It’s a little late to start browsing Midpoint’s line-up. With around 150 bands to check out, time is critical. I put together a Spotify playlist, set it to shuffle, and heard the first sweet sounds of MPMF15. And sweet they are. While I appreciate Bunbury, The bookings that MPMF snags are on a whole more to my liking. And after months of Bunbury prep, it feels soooo good to be back home. Add the playlist if you are so inclined. More to come.
Tag Archives: mpmf
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: EMA and Saturday’s Schedule
Here’s what I am afraid of. I like EMA’s recordings, but it sounds like there was lots of technology used to create them. This leaves me uncertain of what this will be like live.
And here’s Saturday’s schedule! No more scheduling. Huzzah!!
230 Modoc – Washington Park
345 Public – Washington Park
5 Empires – Washington Park
630 OK Go – Washington Park
715 Ancient Warfare – Moerlein Tap Room
830 Coves – Moerlein Tap Room
845 – The Nepotist – Mainstay Rock Bar
930 Ex Hex – The Know
930 Ravonettes Moerlein Tap Room
945 Low Cut Connie – Midpoint Midway
1030 Speedy Ortiz – The Know
1115 The Tontons – Mainstay Rock Bar
1145 EMA – The Know
1145 Gardens and Villa – Memorial Hall
1215 Milagres – The Drinkery
1230 Ex-Cult – Moerlein Tap Room
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: Rubblebucket and Friday’s Schedule
This is fun. I am curious what these guys will do in a live show. When I listen to music, sometimes my spidey sense immediately recognizes that the band’s live show will be stellar. Rubblebucket is an enigma in that way. Either their show will be super fun and have great energy, or it will be awful. And I mean awful in one of two ways. Either the live representation of the music won’t live up to the recording in the sense that the instrumentation is significantly different, or they will be sloppy in their performance. Here’s to hoping that they are super fun, because I really dig their recordings.
I have finally worked out Friday’s schedule. I am pleased because this means I only have one more schedule to put together.
5 Yugos – MP Midway
6 Joseph Arthur – Washington Park
6 Real Estate – MP Midway (I will split my time between these two bands in the 6 o’clock hour)
715 Wussy – Washington Park (If for some reason I am not feeling Wussy, and this is very unlikely, Bully – Christian Moerlein Tap Room)
815 Drowners – Christian Moerlein
830 The Afghan Wigs – Washington Park (will arrive just a bit late)
930 Tycho – Christian Moerlein
930 The Locals – MOTR (Alternate, if I don’t connect with Tycho)
10 Fort Wilson Riot – The Know
1030 Shivering Timbers – Mr Pitiful’s
11 All Them Witches – The Drinkery
1115 Love X Stereo – Mainstay Rock Bar (will get there late)
1145 Rubblebucket – The Know
1230 Miniature Tigers – Mainstay Rock Bar
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: Violent Mae and Thursday’s Schedule
Am I in a waking nightmare? No, I am dreading working out my MPMF schedule. SO MUCH GOOD THINGS. TOO MUCH GOOD THINGS. So, to procrastinate that just a bit, let’s talk about how fun Violent Mae is. Hey Fiona Apple without the over-production and piano, what’s up? Plus, could that cave be anymore beautiful… and cold? It has to be frigid in there to create such elaborate icicles. I think I can see an icicle forming on her nose.
These guys play at The Know Theater on Thursday September 25th as part of Midpoint Music Festival. Speaking of Thursday, there’s no more procrastinating. Here goes with my schedule.
5pm Fairmount Girls – Midpoint Midway
615 Indigo Wild – Midpoint Midway
715 The Range – Washington Park
730 Pike 27 – Midpoint Midway
815 Vic and Gab – Mainstay Rock Bar
830 Chromeo – Washington Park
915 Darlene – Know Theater
930 Panda Bear – Moerlein Tap Room
10 Violent Mae – Know Theater
1045 Barrence Whitfield and the Savages – The Taft
1130 Sun Kil Moon – Memorial Hall
1130 Mutual Benefit – CAC
1145 Lost In The Trees – Know Theater
12 St Paul and the Broken Bones – The Taft
That 1045 to 12 hour and fifteen minutes is a holy mess. I’m probably going to skip something there. It makes most sense for me to possibly skip out on Sun Kil Moon and Lost In The Trees. That way I can stay in the downtown business district. St Paul and the Broken Bones are going to be amazing, and I don’t want to be late to that. Hence, it’s not realistic for me to ride between OTR, business district, back to OTR, back to business district in the span of 30 minutes. I will ruminate on that further. Why can’t I clone myself?
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: The Nepotist and Other Honerable Mentions
Subtle blues guitar riffs and a voice like David Byrne? YES. I will gladly float on that river. This trio reminds me of The Black Keys in the sense that they play mean blues and that they manage to get such texture out of a guitar/bass/drum kit set-up.
These guys play at Mainstay Rock Bar on Saturday September 27th as part of Midpoint Music Festival.
Given that MPMF is less than a week away, I have some shop-keeping stuff to get out of the way. First, I need to write up my schedule for each night. That will be a bit of a nightmare given that there is so much I want to see. Really, it’s a great problem to have. Second, I need to pass along bands that aren’t making it to my must-see list only because I’ve seen them multiple times before. For me, this fest is about experiencing music that I haven’t yet seen or don’t expect to see return to Cincinnati in the near future. So, there are tons of acts that put up amazing performances that I haven’t yet talked about, nor will they turn up in my schedules for the fest.
