Spring Forward Fest, This Weekend

Of all the festivals and pseudo-festivals floating around lately, this one’s probably at the top of my list; I’d posted about it a while back as the “Downtown Music Festival” one of the guys from Mobley mentioned, but since then it’s been fleshed-out even further, getting a real-live official name and a slew of additions to the lineup.

So folks, get ready for the Spring Forward Music Festival, which will be unfolding this coming Saturday, March 12th, over in downtown, with stages both inside and outside of Groundhall (ex-Engine Room) and inside Echo (ex-Jet Lounge), and a crapload of bands starting at 2PM and going for a full 12 hours on from that.

The lineup’s a pretty great mishmash of excellent bands from right here and bands from points further afield. The headliners are all from Austin, weirdly enough (or maybe quirkily apropos, seeing as most bands are headed to Austin at the moment), including very cool indie-rockers What Made Milwaukee Famous, the awesomely heavy, mesmerizing Ume, and The Bright Light Social Hour and Electric Touch, about whom I’ve heard many, many good things.

That’s not to overlook the folks further down the bill, mind you. I freaking love those garage-y (yet surprisingly melodic) Deer Park boys {The Gold Sounds}, was bowled over by {Featherface}‘s debut EP, and have been pretty impressed both by local Tori Amos-esque chanteuse {Winter Wallace} and by scrappy art-punks {Art Institute}, for four of the pile.

Then there’s {Tax the Wolf}, who I really, truly liked after seeing ’em play live at SugarHill a little while back, Austin-dwellers Frank Smith, Mobley The Boxing Lesson. And I really need to hear more from {Rivers} and {iLL LiaD} (and soon).

Oh, and I can’t forget organizer Jason Smith‘s own band {Alkari}, who do the straight-up, Twin Tone, punk-edged rock thing like few other bands in town; think a less-inebriated (well, mostly) Replacements with keys, and you’ll be in the ballpark…

The whole deal’s $10 through the presale link and $15 the day of the show, either of which is a damn good deal, if you ask me. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, bring your kids, everybody, and drift off in a haze of good, good music.

Here’s the full schedule, all you completists out there:

GROUNDHALL — MAIN STAGE:
3:30 — {Amorette}
4:20 — {Another Run}
5:10 — {Jim and the Toms}
6:00 — {Journey Agents}
6:50 — Viva Viva
7:40 — {The Gold Sounds}
8:30 — {Alkari}
9:30 — Electric Touch
10:30 — The Bright Light Social Hour
11:30 — Ume
12:30 — What Made Milwaukee Famous
1:30 — {Glasnost}
 
GROUNDHALL — OUTDOOR STAGE:
2:20 — Making Movies
3:10 — {Art Institute}
4:00 — {Ellis.Atlantic}
4:50 — {Lights of Attica}
5:50 — The Boxing Lesson
7:10 — Frank Smith
8:10 — {Rivers}
9:00 — {The Dead Revolt}
10:00 — {Winter Wallace}
11:00 — Mobley
 
ECHO STAGE:
2:00 — Lizzo and The Larva Ink
2:50 — Jay Satellite
3:40 — Grass is Green
4:30 — Dirty Dishes
5:20 — {The True Value}
6:10 — {Featherface}
7:00 — Supervolcano
7:50 — {Yokomono}
8:40 — Tacks The Boy Disaster
9:30 — {Absolute Pistol}
10:20 — {Ozeal}
11:10 — {Tax the Wolf}
12:00 — {The Killafornianz}
12:50 — {iLL LiaD}

Make plans for the weekend now, y’all.