While it’s officially the “summer music festival season,” those adverse to standing outside in a field all day are in luck, as two excellent and unique fests with local music components await you this week — and both take place (mostly) indoors.
• The Northside Music Festival was conceived by local arts and music Renaissance dude Jason Snell in 2007. The festival soon grew to two nights, and Snell brought in his pals Mike Gibboney and Scot Torres to help organize and manage the event. Heavy on local artists (while gradually adding touring acts), the Northside Music Festival has taken over Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, northsidetav.com) for nine straight years now.
The 2016 festival takes place Friday and Saturday, utilizing three stages at the Tavern — the larger back-room stage, plus one in the front room and one in the courtyard (which is outside). Music begins each day at 7:30 p.m. in the courtyard, and the event is completely free.
On Friday, local Indie Rock/Pop groups Old City, Frontier Folk Nebraska and Culture Queer play in the courtyard, while Kid Stardust and Comprador perform on the front-room stage. The back-room stage will feature some unique and amazing Hip Hop on Friday from Cincy’s internationally renowned IsWhat?! and brilliant Chicago “Art Rap” MC Open Mike Eagle, as well as a collaborative set from Yoni Wolf (leader of the popular Hip Hop-turned-Art-Pop group WHY?) and DJ Northside Nick Simmons.
Saturday’s courtyard lineup features Craig Fox (founding frontman of Cincy Garage Rock giants The Greenhornes who has also played with local bands like The Cincinnati Suds and Oxford Cotton) and the rootsy, rockin’ Alone at 3am, plus Dayton, Ohio’s The Motel Beds. The front-room stage Saturday has Blues/Rock/Soul crew the J. Dorsey Band, theatrical Psych Rock merrymakers Go Go Buffalo and “Trash Rock” duo mr.phylzzz. Northern Ohio’s Album and Columbus, Ohio’s Eye are joined on the back-room stage Saturday by local supergroup All-Seeing Eyes (featuring members who’ve played with Soledad Brothers, The Guitars and Cut in the Hill Gang, among others) and raucous Punk faves The Dopamines. (northsidemusicfest.com)
• This Thursday and Friday, the Woodward Theater (1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, woodwardtheater.com) plays host to the first No Response Festival, the brainchild of John Rich and Jon Lorenz, who have helped keep experimental music alive in Cincinnati for the past decade-plus by operating various venues, booking shows and hosting the influential Art Damage radio show.
The event features a broad range of unique styles, from Noise Rock to Electronic Ambient music and beyond. As Rich writes in the press release, “Some stuff is harsh and intense, some stuff is real mellow, some stuff is creepy, some stuff is just weird.”
Thursday’s show begins at 8 p.m. with one of the big draws of the festival: Cincinnati’s John Bender performs publicly for the first time in over 30 years. Bender’s DIY recordings from the late ’70s/early ’80s circulated among experimental music fans for years, resulting in Bender being recognized as a pioneer of the lo-fi Electronic music that has been dubbed Minimal Synth, Minimal Wave or Cold Wave. Bender finally began to approve official reissues in the past few years — most recently, San Francisco’s Superior Viaduct label reissued his 1980 debut album, I Don’t Remember Now/I Don’t Want To Talk About It. Joining Bender Thursday at No Response are Aaron Dilloway (formerly of Wolf Eyes), Hair Police and Vancouver’s Sarah Davachi.
Friday’s lineup (which begins at 9 p.m.) features C. Spencer Yeh, formerly a key member of the local experimental music scene, in his first performance in Cincinnati since moving to New York several years ago. Yeh — whose music has combined electronics, vocals and violin — is an extremely active artist in New York, working in a variety of formats and having his work presented at museums and festivals all over the world. Also on the bill Friday: Bill Orcutt (formerly of Harry Pussy), Chicago’s Kevin Drumm and LA’s Sissy Spacek, led by Noisecore favorite and multimedia artist John Wiese.
Advance single-day tickets are $15 through cincyticket.com, while two-day passes are $28. (noresponsefestival.com)
CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com
This article appears in Jun 15-22, 2016.
