The Wheel's Still In Spin

Better Than The Chili: Midpoint Music Festival

Once a week The Wheel's Still In Spin highlights a band from the Greater Cincinnati area. Whether you prefer Skyline or Gold Star, you will agree that this music is "Better Than The Chili." This week, the spotlight will be pointed on Cincinnati’s annual three-day music event, Midpoint Music Festival.

September 25-27, 2008

Registration: open until April 30, 2008 with late registration ending May 15, 2008. Click here to register. Or use Sonicbids.

Since 2002, Midpoint Music Festival has provided downtown Cincinnati three days of non-stop music. Focusing on unsigned bands, the festival has grown to include over 300 bands on about 20 stages. But this there will be a big change.

This past month, CityBeat announced it will be taking over operation and management of the Midpoint Music Festival. Read more about this here and here.

For the past five years, founders Bill Donabedian and Sean Rhiney have nurtured Midpoint into the little festival that could. They have stayed true to a focus on unsigned bands and given new bands from around the country a showcase to perform. Each year, they reported steady or strong growth in attendance. Now, with CityBeat’s leadership, the festival is ready to evolve even more.

CityBeat, Cincinnati’s weekly independent newspaper covering music, art, movies, dining, and entertainment, has been involved with MPMF since its inception in 2002 and has been involved in sponsoring local music festivals like MusicNow and Cincinnati Blues Festival.

The first change CityBeat announced is that there will be no industry panels this year. Just music. Also, there have been hints that they may have label showcases or highlight national headlining acts. There is speculation the festival will utilize different venues than it has in the past. The changes that CityBeat’s management will provided are guaranteed to life the festival to an even higher standard.

CityBeat will be sponsoring a MPMF Launch party at Below Zero on Wed, April 9th at 7PM. Saddle Creek Records’ Cursive will be performing with Capgun Coup.

www.mpmf.com
www.myspace.com/mpmf

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Midpoint Music Festival - Cincinnati, OH - Overview

This year's Midpoint Music Festival was a successful event. Since 2002, the festival has focused on showcasing independent original musicians. Each year, the number of participating bands has grown. As the festival grows, more out of town bands are added to the list of performers. This year also brought an handful of international artists.

The festival does not book nationally known and signed acts to perform. There are no label showcases here. All of the bands playing must be independently releasing their music and/or on a small label. This year there were a number of great performances from independent musicians. Most of the showcases of local and national acts were playing to substantial crowds. The festival seemed to go off without a problem.

Midpoint Music Festival also offered a conference on Friday and Saturday. Due to scheduling conflicts, I was not able to attend the conference either day this year. I was disappointed to miss one of the two keynote addresses. Lyle Preslar discussed his time with Minor Threat, as an A&R rep and label executive, and law degree and copyright analysis. Most of the panel discussions were guided towards the musicians in attendance and addressed recording, business, and licensing options.

The highlight of the festival was the evening's live performances. Breaking Laces, Coltrane Motion, Southeast Engine, Paper Airplane, and Western Civ were some of the standout acts. Here were some more of my favorites.

Midpoint Music Festival - Day Three - Cincinnati, OH - Sept 29th, 2007

Day 3 was the final night of the Midpoint Music Festival. Once again, there were full venues throughout downtown Cincinnati. Tonight I was able to squeeze in seeing and hearing these bands: Breaking Laces, leerone, Otter Petter, Paper Airplane, Ferdinand Fox, Lonesome Tumblers, Church Of The Red Museum, Turnbull AC's, Beau Alquizola Band, Miranda Sound, The Seedy Seeds, Hotpipes, and Stephanie's Id. The following is a list of my favorite performances.

Midpoint Music Festival - Day Two - Cincinnati, OH - Sept 28th, 2007

Day 2 of Cincinnati's Midpoint Music Festival showed a strong increase in attendance from Thursday night. The attendance for the opening performances this evening appeared to be equal to the strongest attendance from Day 1. The crowd continue to increase throughout the night, filling Cincinnati's Main Street in its Over The Rhine district. While Day 1 seemed to gather momentum as the night progressed, Day 2 was full of powerful bands from the evening's first notes played. With more people in attendance, it was a little harder to bounce around to venues. I was able to see these bands: Western Civ, For Algernon, Direc-T, Arrow Sparrow, Brice Woodall, Loyal Divide, The Wrenfields, Twilight Revival, Coltrane Motion, Southeast Engine, Of God And Science, The Newbees, The Electric Souls, and The Jack Fords. The following is a list of some of the strongest performances.

Midpoint Music Festival - Day One - Cincinnati, OH - Sept 27th, 2007

The sixth annual Midpoint Music Festival has descended upon Cincinnati, OH. With 19 stages and 240 bands, the festival is run by an all-volunteer staff and focuses on showcasing independent original musicians. With this many bands, I find it's best to try to catch a 3-4 songs of one band and then keep moving. Last night I was able to see: The Nathan Corsi Band, Mark Brecknell, The Prime Ministers, Josh Weinstein, Ruetschle, Elliott Ruther Trio, Hojas Rojas, Liz Pahl & The Pahlbearers, The Teenage Prayers, darynyck, Industrial Jazz Group, Angelo M., murmur, Cabin, and The Swarthy Band. What follows is a list of the highlights from the first day of showcases.