Some Old Wussy In the New Year

Another Take On the SGH Situation

I am going to start calling the Southgate House Closing as more of a Southgate House Situation. Yes, that makes it sound remotely like I'm referencing a reality TV show.  While the drama surrounding the family business dealings involved might bring that to mind, that's not my intention. This guest column on Each Note Secure from Margaret Darling of the Seedy Seeds makes it clear to me that there are two separate issues at stake here: 1)What will the New location of the Southgate House be like (and where will it be) and then 2)What will be come of the Southgate Building?  So SGH closing isn't the only issue, there is a much more complex concern. a "situation," if you will.

Number two becomes the more cloudy concern.  The operators of the SGH are planning on opening a new place.  We'll just have to wait and see where that is and how well the new location will work.  The Southgate Building is something different and the resulting owners don't appear to have the plan in place with what to do with the building.  That is bigger concern to me.  I don't fear that the new location for the SGH will be like.  I fear that the new owners will not use the building wisely.  It would be a great place for a music venue, but the building needs to be used wisely.  It is important to Newport and needs to continue to enrich the culture, no matter what it becomes.  We have a situation and the City of Newport needs to keep that situation from ruining a vital piece of the community.

Southgate House Closing

According to it's Facebook page, the Southgate House will be closing it's doors after this New Year's Eve show. This esteemed music venue has been serving the great Cincinnati music scene for decades and has been the sight of scores of epic concerts.  News that it is closing a big blow to the Cincinnati music scene.  The post indicates that the owners may move the business.  There is no announced reason for the move and no word on what necessitates the closure or what will happen with the historic landmark.

Joe at EachNoteSecure.com has more on the closing, which had been rumored recently.

UPDATE: Lauren Bishop of the Enquirer has more.

Over-the-Rhine to Headline The Emery Theatre 11-11-11 Kickoff

Soapbox Cincinnati happily broke the story this morning that famed local band Over-the-Rhine will headline the 11-11-11 benefit event for the Emery Theatre restoration project.  Details on the event are here.

MidPoint Music Festival Day One!!!

One of the best times of the year has arrived and I am more than excited, I am ecstatic with the prospects of what awaits over the next three days.  Tonight my shows of choice include:

The Seedy Seeds at 7:30 at the SCPA Corbett Theater
The Watson Twins at 9:30 PM at the Know Theatre
Jessica Lea Mayfield at 11:45 at the Know Theatre


Be sure to keep tabs on live.mpmf.com for Tweets and texts from all over the festival.

MidPoint: A Decade of Audio Addiction!

Mid Point Music Festival from The Big Media Company on Vimeo.

MidPoint Schedule Released

In case you still living in a cave, you should know that the 2011 (Tenth annual) Midpoint Music Festival Schedule and line-up was announced. This year there are some new interesting add-ons and what caught my eye was the MidPoint Midway that will close off part of 12 Street and include an Artworks box truck project which sounds very interesting.

For the full details, including the venue listing and showcase times, check out mpmf.com.

A Little Cincinnati Brass to Help You Shake Your Ass on a Monday

Bunbury Music Festival Kickoff Event July 9th at Sawyer Point

The Bunbury Music Festival is having a special preview event this year on July 9th at Sawyer Point. Music starts at 7PM and runs to 11PM.  The stellar line-up:

The Seedy Seeds
Lions Rampant
The Minor Leagues

Tickets for year one of the festival (July 13-15, 2012) will go on sale on July 9, 2011.  Also, the first 1,000 attendees to the kickoff event can pick up a special discount code that will give them 50% off a one-day OR three-day pass to the 2012 festival.  Get out and support Cincinnati's music scene.

CincyMusic.com to Return

Cincinnati music fans and bands, take note! CincyMusic.com will be returning to the Internet soon. You can sign up for their email list to get the notice of when they relaunch.  I don't see any type of estimate of when they will be, so you'll just have to stay tuned.

Otherwise check out their Facebook page or Twitter account for limited cincymusic information.

Greenhornes Playing Fountain Square Sept 2

I have been busy Fringing and missed the Big Announcement from MidPoint about their full Indie Summer at Fountain Square schedule, which will include the Greenhornes on September 2nd. Mark that date on your music calendars. What great way to end the summer!

MPMF Announced Indie Summer Series Initial Headliners

The Midpoint Music Festival has announced the initial headliners for the first portion of Indie Summer at Fountain Square.

June 3rd: You You’re Awesome with Javelin and Lydia Burrell
June 10th: Neon Indian with Oberhofer.
June 17th: Maps & Atlases
June 24th: Asobi Seksu with Prussia.
July 1st: Pomegranates
July 8th: Big Freedia

The remainder of the headliners and opening acts will be announced later in the year.

Bunbury Musc Festival Coming to Sawyer Point in 2012

Soapbox's Sean Rhiney has an interview with Bill Donabedian, managing director of Fountain Square and co-founder of the Midpoint Music Festival (along with Rhiney), and they discuss Donabedian's plans to hold a music festival called Bunbury in July of 2012 along the Ohio River at Sawyer Point.

Plans are for a "Lollapaloza" or "Pitchfork" type of festival which would have a combination of the best of local music and national acts. Donabedian's ideal would be to have groups like "The National" and "Flaming Lips". I'd presume he'd include more locals along the lines of Bad Veins, the Seedy Seeds, and Wussy, but that's just my speculation.

