Sound Advice: Reclaim Your Teenage Angst at the Ohio is for Lovers Festival

Hawthorne Heights Photo: Courtney Kiara Boyer

This story is featured in CityBeat’s Aug. 23 print edition.

The guys in the long-running Dayton, Ohio-based band Hawthorne Heights are lovers of various related rock and roll subgenres delivered by everyone from Blink-182 to far lesser-known purveyors with descriptors like emo, screamo, pop punk, power pop, melodic hardcore and more. As such, the quartet has released seven hook-laden albums over the last 20 years that touch on all of the above, garnering a considerable following in the process.

And now, for the second straight year, the band is curating a multi-city festival tour to celebrate their musical output of choice. The fest’s Cincinnati stop — dubbed “Ohio Is for Lovers,” after a Hawthorne Heights song of the same name — includes more than 20 acts anchored by genre mainstays Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, Underoath, State Champs, Saosin and, of course, Hawthorne Heights. Conceptually, think of it as a smaller-scale version of the late Warped Tour or as a style-specific version of Lollapalooza before it became the overstuffed, identity-free entity it is today.

“In year one, we got to go to a few of our favorite cities, with bands that are our friends, and some bands that we simply love,” Hawthorne Heights frontman JT Woodruff is quoted on the festival’s website. “We want to give fans an inclusionary place to go that features a wide variety of bands from all walks of life, and we want to do it with a smile on our face, because we have chosen to work with people who we love and respect. The most important part for us is to make sure that the fan experience is equal to the band experience. We just want everyone to have fun and have an easy day together.”

Woodruff is in luck: Headliner Jimmy Eat World’s crafty tunes are easy to ingest. The long-running Phoenix-area quartet remains a cornerstone of a scene that has evolved and expanded in the years since their one-two punch of 1999’s Clarity and 2001’s Bleed American broke through to a wider musical world. And if the other acts at Ohio is for Lovers remain more obscure, those in attendance aren’t likely to care as their ears take in an entire day of buzzing guitars and soaring choruses.

The Ohio is For Lovers Festival takes place at Riverbend Music Center at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 5. Info: riverbend.org.

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