New Festival Aiming to Be Next Big Thing
Friday, October 27, 2006; Page WE05
Like many Washington music fans, Eric Boucher has wished the city could have a huge music festival, such as the annual CMJ Music Marathon, which kicks off next week in New York, or South by Southwest, which attracts more than 1,000 bands to Austin every March.
The District has been host to some smaller gatherings, including the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival and the alternative-rock-centric Six Points Music Festival, but nothing that caught Boucher's fancy. This summer proved to be the last straw. "There were big festivals all over, in places like Cincinnati and Champaign-Urbana [Ill.]," Boucher says dismissively. "And I thought, 'Why on Earth do we not have a festival, especially given the history of the music scene in D.C.?' " He could have just griped about it with a post on Big Yawn, the music-centered webzine he has run since December 2003. Instead, he decided to take action.
Big Yawn sponsored a series of concerts at DC9 last year featuring groups such as the Brian Jonestown Massacre and obscure indie bands from New York, Sweden and the District. Boucher says he "mentioned it to my friend Bryan Deily, who runs DC9, Rock and Roll Hotel and the Red and the Black, and he was totally sold on it." U Street's Velvet Lounge also jumped on board, so Boucher and his cohorts began calling booking agents, suggesting that bands heading to CMJ add a convenient stop in Washington a few days before New York.
The result is the District's Awake! Music Festival, which brings more than 40 bands, solo artists and DJs to Washington this weekend, including turntable auteur DJ Spooky, who was to play at the Rock and Roll Hotel last night, and the Rewinds, a blasting power-pop quartet that Spin named "Band of the Month" in September.
Casual fans scanning the list of artists will probably wonder what the big deal is -- most of the names will be better known to readers of online sites such as Pitchfork or Fluxblog than to Rolling Stone subscribers. Boucher says that's partly a problem of economics, since the event is running without major sponsorship, and partially because an unproven festival can't put on events at big-name, big-capacity venues like the Black Cat and the 9:30 club.
There's no overarching theme to the dozen concerts, or any of the related movie screenings, panel discussions or industry gatherings that fill free time at SXSW or CMJ -- Boucher is planning to add those events to next year's festival -- so the DAM! Festival seems more like a weekend of great shows than a structured event. Still, the schedule offers some tough choices. If you're into potential-next-big-thing bands, do you check out the sparkling pop of the Eames Era at the Red and the Black on Saturday -- the venue's a great fit for the Baton Rouge, La., band -- or head to DC9 for the whip-smart, hook-filled tunes of Brooklyn's Bishop Allen?
Out-of-town acts are generating the most excitement, but locals have an important part to play, performing at every concert but one. "It's like playing with a chemistry set, making sure all the pieces are in place and trying to keep it from blowing up in your face," Boucher says. "We wanted to work with local bands, but we didn't want it to be just another night of music here in D.C." -- a criticism that was leveled at the locals-only Six Points event earlier this year.
For the DAM! Festival's mission statement, Boucher says, look no further than Friday's lineup at the Rock and Roll Hotel. "We have [former Dismemberment Plan frontman] Travis Morrison, who's from D.C. There's Longwave from New York, who I absolutely love, and they haven't played this city in a long time," Boucher says. "Hopewell are also from New York, and they're a blogger buzz band. And there's Falcon, who no one's ever heard of. I hadn't heard of them until the guys from Longwave started talking about them. [Some members of Longwave are also in Falcon.] We have a D.C. connection, a buzz band, an indie-rock band and a band no one's ever heard of. If we could clone that for every single show, that's what we're trying to do."
DAM! FESTIVAL A full list of bands and shows is available onhttp:/
-- Fritz Hahn
