Live concert photography of last year's M for Montréal's New Colossus Festival showcase featuring NOBRO, La Sécurité, Hippie Hourrah, Winona Forever, Housewife and Sasha Cay at Baker Falls.

Live Concert Photography: The New Colossus Festival 2024: Day 1: M for Montréal Presents NOBRO with La Sécurité, Hippie Hourrah, Winona Forever, Housewife and Sasha Cay at Baker Falls 3/6/24

I have some terrible luck with technology. As a very busy journalist and photographer, who frequently covers over 100 shows a year, plus festivals and other public events in New York, I take a shit ton of photos throughout the course of a year. If I don’t fill up hard drives at a ridiculously quick rate, they wind up malfunctioning. Unsurprisingly, I also have a lot of dead hard drives lying around my apartment.

Either back in 2023 or early last year, I purchased another portable hard drive. Frustratingly, that hard drive malfunctioned after shooting last year’s New Colossus Festival and Easter Bonnet Parade in Midtown. As I was doing some research on my hard drive, I learned that my particular issue was something that countless users were also complaining about — and it tied to a particular batch of hard drives produced within a year or so period.

I contacted the manufacturer and complained about the malfunctioning hard drive. The manufacturer sent me a replacement drive and a link to a recovery program that was supposed to help recover my data. But as it turned out, it didn’t work as they claimed. So, I spent about $100 on a recovery program, recovered 99% of my data.

Last year was so very busy with work and travel that I didn’t get a chance to finish editing photos from last year’s New Colossus Festival until the tail end of the year. Sigh. Such is life. So let’s get to it, right?

Co-founded back in 2018 by three New York music industry vets and longtime friends, former Lorimer Beacon founder and head Mike Bell, Kanine Records‘ founder and label head Lio Kanine and Kepler Events‘ and Dedstrange Records co-founder Steven Matrick, The New Colossus Festival over the course of the past couple of years has featured several hundred handpicked, emerging indie bands and artists from Canada, the UK, the European Union, Singapore, Hong Kong and of course, the US.

Since its founding, the festival has quickly established itself as the first stop in New York and in the US for a growing number of emerging and buzz worthy for a growing number of emerging and buzz worthy international artists. Notable festival alumni include a number of JOVM mainstays including GIFT, Penelope Isles, The Orielles, Thus Love, as well as Pom Poko, Pom Pom Squad, Sid Simons, Sobs, Water From Your Eyes, Peel Dream Magazine, Kiwi Jr., and a growing list of others.

The festival’s fifth — er fourth? — edition took place last March in some of the Lower East Side’s best and renowned independent venues including Mercury Lounge, Berlin Under A, Arlene’s Grocery, The Bowery Electric, Heaven Can Wait, Pianos, and more.

2024’s New Colossus Festival exploded out of the gate, with M for Montréal‘s annual showcase, which featured Montréal-based punks NOBRO, rising Montréal-based bilingual art punks La Sécurité, Montréal-based psych rock outfit Hippie Hourrah, Vancouver-based jangle pop band Winona Forever, Toronto-based indie rock project Housewife, and Montréal-based Sasha Cay taking the stage at the old Baker Falls space over on Avenue A.