Though still a few weeks from summer, this week offers a handful of multi-act musical events that offer a great chance to get the music festival season started off right.
• The MOXY Music Fest debuts this Saturday at Thompson House (24 E. Third St., Newport, thompsonhousenewport.com). MOXY is the brainchild of members of local Hard Rock outfit Chakras (winners of the 2013 Cincinnati Entertainment Award for Hard Rock), who are hoping to make the Rock-centric fest an annual affair. The inaugural MOXY Fest spotlights several regional acts from Tennessee (The Nearly Deads, Absinthe Junk, Lines In The Sky), Indiana (These City Limits, No Pit Cherries), Wisconsin (Sunspot) and beyond, as well as a strong collection of Greater Cincinnati bands.
The local lineup features Acarya, Black Pharaoh, Chakras, Killer Star Effect, The Last Troubadour, Sulla, The Stories, Specyphi, The Vains, Rootbound, Flowers for Judith, Hayden Kaye, The Borderline Something and The Balanced Man Project.
The event starts at 4 p.m. with music on the Tommy Gun Theater Stage and the Heaven Parlor Stage; artists will perform on the Rock Star Lounge stage starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are available in advance for $8 through ticketweb.com or at the door for $10. For the full lineup and more, go to moxymusicfest.com.
• The DCCH Music and Arts Festival also debuts this week, running 5 p.m.-midnight Friday and 2 p.m.-midnight Saturday. The event is hosted by (and at) the DCCH Center for Children and Families, a Northern Kentucky-based center that offers foster care, adoption services, residential treatment and more. The festival is being held outdoors at the center’s campus on Orphanage Road in Fort Mitchell, Ky., and all proceeds benefit the children at DCCH.
Along with family-friendly events (like rides, games and magic), a craft market, food trucks and a craft beer garden, the DCCH Music and Arts Festival will have two stages of (mostly) local music. Area artists performing Friday include The Mitchells, Annette Shepherd, Philosopher’s Stone and Soul Biscuit, plus Louisville’s The Pass. Saturday, catch Ma Crow & the Ladyslippers, Josh Eagle and the Harvest City (whose great new self-titled album will be celebrated with a release party at the Southgate House Revival Friday night), Jody Stapleton and the Generals, Hickory Robot, Department Store Alligators, Anderson Ferry, The Ready Stance, Cincy Brass and Jamison Road.
Admission is free (there is a $5 parking charge). Visit dcchcenter.org for complete info.
• Also on Friday and Saturday, local label/collective Best Friend Records presents The Sound Spectacle at Rohs Street Café’s Sanctuary (245 W McMillan St., Clifton Heights, rohsstreetcafe.com).
The lineup showcases a great cross-section of Indie, Electronic and Rock acts. On Friday, Columbus’ Indigo Wild heads up a bill that also includes Cincinnati’s Pop Empire, Moonbeau, Youths on Skates and Towl, plus Louisville, Ky., trio The Debauchees. Great Cincy band Sacred Spirits headlines Saturday’s festivities, joined by locals Plastic Inevitables and Mardou, plus Columbus, Ohio’s Nude Art and Toledo, Ohio’s Silent Lions.
The Sound Spectacle is open to music lovers of all ages. Tickets are $6 per night or $10 for a weekend pass. You can give a listen to some of Best Friend Records’ output at bestfriendrecords.bandcamp.com.
• This Thursday at the University of Cincinnati’s Sigma Sigma Commons, the United Black Students Association and the Cincinnati Afrikan Freedom Day Committee presents a large fest for Juneteenth, a national celebration that honors the end of slavery in America. The free event will feature spoken word artists, an “African market place,” African drumming and dance and a slew of musical acts playing everything from Hip Hop to Reggae to Jazz.
Running 4-8 p.m., Thursday’s free Juneteenth Festival 2013 event will showcase The Last Boppers, Queen City, Singer Jah, Napoleon Maddox of IsWhat?!, Lioness, Under New Order Band featuring Lox Lane, Milton Blake, Truezy Truth, Ras Tosh, Empress Menen & Princess Makedah, Phynix the Fire, Chestah T and more.
• Florida Noise merchant Rat Bastard of Laundry Room Squelchers brings his band and the International Noise Conference to Cincinnati’s Rake’s End (2141 Central Ave., Brighton, facebook.com/rakesend) this Sunday. The “Conference” began as a stationary, weekend-long event several years ago featuring oodles of Noise and other experimental music artists performing 15-minute sets. The short-set rule stands but the INC is now an internationally touring event, with the lineups largely populated by local and regional artists from each tour stop.
The Rake’s End show is co-presented by longtime local experimental music promoters Art Damage and Dayton label Skeleton Dust and features several acts from both Cincinnati and Dayton. Representing Cincy at the Conference are Thriftstore Boratorium, Troy Gallaher, Jonathan Caldwell, MUCK, Evolve, Brain, Waste Biter, Treebeard, William Davidson, Uncle Dave Lewis and Jonathan Hancock. Showtime is 8 p.m.
CONTACT MIKE BREEN : [email protected] , @CityBeatMusic and on Facebook here .
