set. It was an epic builder that pulled both the crowd and the band through the wringer. No encore needed.

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