North Beach Music Festival, the jam and funk extravaganza set to take place in Miami, Florida next weekend on Friday December 10 and Saturday December 11, released its official schedule this week. The event, essentially the first of its kind to take place in Miami, is set to happen at North Beach Bandshell, and looking at the official rundown for each day is getting us even more excited for what should be a highly memorable two days of live music.
One incredible little addition to take note of is that the set from Denver funk-rock leaders The Motet will now be joined by special guests Jennifer Hartswick, String Cheese Incident’s Jason Hann on percussion, and Shira Elias, formerly of Turkuaz. Recent years of sharing performances with the best bands around has proven well enough that all three of these artists are definitely the ones to invite on stage to make your show that much more explosive.
For it’s inaugural occurrence, North Beach Music Festival is doing it up proper with the two-stage, back-to-back performance setup—the same kind of setup that has always made events like LOCKN, Boston Calling, Gem and Jam, and lots others the special live music experiences they are.
At North Beach you will literally be able to dance, get weird, and focus your full attention onto first-rate musicianship non-stop from 5pm when the festival opens until the headliners finish off at 11pm, without missing a thing. That 5PM kick off will be in the good hands of Florida’s own groove rock band The Heavy Pets. If you’re unfamiliar, check out this recent live video below which showcases an entire hour of feel good jamming. Following them will be sets from Tand, TAUK, that unique Motet set, and headliners Pigeons Playing Ping Pong.
Topping off Park Stage Friday night will be bass player and singer extaordinaire Karina Rykman with her band. You’ll get the chance to see her perform the next day too, as an integral part of the trifecta experience that is a Marco Benevento set, but Rykman’s personal project is a psychedelic party in its own right. Just check out the video of her performance at Relix Studios below if you need convincing.
On Saturday for day two at North Beach Music Fest you can actual start to get down at 1:15PM, when hard-rock boogie band JUKE (think a more danceable version of North Mississippi Allstars) sets the day off. They’ll be followed by Brendan Bayliss and Jennifer Hartwick, a duet set between two scene phenoms which is sure to be magical, Brandon Nideraeur and his band, and then Aqueous, with sets in between on the main stage from Holly Bowling, Ghost-Note, and Marco Benevento.
At the top of Saturday night, Eric Krasno will be handling double duty in headlining the Park Stage with his band The Assembly and then immediately after joining Spafford’s “Friends” set as the headlining set on the Bandshell main stage. Krasno will be joined in his Spafford sit-in duties by Benevento and Alric “AC” Carter of Tauk on keyboards, Nate Werth of Ghost-Note on percussion, and Brandon Niederaeur, the latter musician of whom has had tons of experience shredding on stage with Krasno—check a hot video below to be certain of that.
Of course, as a beautiful warm up for their “Friends,” Spafford will perform an all improv jam session from 8pm to 8:45pm, and that will no doubt be just as magnificent to witness as their big finish.
Check out North Beach Music Festival’s official weekend schedule below. To purchase tickets, and to learn more information about the festival itself, head to the official website here.
