Toledo Indie Pop Festival - This weekend

From the Toledo City Paper:
In just its second year, this homegrown, grassroots festival has picked up a lot of steam, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Held in the indie rock incubator of Mickey Finn’s, the Toledo Indie Pop Festival is a musical melting pot of the regions best. Organized and hosted by local ‘indie pop’ band, The Hat Company, the TIP Fest this year will feature such popular favorites as His Name is Alive, The Hard Lessons, The Homeville Circle, The Antivillains, New Grenada, Frontier Ruckus, Paper Airplane, Stylex, Radio Free Roscoe and a whole tone more. Spread over two days, you’ve got a smorgasbord of quality rock ‘n’ roll to make a whole weekend of. Get your tickets, dress to impress and ‘see and be scene.’
Details at www.myspace.com/toledoindiepopfest
www.myspace.com/mickeyfinnspub.
Mickey Finn’s Pub, 602 Lagrange. 6 p.m. $15/day, $20/weekend.
419-246-3466.

My take is that the Toledo Indie Pop Festival, may be a great thing for the region, but the guys who run it are missing the point a bit. They told me in a past interview that the festival was all about showcasing great unknown bands to Toledo audiences. Then you look at the line up and you realize that they dropped the ball. Most of the bands that already do well in Toledo have the prime spots (Stylex, Bears, The Hard Lessons) and all the great bands people may never have seen before are delegated to day time slots - times before any music fans will arrive. Kinda seems like these shows are nothing different than you might see any other weekend when Stylex plays at Mickey Finns, except they have seven other opening bands. At least PWAH favorites Arrah and the Ferns got a good spot. (UPDATE: OK, so I've heard that the festival went pretty well. Perhaps I was a little hard on the organizers. But let's keep in mind that things could definitely be run smoother in 2008. Changing band schedules a day before the festival is pretty lame. But I also thank them for focusing on indie pop. No one else does.)

The Schedule:

Friday, July 27 *Main Stage*
7:00 Radio Free Roscoe
7:30 Paper Airplane
8:15 This Story
9:00 Kiddo
9:45 Afternoon Naps
10:30 Red Pony Clock
11:15 Bears
12:00 Stylex
1:00 Pony Up!

Saturday, July 28 *Outdoor Stage*
6:00 Daniel Strange
6:30 The Anti-Villains

Saturday, July 28 *Main Stage*
7:00 The Homeville Circle
7:40 Patience Please
8:25 The Hat Company
9:00 Frontier Ruckus
9:45 Brown Recluse Sings
10:30 Zoos of Berlin
11:15 Arrah and the Ferns
12:00 His Name Is Alive
1:00 The Hard Lessons