Despite the fact that there were a lot of big shows taking place in the area last night (Arctic Monkeys at the Madison Theater, Foxy Shazam at the Mad Hatter, Roger Klug at Northside Tavern and Tantric at Play by Play Cafe) a strong near-sell out crowd showed up at the Southgate House for the first night of the annual CincyPunk Festival.
Things got off to a rather slow start, with the young punk rock trio, Dead North, kicking things off at 8 pm in the parlour. They were a late addition to the festival, replacing Martin Luther and the Kings, whose drummer has apparently left the band. Although their set was short, sweet and bound with a few sound issues, I thought that they showed a lot of promise.
I was quite pleased with the performances of Charlie Hustle and Animal Circles, both of whom I was seeing for the first time. These two experimental indie rock bands have been getting some good press over the past year or so, as well as local music award nominations.
My top five highlights of the night came mostly from the bands playing in the ballroom, like the rap-rock outfit Small Time Crooks who have probably the two best MC’s in the area, experimental post-rockers State Song, psychedelic soul crooners The Harlequins and folktronica trio and headliners The Seedy Seeds, as well as The Tillers, who at one point played from the middle of a packed crowd in the upstairs parlour. It was good to know that even my parents enjoyed them.
Night two begins in just a couple of hours, and seems to feature much more punk and hardcore bands, which include The Dopamines, John Walsh and reunion shows from Dropkickmejesus and Two Inch Winky, among many, many more. But perhaps the bands I’m looking forward to the most this evening are The Lions Rampant, Billy Wallace & the Virginia Blues, Alone at 3am, The Guitars, Slow Claw and The Never Setting Suns.