Tag: music

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Arts & Entertainment News

Whomageddon rocks Northside Tavern, benefits WVQC

Halloween, local music, and legendary rock and roll bands will come together tonight for a unique event. Whomageddon will feature local bands dressed up and performing as The Who, The Ramones, and Devo. The performers include John Curley (The Staggering Statistics, The Afghan Whigs), Andrew Higley (Pearlene, Chocolate Horse), Scotty Wood, Jason Knarr, Dave Cupp, and more. This week, John Curley talked to the Enquirer about the event and his love of The Who.
The show takes place at Northside Tavern tonight, starting at 9 pm. Admission is free (you must be 21+ to enter), but proceeds from the bar will benefit WVQC, the new public access radio station being launched by Media Bridges.
WVQC has been in the works for several months, and Media Bridges is trying to raise the last bit of money needed to launch the station. Do your part in helping to get local voices on the air–and just have a good time–by coming out to tonight’s fundraiser.
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News

World Music Fest takes place this weekend in Covington

There’s something happening on the south side of downtown Cincinnati this weekend that is worth some attention as the World Music Fest runs all weekend at multiple venues through the heart of Covington. This event is part of the Covington Full Spectrum series which has something artsy going each and every weekend through the entire month of October.

This is the third annual World Music Fest, and while you may be saying “I’ve never heard of a World Music Fest in the Cincinnati area”, that’s probably because it’s never been as ambitious and as large as it is going to be this year. In prior years there was just a single concert in Newport but this year there will be more than 40 performances at seven different venues around Covington over the course of the entire weekend.

We have linked the entire schedule for you here, but wanted to take the time to point out a few highlights of the weekend:

  • Friday Oct 16, 6-10pm – A VIP mixer at the Baker Hunt Cultural Center which features food, wine, and live music by Faux Frenchmen and Kyle Ferguson. While the cost may be $30, aside from just this kick off mixer, it also gets you into the Global Afterparty (Oct 17), the show at the Madison (Oct 18), and two tickets to a CCM performance. Think of your ticket to this event as your passport for the weekend.
  • Saturday Oct 17, 9am-3pm – Come kickoff the day European style with a complimentary breakfast from the good people at Taste of Belgium and our friends from Coffee Emporium. Music will run until 1pm, but there is a Kids Zone that goes all the way to 3pm with story tellers, workshops, and children’s entertainers.
  • Saturday Oct 17, Noon-6:30pm – Over at the Leapin Lizard on Main Street is a Moroccan-style Bazaar with vendors and two stages of live music. While there will be a mix of genres, there is an emphasis on Middle Eastern music. This one is a freebie as well, though there is an afterparty at Leapin Lizard from 9pm-Midnight which will cost you $5.
  • Sunday Oct 18, 5pm-10:30pm – The main event of World Music Fest is a full night’s worth of tunes at the Madison. Headliner Javier Mendoza has quite a résumé including appearing alongside acts as diverse as Willy Nelson, Los Lobos, and even The Roots. While the others are mainly local acts at $12 advance (or free if you went to the VIP party!) this is a great deal any way you look at it.

Nearly everything throughout the weekend is free admission aside from a the few events that we’ve outlined here so be curious and get out to see some great music from all around the world in your own backyard. In the meantime you’ll be supporting some great businesses in Covington that have decided to take part World Music Fest 2009.

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Arts & Entertainment Business News

Clifton Beer Fest tonight at Fries Cafe

The 6th Annual Clifton Beer Fest takes place tonight from 4pm to 9pm at Fries Cafe on Jefferson Avenue (map). The beer tasting event will feature 70 American craft beers available in 4oz tastings for $1 to $2 each.

In addition to the great beers to sample, the Rumpke Mountain Boys will providing live music on Fries’ outdoor patio. There will also be burgers, bratts and metts available in addition to the best shuffle board in Cincinnati downstairs in the comfortable main bar area.

Last year’s Clifton Beer Fest was great fun with an absolutely fantastic beer selection. The upstairs outdoor patio was a terrific spot to mill about enjoying a variety of beers and fraternizing with all the other beer-lovers and Cliftonites. If you haven’t been to Fries Cafe (not pronounced like the things you get from McDonalds – tip: pronounce the second vowel in German words), then you must go to check out the great neighborhood bar that is extremely comfortable and a great place to have a few drinks served up over good conversation.

