New Orleans hasn’t always been thought of as a good rock town. Foburg aims to address that. This weekend, the New Orleans Indie Rock Collective (NOIR) will launch the 3-day music festival spotlighting over 100 area indie bands and touring artists (some as far as Seattle) on the road to South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, which starts the following week.

Peelander Z

The full schedule for the festival is up now, and Friday’s highlights include shows by Lafayette’s Givers, the psychedelic King Rey, the chansons of Wazozo, and a bounce DJ set by Lefty Parker at the R Bar.

Saturday, the White Bitch hosts a Noizefest preview at the Dragon’s Den while MyNameIsJohnMichael, Rotary Downs, the Latin soul of Los Po-Boy-Citos and Hurray for the Riff Raff play elsewhere on Frenchmen Street.

Sunday night includes performances by bands as different as Silent Cinema, all-girl and one-guy ska band Local Skank, indie-prog rockers Big Rock Candy Mountain, improv jazz band WATIV and Japanese wrestling punk band Peelander-Z.

The festival will be held on Frenchmen because, as Mark Heck, co-founder of NOIR notes, “Frenchmen is one of the music meccas of New Orleans.” The venues will be in the first couple blocks of Frechmen and include Blue Nile, Checkpoint Charlie, d.b.a., Dragon’s Den, The Maison and R Bar. The entire festival is being presented by LetsBeTotallyClear.org and every show will be smoke-free.

Weekend passes cost $30 at the Information Tent located at the corner of Frenchmen and Chartres or can be purchased online in advance. Individual shows have their own cover charges.

For more on the Foburg Music Festival, see Abby Lunetta’s article in our March issue.