Third and Final Day of MidPoint 2009
The third and final day of the 2009 MidPoint Music Festival came much too quickly, while the first two days remain just a fuzzy memory of the past. For me personally, I was looking forward to the final night the most because it featured most of the bands I was looking forward to on any one day.
They Can’t Drive, But They Can Rock
I wasn’t planning on going down to Fountain Square for the teen boy rock band, The Trouble With Boys, but I figured that it would be an interesting sight to see. I’m honestly really glad that I caught their set, which featured original pop punk songs and covers of the Beastie Boys “(You Gotta) Fight For You Right (To Party)” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.” The four members of the band are all in the twelve, thirteen and fourteen year old range, and would barely be taller than their guitars if you stood the two next to each other. They met four years ago, if you can believe that, at an Indiana Rockschool, which is a program much like what you see in the movie “School of Rock” that encourages young musicians. In this day and age of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and American Idol, it’s really nice to see that the parents of these youngsters are clearly raising their boys the right way, introducing them to bands of their generation like Neil Young and Joe Strummer.
Story of the Day
Perhaps the one thing that everyone was talking about early Saturday evening was the fiasco that took place at the Cadillac Ranch. Around 9 pm, owners of the bar decided to pull the remaining acts, which included three bands from New York (In Cadeo, Hugo and Finding Fiction) and the Mean Tambourines from Nashville. The first band, The Lighthouse and The Whaler, went on at 8 pm but were able to get through their entire set, before bar owners cited a 71% drop in sales and a dislike for the styles of bands slated to perform. They replaced the acts with a DJ at 9 pm. This was clearly a poor decision, so I can only hope that the festival will choose not to include this tasteless bar in the future and that these bands will want to return to the city in the future. Read the full disappointing story here.
Weird Is Good
The most interesting sets of the entire weekend came from London’s Micachu and the Shapes and French/Finnish trio, The Dø. Even after studying up on these bands by reading numerous articles and interviews on the internet and seeing their strange, amazing performances, I still can’t figure out what styles of music they play. Both bands were highly experimental; Micachu switched between a homemade acoustic guitar called a “chu” and the normal electric strat, while her two bandmates were armed with everything from cowbells, glass bottles and metal garbage can-like lids attached to the drumkit, to even more digital and high-tech instruments like synthesizers and laptops. Perhaps Micachu doesn’t fit perfectly into any one genre, they list themselves as experimental, electronic, indie and digital funk, but perhaps labels aren’t really that important. I guess as long as it’s good music, nothing else matters.
As for The Dø, and like most bands who played at the Contemporary Arts Center, the visual element of their show proved to be vital, with their black and white animated short films that may have been stories behind the songs. Much of Olivia Merilahti’s Bjork-like vocals appeared to be in English, although I couldn’t always digest what exactly she was saying. This band lists themselves as French indie folk pop, but then again they’re just another band you can’t really grasp until you experience them live.
For the most part, European music has always been quite different than American music; maybe it has something to do with the cultural differences, but even the crowds across the pond seem to be much larger than they are here in the states. It’s easy to see why the English and French get bands like Micachu and The Dø and it takes a little bit longer to reach fans here in the U.S., but thanks to festivals like MidPoint, they’re bringing interesting music from around the world to Cincinnati. Just because some music may seem weird to us Americans, doesn’t mean it’s at all bad. In fact, it can be quite good.
The Calm Before the Storm
I wasn’t about to leave my front row/stage left spot after Micachu and the Shapes finished their set, because the band I had been anxiously awaiting to see for months, Chairlift, would be taking the stage at 9:30 pm. I enjoy watching a band’s crew set up equipment in between sets, just to get a feel for some of the equipment that bands use. I’m not really sure what all of it is or exactly how it works, but it just feels pretty cool to be that close to see the things that make the sounds I’ve come to know and love. I was so close to the stage, that I could read Chairlift’s setlist when it was taped to the stage, but luckily, I knew the moment they started playing that they weren’t going by the setlist.
The band was joined by renouned composer, performer and producer, John Maus, who has worked with everyone from Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, to his own band The Janitors. Maus didn’t bring as much variety to the band as I had hoped, but it still served to be a nice addition, having an extra set of hands on the keys and synths, which certainly helped out lead frontwoman, Caroline Polachek, who often left her gear to dance around in circles onstage and play the tambourine.
It was my third time seeing Chairlift this year, and although it was certainly my most favorite show of MidPoint 2009, I went in already knowing exactly what to expect, so there wasn’t a whole lot that could surprise me.
I often reminisced of being back at Bonnaroo, the last place I saw them, as both venues were inside large, crowded white tents. Even the pouring rains that fell outside the tent brought a little bit of that Bonnaroo spirit. Fortunately, the only notecable difference between this show and their Bonnaroo performance, was that the putrid, nasty stench of thousands of showerless Bonnaroovians was missing. I wouldn’t wish that smell upon the noses of anyone at MidPoint.
The Lodge Bar
I wandered into a packed Lodge Bar shortly before 11 pm, to catch a couple of bands who have a classic indie rock sound but are able to make it sound original. While the Cadillac Ranch was obviously number one on everyone’s most-hated venue list, I have to say that I’d have to add the Lodge Bar to that list at number two. Clearly the management aren’t flat-out pricks like at the Cadillac Ranch, but the overall vibe and scene of this place leaves me feeling uncomfortable and out of place.
Walk into the Lodge Bar during MidPoint and you’ll immediately notice that the majority of the hipsters aren’t there for music, rather they’re there to mingle and watch the game. I’m not saying you can’t do that, but I feel both the Rosewood Thieves and Yourself and the Air were shorthanded by playing a not-so great bar turned music venue. Sure the place was packed and a decent crowd filled the area in front of the stage, but I just felt like the majority of the people in this bar had no idea about MidPoint and what was going on.
I guess that can be good on some levels for some people; go into a bar not expecting to see live, original music and maybe walk away with something you’re interested in, but as far as a weekend hangout, the Cadillac Ranch and Lodge Bar rank among my top two most-hated hipster spots.