UrbanCincy’s recommendation: Get to Fries Cafe early (around 4pm) for some great beer, food and music then make your way to Fountain Square to catch the amazing concert lineup for Popopolis which starts at 7pm. Since you’ve more than likely had too much to drink to drive down to Fountain Square just hop on the Cincinnati Streetcar and head south until it drops you right off at the Square #17, 18, or 19 Metro bus route that picks up at Clifton and Ludlow avenues. Take the bus all the way down to Government Square and simply walk a block west to Fountain Square.

Special thanks to Hoperatives for reminding us here at UrbanCincy about this great annual event in Clifton. Photo courtesy of Flickr user bonegirl.

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News

Popopolis bringing great local music to Fountain Square this weekend

If you weren’t able to get your fix of live music at Midpoint Music Festival last weekend, or if you’re itching for more, then this weekend on Fountain Square is for you. On Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3 Fountain Square will play host to the first Popopolis music event.

The new Fountain Square event will start off with a reunion of bands who played in the Southgate House Popopolis days from 1998 to 2002. The event will be hosted by WOXY’s program director Matt Sledge and will have plenty of food and drink available to keep everyone happy.

Each night will feature seven different bands on two different stages so that the music keeps on going without delay for setup and breakdown procedures. The music will start at 7pm with the last band taking the Main Stage at 10pm and playing until around 11pm. The official after party each night will be just around the corner at the recently opened Righteous Room in the Backstage Entertainment District.

If you’re into the local music scene, and must choose between Friday or Saturday night, then Saturday night is definitely for you with a full card of local bands including big names like The Seedy Seeds, Wussy, and Bad Veins (view the full list of bands for each night below).

The event is free and open to the public. There is plenty of easily accessible parking available in the Fountain Square Parking Garage located directly underneath Fountain Square, and Metro bus service is available from virtually every route to the Government Square bus station located across the street from Fountain Square’s southeastern corner. To find out which route is most convenient for you, and to play your trip now, use Metro’s Trip Planner.

FRIDAY
Main Stage | Acoustic Stage
7:00pm, Saving Ray | 7:40pm, Bri Love
8:00pm, Clabbergirl | 8:40pm, Messerly & Ewing
9:00pm, Rockets to Mars | 9:40pm, Mike Landis
10:00pm, Throneberry

SATURDAY
Main Stage | Acoustic Stage
7:00pm, State Song | 7:40pm, The Seedy Seeds
8:00pm, Wussy | 8:40pm, Jason Snell (The Chocolate Horses)
9:00pm, Pomegranates | 9:40pm, Dan Mecher (Turnbull AC’s)
10:00pm, Bad Veins

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Arts & Entertainment News

MPMF Is Here

By this point, everyone is aware that the 9th annual MidPoint Music Festival hits downtown Cincy this Thursday, September 24 through Saturday, September 26. Instead of giving you something you could get elsewhere, we thought we’d provide you links to a few pages that may help narrow down the 270 bands there are to choose from.

When was the last time you had 270 choices as to how to spend three evenings? Well, since 270 is a lot to choose from, we give you the MPMF homepage at CityBeat as a jumping off point. Check out the CityBeat homepage and go through the bands alphabetically; stop and listen to a few bands there but make sure to explore some on MySpace. If you do nothing else, our recommendation is that you pay special attention to the DIG lines in the description as CityBeat does their best job to point you in the right direction.

Still too much work? There are some recommendations out there, including some from our friends at EachNoteSecure here, here, here, and my very own preview here. There will be a ton more MPMF news posted in the coming days, so make sure you keep an eye on their homepage.

As you can tell there is a ton to choose from and the $29 wristband is quite a deal for three nights of music. What does $29 get you? The wristband allows you to jump in any one of the sixteen Scion Streetcars to get around town all weekend. It also allows you to go from venue to venue as many times as you want without additional charge. Truly at a cost of less than $10 a night, the wristband provides flexibility and value that are well worth the price if you plan on going all weekend or even just two of the three nights. However, there are plenty of other options including paying at the door of each venue or even free shows on Fountain Square each night over the course of the weekend. (Fountain Square shows feature bands that are playing throughout the rest of the weekend and are a true steal!)

Texts to 4632 from Cincinnati Bell Wireless accounts, and tweets using the #MPMF hash tag on Twitter or messages posted on the site will be displayed on Web-enabled monitors in festival venues, on a projection of the site on the facade of Grammer’s and on the Fountain Square video board. If you want to get a steady stream of updates be sure to follow @MidPointMusic, @MetromixCincy, and @CincyBlog on Twitter to get festival updates throughout the weekend.

Looking forward to seeing you around town this weekend. Enjoy the music! We are all lucky and better off to have it all right here in front of us for the taking!

Photo by Flickr user thadd…read his blog here.