The best concerts to see at Northside Festival

Way back in the early 2010s, producer Jerrilynn Patton’s manic tempos and unconventional sonic palettes were a high mark for the Chicago-born sound called footwork. Check out her cutting-edge beats upstairs at Brooklyn Bazaar, Greenpoint’s newish shopping-eating-partying destination

As a big-time style-sampler, R&B crooner Miguel delved into numerous cross-genre dabblings throughout his first couple albums, making the tunes part Latin-tinged hip-hop and part classic soul. On the newly released Wildheart though, he focuses in on his funk inspirations—Prince, Freddie Mercury, James Brown, etc.—for a run of sensually grooving new material. He'll be in performer mode while supporting the critically-acclaimed release at the spacious Terminal 5.

Dave Longstreth has spent the past few years writing hooks and harmonies for Kanye West and Solange in Los Angeles while also working on the just-released album Dirty Projectors, an avant-pop solo affair filled with polyrhythmics, jarring turns and heartbroken lyrics. This gig is one of his only shows this year, so expect something unique. He's joined by saxophonist and bandleader Washington, who reinvigorated contemporary jazz and garnered lots of mainstream critical attention with his ambitious 2015 debut, The Epic, and songwriter Melina Duterte, who delivers memorable moments of atmospheric bliss and cathartic release as Jay Som. (Read our recent interview with Jay Som.)

As folk-punk duo Girlpool, high school friends Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker weave complex vocal interplay—unison shouts along with lilting harmonies—above spare guitar melodies. Performing now as a quartet, the band adds a fuller sound and the jolt of live percussion to the stark songs of its sophomore album, Powerplant.

This boundary-pushing Northside gig features three artist-producers whose music defies classification. Experimental electronic musician Elysia Crampton’s magnificent and kaleidoscopic production collects far-ranging sonic iconography into dizzying collages that traverse histories of colonialism. Lo-fi "dark rap" artist Moor Mother of Philly label Don Giovanni shares a similar political impulse, addressing racial violence through a punk ethos, sonic chaos and noise instrumentation. Finally, partystarter Total Freedom amalgamates varied soundbites and samples from trap, UK grime, Kuduro and more into an experimental bass music menagerie.

Though lyrically far too convinced of the importance of being earnest, New Jersey's screamo poster boys, Thursday, have mastered the art of tricky time signatures and cathartic instrumental bloodletting. Here the group plays a free outdoor show with bands including The Hotelier and PUP. The latter's 2014 self-titled debut was a thoroughly brilliant punk romp that garnered its fair share of breathless praise—momentum that continues with the Toronto foursome’s barreling follow-up The Dream Is Over.

On Big Thief’s second full-length release, Capacity, guitarist and vocalist Adrianne Lenker follows up her folk-rock band's critically acclaimed debut, Masterpiece, with a slow-burner that expertly distilled years of songwriting experience into a seamless but wide-ranging collection.