Sunday, September 19, 2004
MidPoint Festival cranks up the buzz
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Sean Rhiney and Bill Donabedian, founders of the MidPoint Music Festival.
(The Enquirer/Brandi Stafford) |
Buzz. In the music world, it's hard to define and even harder to create.
This year, MidPoint Music Festival aims to be "Where the buzz begins." The slogan nails the event's goal of bringing the music of independent artists to potential new fans and industry supporters.
For the festival itself, the buzz started when it was launched three years ago by two Cincinnati musicians, Bill Donabedian and Sean Rhiney. And this could be the year, the two say, that the noise generated by the event reverberates loudly enough to prick up ears on the national scene.
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IF YOU GO
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What: MidPoint Music Festival
When: Wednesday through Saturday
Where: 15 venues in the Main Street club district
Admission: $5 for a one-night admission to an individual venue; $10 for a one-day all-venue pass; $25 for a three-day all-venue pass (Main Street performances run Thursday through Saturday)
Information: For schedule updates, go to www.mpmf.com
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This year's MidPoint run, which boasts a cross-genre lineup heavily weighted with artists from the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky areas, stretches from Wednesday through Saturday.
About 250 bands, hailing from points near (Clifton and Covington) and far (Chicago and Seattle), will perform at more than a dozen venues in the Main Street club district. Between 30,000 and 40,000 are expected to turn out to see and hear them. Industry insiders, including keynote speakers Art Alexakis of the multi-platinum rock band Everclear and Pete Ganbarg, who has done A&R work for several major labels, will offer advice and insight at panels and workshops.
Donabedian says he wants MidPoint's name to be on the minds of music aficionados around the country. But he and Rhiney never sought to emulate the industry's gigantic festival frontrunner, South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, a weeklong event that showcases more than a thousand bands each March.
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Where to satisfy your need nosh
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MidPoint Music Festival features about 250 bands playing at 15 venues in the Main Street club district.
That's a lot of great music to catch in just three days, so you might want to grab a quick bite downtown between bands.
Here's a list of some of the nosh-worthy places in the area (some also serve as sites for MidPoint shows):
Barrelhouse Brewery, 22 E. 12th St.: Patrons can wash down sandwiches, quesadillas and exotic voodoo gumbo with beer brewed in-house. 421-2337.
Carol's on Main, 825 Main St.: Located below the Crushbar, this tavern serves salads, sandwiches and entrees. 651-2667.
Harry's Bar & Pizza, 1207 Main St.: This little storefront shop dishes up pizzas and subs until the wee hours. 621-1391.
Kaldi's Coffeehouse, 1204 Main St.: This funky coffeehouse serves burritos, beans and rice and nightly dinner specials. 241-3070.
Little Havana Restaurant, 1210 Main St.: A tiny Cuban diner with a lot of authentic flavor. 241-3605.
Nicola's Ristorante, 1420 Sycamore St.: Looking for an upscale option? Try this smart eatery, which serves Northern Italian cuisine. 721-6200.
Shanghai Mama's, 216 E. Sixth St.: This retro-fabulous noodle haven is open late - perfect for post-show noshing. 241-7777.
For more dining tips, and the scoop on where to park, shop and stay overnight, go to www.mpmf.com.
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"I'm more interested in being what the Sundance Film Festival is to film than being like South by Southwest," he says. "We really want this to be a place where bands think, 'This is where you go first. This is the first step in really launching a career.'"
Donabedian says that, ideally, MidPoint's annual band roster won't get much larger than it is now, and that the event will remain contained within the Main Street area and therefore walkable.
"As we get bigger and better and we get more and more bands submitting, I want it to be a real honor to get an invitation" to play MidPoint, he says. "I want the music industry to know that we've probably found some great bands that they've never heard of and they want to come into town and check it out.
"We want this to be the farm league for the music industry."
In addition to giving great bands a chance to step into the spotlight, MidPoint also serves as a celebration of Cincinnati's prestigious musical past and the vibrancy of the current scene, neither of which is well-known outside the area, Rhiney says. He and Donabedian started the festival to let the world in on the secret.
"We've got such a diverse scene - funk, indie rock, garage, power pop, roots rock," Rhiney says. "We're the hidden valley of great independent music."
MidPoint already has made huge strides in putting Cincinnati on the music world's map, says Michael Meisel, an industry veteran who grew up in Amberley Village.
Now an L.A. resident, Meisel works with Silva Artist Management, whose clients include the Foo Fighters, the Beastie Boys, Beck and Tenacious D. He spoke on a MidPoint panel in 2002.
"I think it is already a nationally recognized festival," he says. "I was there for the first year and saw bands from all over the country and friends from both coasts of the music industry."
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An annual festival growth rate
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Here's a by-the-numbers look at the growth of the MidPoint Music Festival since its inception:
2002
150 artists, 12 venues, 10,000 attendees
2003
200 artists, 13 venues, 25,000 attendees
2004
250 artists, 15 venues, 30,000 to 40,000 attendees expected
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Unlike many music festivals, MidPoint doesn't count on ringers - huge musical acts guaranteed to draw crowds - for its success, Donabedian says.
The strategy of forgoing acts with household names to focus on high-quality lesser-known acts has worked for the International Pop Overthrow festival, launched seven years ago by music journalist David Bash in his hometown, Los Angeles. That event has become an international affair - 2004 sites include Chicago, New York, Nashville, and Liverpool, England - that is recognized as one of the best places to catch on-the-rise pop bands.
For festivals with a do-it-yourself ethos, which IPO and MidPoint shares, buzz among fans and bands is just as valuable as attention from the press and the music industry, Bash says.
"The word of mouth, wherever it has traveled, has been a really effective source," he says.
Whether or not this is the year Spin or Rolling Stone files a report from Cincinnati, the snowball that is MidPoint's momentum will keep on rolling, Rhiney says.
"This is not a make-or-break year, but a chance to solidify what we've been working toward in our first two years," he says.
In an era in which it's increasingly tough for one city's scene to become an industry flashpoint, a la the late-'90s Seattle grunge explosion, the only way for MidPoint to achieve national renown is to keep going each year, Meisel says. And the local spotlight needs to stay on music between festivals, he says.
"A great music town that spawns a great music scene is the product of local music fans who go out and support that music all year long," he says.
For up-and-coming musicians such as singer-songwriter Tracy Walker, who is playing at MidPoint for the first time this year, the festival provides invaluable opportunities to make connections with fans, fellow artists and people in the industry. Those connections help foster an environment that supports independent musicians year-round, she says.
Just as MidPoint is on the cusp of breaking out, "I'm on the verge right now, too," Walker says. And so are many of the talented musicians playing the festival, she says.
"MidPoint is a really important part of Cincinnati's development as an important musical town," she says. "There are a lot of people out there making great music, and MidPoint is shining a light on them."
E-mail chanifin@enquirer.com