I love the idea. I really hope it can give the right mix of national, regional, and local acts. I also am pleased that it doesn't appear to be conflicting with any other big local indie music event.  It does appear to be occurring during the World Choir games taking place in Cincinnati in 2012.  I don't know if that is intended or not.  With a large group of people already here, that is good, but there could be some logistical issues.

Bunbury would no matter what be a great way for Midpoint to market to music fans and get them to come to that event the following September.  Other music venues or events could also find opportunity getting their names known to fans and music acts by helping out (Southgate House, MOTR, Northside Tavern, Mayday, and Comet come to mind.)

I look forward to hearing more details on how the festival will work and who the team will be to get it done.

Cincinnati Band Walk the Moon Featured on Carson Daily Show

Cincinnati Band Walk the Moon was at SXSW the year and got the notice of the Carson Daily Show, here's the segment:

Lead singer Nicholas Petricca appeared in a Cincinnati Fringe Festival show last year and made many connections. The music video highlighted in the Carson Daily show you can see Pones Inc., Cincinnati Fringe veterans, who helped out Walk the Moon in making the video.

Buffalo Killers Play MOTR April 1st - No Fooling

The Buffalo Killers Live at MOTR Pub
1345 Main Street
April 1st, 2011 - 10 PM
2 Sets - No Cover


No one is fooling you...well at least not about the Buffalo Killers.


Come see one of Cincinnati best bands drive their Garage Blues groove straight into soul and out through your finger tips.

Interesting Question: 'Why are symphony concerts selling out?'

The Enquirer's classical music reporter, Janelle Gelfand, asks a very good question: Why are symphony concerts selling out? I really enjoy the symphony, but haven't had time to go yet this season, but a ton of people are going, with ticket sales up 16% over last years so far. Keep it up! And while you are thinking about art, check out Artswave and donate! I did!

MPMF: Midpoint Website Redo and Showcase Submissions Open

Check out their new website at MPMF.com. Bands, you better act now and submit your media packet to Sonic Bids, so you can find out if you have what it takes for MidPoint. Go to the website for all of the details. You have until May 16th, but why avoid the rush?

The West End Church of Rock and Roll

The West End has long been a neighborhood slow with development, but a new revitalization of a church is underway. A team of three has plans to turn the former First German Reformed Church, built in 1850, into a combination of live music venue, art gallery, music school, and possibly a restaurant. One of the three is a member of the well known local band Foxy Shazam, and look to capitalize on their experience nationally in the music business to make this new venue a destination for bands. That would put it on par locally with the Southgate House, Northside Tavern, MOTR, and the Mad Hatter as the main local music venues, where each have nearly daily shows. The other direction this new venue could take would be to model after the Madison Theater, 20th Century, or Bogarts. Each of those venues hold a few events a week, at most. They are a long way off from opening the venture, but their passion I believe bodes well for the renovation to be completed.

CEA Winners Announced

CityBeat's annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards took place on Sunday night and the winners show the strength of Cincinnati's music scene.

Mike Breen has an account, something close to a play by play of the night.

I was unable to attend the awards show, but the photos put the Grammmys to shame!

With the merger of the Theatre CEAs with the Acclaim awards, should the Music CEAs take on a more musical name? CMA is already taken, however, so I don't know if there's as good of an acronym out there.

Pre-MidPoint X-Mas, MOTR, and Rambling

So, it is a mere few hours before MidPoint starts and I am sitting in a coffeehouse on the hottest September 23rd in Cincinnati history. I am excited. I feel like it is Christmas morning and my parents are not up yet, meaning I only get to see what Santa brought me in my stocking. The piled up gifts under the tree will wait until my parents awake. You can't rush this. My older siblings are on duty to keep me occupied while we wait. My Dad was up late last night putting one of my gifts together, and I need to let him sleep.

I snuck a peek at that gift Dad had to assemble last night: MOTR Pub, the newest original music venue in Cincinnati. It's on Main Street where MidPoint began and lives where Cooper's once resided. Having a Hudy Amber as I stood by the stage, I felt wave of nostalgia flow over me. I remember seeing a for Algernon show there with a huge line-up that forced the keyboardist to set up in front of the stage. It was the best I've heard them play. I don't remember what year it was, maybe 2005 or 2006, but was a time before Main Street really died. It was dying, but had not gone cold. Well, what felt good last night was that it was clear to me that Main Street has risen from the ashes and along with the rest of Over-the-Rhine it will be a cultural beacon for Cincinnati this weekend.

I know those who have not been to Over-the-Rhine since the Main Street Brewery closed last century will make dumb jokes. I don't really care anymore. The jokes have been fewer and fewer the last couple of years, as OTR and Downtown have started to return to their rightful place as the center of culture for Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. They never stopped being the actual center of culture for the Cincinnati region, but those who live where chain restaurants and watching American Idol pass for culture are beginning to see how a vibrant urban care brings the most cultural value to a society.  The tide has turned.

OTR will have a permanent up-tick from MOTR and with its success will help keep MidPoint and local original music going forward in Cincinnati.

Now it's time to tweak my Day One MidPoint schedule for the 11th time.  If you are out tonight, say hi and buy me a beer!