In recent days, we've taken a look at the Noise Pop music festival from the perspective of the organizers and the venues. Today we present the final installment in our three-part series, looking at the fest through the eyes of local bands.

Noise Pop offers Bay Area music fans the chance to see dozens of bands over the span of a few days at a variety of venues, including The Independent, Bottom of the Hill, Great American Music Hall, and the Fox Theater.

For those with the interest—and endurance—it’s one of the best music events of the year, right up there with Outside Lands, Treasure Island Music Festival and the weeks around Coachella when all of the performers headed to Indio swing through the Bay Area (a phenomenon so well established it now has a name: Fauxchella).

But what’s it like to perform at Noise Pop? Is it really a big deal, or just another show? We checked with three bands performing at this year's fest to find out.

Geographer

Geographer’s Mike Deni has a long history with Noise Pop to draw from in answering this question. Both Noise Pop general manager Dawson Ludwig and the booker for The Independent Eric Barleen mentioned Geographer’s 2011 headlining gig at The Independent as a highlight from years past, partly because of how exciting it was to see a local band growing up right before their eyes.

Mike Deni. Photo: Victoria Smith / RETNA LTD

Deni tells Hoodline that the experience was just as significant for him and his band—as is the fact that this year Geographer headlined the Fox Theater, graduating from playing the Independent’s 500-person room just a few years ago to the 2800-capacity Oakland venue.

“When I heard we got the Fox show, that’s huge. Just like, ‘Wow, we get to play the Fox.’ I just feel really lucky that San Francisco and the Bay Area has embraced us to the extent that we can do these things that I’ve dreamed about,” Deni told Hoodline in a phone interview last month.

“That’s what I love about being a band from San Francisco, it feels like people care whether we make it or not. I feel like people are rooting for us. That’s increased my confidence to do what I do alone in the studio a lot. I feel incredibly supported by Noise Pop and Another Planet and all the people, like the blogs, The Bay Bridged, all the people working in music who don’t play on stage, I feel that’s my community, moreso than other bands, really.”

Deni, who moved to San Francisco from New Jersey in 2005, played some Geographer tunes with the Magik*Magik Orchestra at the Fox last year, and said he was looking forward to returning to the venue.

“On that stage, the speakers are the size of a 3-story house. Hearing my voice come out of those speakers was exhilarating, and also scary, because you can really hear everything. But once I got past that initial push I was elated on stage. It was wild to be made that large. As a human being you’re so small, and your world is so small, and you literally get amplified, you get magnified as a person. I think that’s one of the coolest things, getting magnified.”

Cathedrals

Whereas Geographer was making its second (or maybe even third) big leap via Noise Pop this year, two other local bands, Cathedrals and Giraffage, both of which are much newer than Geographer, got their first shot to headline The Independent.

Despite enjoying plenty of local and national buzz over the past year, Cathedrals were nervous when the tickets to their Noise Pop show went on sale. The show sold out in a week, though, prompting Noise Pop to book a second night for the band at The Independent. That show sold out too—a fact that surprised Cathedrals vocalist Brodie Jenkins, who grew up in Sebastopol,  and guitarist-producer Johnny Hwin, who grew up in Hercules.

“When we first put the Saturday show on sale we really had no idea what to expect, we haven’t really played that many shows, honestly. Maybe four local shows. Some weren’t even for the public,” Hwin told Hoodline by phone last month. “I even felt a little nervous about playing a headlining show at Independent. I wasn’t sure who would come. When it sold out in a week, we thought, ‘Who are these people? Where are they coming from?’ And when we sold it out again, our minds were blown. We’re beyond stoked. Nice to know you have a solid group of fans in your hometown.”

Cathedrals had never played The Independent before, and Jenkins, for her part, said that what she was most looking forward to was “to have my feet where so many bands I love have played” – bands like The Shins and Little Dragon.

“I think I’ve been to a couple Noise Pop shows, but for the most part, as a musician, it was this lofty thing,” she says. “I was aware of it and I knew there were amazing bands playing. I just remember always being jealous that I wasn’t playing it and I wanted to play. The fact that we are, it feels like a huge milestone as a local San Francisco band. It feels like an iconic show, it’s an iconic SF festival.”

Giraffage

Giraffage, a.k.a. Bay Area native Charlie Yin, has played the Independent a few times in the past, and says it’s his favorite local venue because “it has one of the best sounding rooms I’ve ever been in.” But he’d never headlined the venue prior to his sold-out gig last Thursday night.

The show wasn’t just Yin’s first time headlining his favorite club in SF, however—it was also the first Noise Pop show he’d ever attended, as a fan or musician.

During his set, the Independent was packed full of sweaty, dancing people and shrouded in a haze of smoke (originating from the smoke machines onstage as well as the crowd), shot through with the multi-colored flashing and strobing lights of Giraffage’s elaborate stage show. Yin’s parents were even there. All in all, not a bad way to experience your first Noise Pop event.

Though it was just another stop on the headlining tour Yin is on in support of his new EP, No Reason, it was a significant one for him. “Noise Pop is definitely one of the coolest festivals that happen in San Francisco every year. It definitely feels like a big step/opportunity,” he told Hoodline via email.

Noise Pop ends tonight, Sunday March 1, but there are still tickets available to great shows at venues around the city. Check out the schedule for more info.