Here’s my list of excellent performers, that aren’t making my schedule simply because I have seen them once before (often multiple times).
Bonesetters – They sounded great at Bunbury this year.
The Ridges – Love this band. They put up an energetic performance every time.
Low Cut Connie – Jerry Lee Lewis, eat your heart out. I will do my best to get to a bit of their set. Electrifying performance each time I’ve seen them.
Magnolia Sons – It’s everything you could want from Motown and more. Oh, the live horn section! Swoon!
Us, Today – These Cincinnati natives are doing wonderful experimental rock, and we are proud to call them our own.
Shivering Timbers – The Akron natives visit us often. Are we thrilled to check them out at MOTR every time they visit? YES.
Culture Queer – Is it weird? Yes. Does it make me think of The Pixies but even more peculiar? Yes. Am I always happy to see they are playing? YES.
Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands – I saw these guys last year at MPMF, really stellar performance.
The Young Heirlooms – Ahh, more of Cincinnati’s own. Love.
The Almighty Get Down – They are going to rip Mainstay Rock Bar off its foundation with soul. These guys are so much fun to see.
Black Owls – Are you ready for a big steaming pile of rock and roll? Go catch this band.
Molly Sullivan – She’s an incredible vocalist. She was stunning as part of the No No Knots and is equally stellar on her own.
Darlene – Melodic guitar rock that reminds me that I need to get my Juliana Hatfield 3 cassette tape back out. Great rock and roll.
Are you just visiting for MPMF (awesome, and welcome) and want a poo poo platter of the best Ohio bands? See above. More than half of the bands that I’ve listed above are based out of Ohio.
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: Empires
I want to celebrate the day of the dead with friends on mopeds. At least, that’s what I think the director of this video was thinking. I wanted a moped when I was thirteen, and regardless of having a motorcycle, I still kind of want one.
If early U2, The Editors, and INXS had an improbably conceived baby, it would be this band. Lo and behold, they are on Island Records, U2’s record label. When I think about past music, I know that 80’s pop is my Achilles heel, but just now I am a bit nostalgic for early U2. Yesterday, I noticed that I wanted to pull out my Cornershop record. Today, I think I need to hear War by U2.
In two weeks, I will be seeing Empires play at Midpoint Music Festival. They play Saturday September 27th at Washington Park. Praise be to Monty, the MPMF Cyclops, that they are playing early that night, because there is an overabundance of band on my list.
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: Chromeo
In past years at MPMF, there was always at least one dance-filled show. Previous bands that made me lose myself to dance were Cut Copy and The Seedy Seeds. This year I am thinking that title will go to Chromeo. How fun is this song?
With a dash of 70’s with a pinch of 80’s, this show will be big fun. It’s difficult for me to resist anything that recaptures the basic premise of the movie Mannequin. The only thing this is missing is a reference to Hollywood. May Meshach Taylor rest in peace. Speaking of which, this movie needs to be added to my Netflix queue. Don’t judge.
Chromeo is playing Thursday night, September 25th of Midpoint Music Festival.
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: St Paul & The Broken Bones
NPR really loves these guys. KEXP Seattle also really loves these guys. Check out their live session with KEXP below.
I’ve been investigating Midpoint bands for some months. Upon my first listen, I wanted to see this happen live. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen amazing soul done live. In fact, the answer might be never. His guttural voice reaching over the shiny brass instruments sounds thrilling. They guys will be playing Thursday September 25th at The Taft as part of Midpoint Music Festival. Their billing at The Taft couldn’t be better. Last year The Taft might have taken first prize in sound. I saw three considerably different bands there, and they managed it perfectly.
Midpoint Music Fest Must-see: The Ravonettes
David Lynch would listen to The Ravonettes. Are you ready for some darkness? The dark is here.
Their harmonies and sound roll out of the 50’s, but dig just beyond the surface and there’s a bleak, dark hole were the Leave It to Beaver love stories should be.
And like David Lynch movies that explore the darkness in suburbia and ordinary life, I also love these bright and shiny melodies with their coal black lyrics. They will play the stage at Christian Moerlein tap room on Saturday September 27th at Midpoint Music Fest.
It’s an accident that I’ve only discussed bands that are booked for Saturday. But this does illustrate that this is the year for conflict. More that other years, there are bands playing that I want to see across town at the same time. Really, this is a pretty great problem to have.
Midpoint Music Fest 2014 Must-see: OK Go
The last time I saw OK Go perform, it was a free show at Fountain Square at least five or six years ago. They have been busy in the meantime. Such as.
The visuals are really clever. But, man, is that a dark song. The first time I heard it, I thought it sounded like a New Order song. I thought that because it does. So much so, that I’m pretty sure they are referencing this New Order song on purpose.
I have no real sense of why they’ve linked these songs together melodically. Maybe OK Go are New Order fans. Maybe they just liked the sound of the song and wanted to take a shot at their own interpretation. But their lyrics seem too thoughtful for the nod to be that superficial. I think that both of these songs are about disappointment in relationships.
Disappointment in relationships, what a prickly subject. It’s the thing that goes unspoken except in song lyrics like these. And yet every single person on this planet who has been romantically involved with another human has experienced it.
I know I won’t be disappointed in this show. OK Go plays Washington Park on Saturday Sept. 27 at Midpoint Music Festival. If you love experiencing new music live and you live close to Cincinnati, you must check out this fest.
Kate's Queen City Notes 