MOVE Music Festival lets local groups meet, play, make new fans

Johnny Salka is OK with a late-night gig.

“Usually, the phrase ‘Nothing good happens after midnight’ applies, but in this case, this is the exception,” said Salka, front man for Capital Region rockers Hard Soul.

The band will hit the stage at midnight Saturday at Stout, an Irish-themed bar on Broadway in Albany. Hard Soul and about 100 other acts will be on the move over the weekend, as the MOVE Music Festival holds its fifth annual Albany party.

“This is the second year in a row we’ve headlined it; I’m looking forward to it,” Salka said. “We’ve participated in the last four of the five MOVE music festivals . . . it’s a great festival every year, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”

It’s a Friday, Saturday and Sunday scene.Ten stages will be used, at places such as Blue 82 on North Pearl Street, Dawn’s Victory Sports Cafe on Sheridan Avenue, the City Beer Hall on Howard Street, the Fuze Box on Central Avenue, McGeary’s on Clinton Square and The Hollow on North Pearl.

Stout will have a stage inside the bar and another stage outside, under a large tent.

Performers will include Sirsy, Space Carnival, Titanics, Mirk, North & South Dakotas, Super 400 and Eastbound Jesus.

The festival will also feature the MOVE music video awards Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Madison Theater. The School of Rock House Band, Shane Guerrette and Darling Valley (formerly Accents) will perform.

Most festival bands will get one-hour sets.

“It’s always great to see the Capital Region get a little bit more recognition for the music scene that’s around here,” said Salka, who lives in Troy. “It’s just not focused on the national acts, but it’s really also a great way to showcase some of the fantastic local and regional music from right here in upstate New York.”

Salka thinks it’s a blast for the fans. It’s also a gas for musicians, who just don’t show up for their shows.

“The best part for me, and I hope for everyone else, is walking into a venue and potentially seeing your next favorite band you’ve never heard of,” Salka said. “It’s happened to me plenty of times, where I end up with my jaw on the floor from some three-piece punk rock band out of Troy or someplace like that that I didn’t even know existed. That’s the discovery element of the festival atmosphere, that’s the part I love the most.”

Katy Cole will also make the scene. She and guitarist Chris Schempp will represent an acoustic version of Last Daze, usually a four-piece rock band. Last Daze will perform Saturday at 9 p.m. at City Beer Hall.

“Our fan base ranges from everybody from diehard rock fans to Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails fans,” said Cole, who lives in Glens Falls. “We also have a whole outlaw country fan base that definitely can’t go ignored. They’d feel terrible.”

The performance at City Beer will be Last Daze’s first MOVE appearance. Cole knows the festival’s reputation.

“I have a lot of friends in other bands and they’ve said it’s a wonderful experience, a lot of exposure happens,” she said. “I used to live in Albany for a while, I’ve been to the MOVE Music Festival; it’s fun, man. You have a lot of people ready to listen and everybody’s open to finding their new favorite band. It’s really nice to interact with the fans and the venue choices are really nice. I’m excited to play the City Beer Hall.”

With large crowds sampling music from bar to bar, bands can pick up new followers.

“Bernie [founder Bernie Walters] does such a great job with the promotion,” Cole said. “Our name has definitely gotten out there a lot lately, and we’re extremely appreciative of that. That’s the whole reason we play, to make new fans and please the ones that we’ve got.”

Pete Marotta, vocalist for indie rockers The Racer, will be bringing his guys from Monroe (near West Point) to the party for the third time. Like Salka and Cole, Marotta sees the festival as more than just a gig. The Racer will kick off Saturday at the Stout tent at 6 p.m.

“I think it’s just inspiring to be around creative people,” Marotta said. “A lot of times when you play shows, you play at a random venue, a band comes in, they play their set, they pack up, they leave, the crowd leaves. There’s not really a sense of a shared experience. So it’s cool to kind of go there, hang out all day, see a bunch of bands, load in, check in all your stuff, get set, and then explore and kind of just see everybody.

“I like it just because I’m a music fan,” Marotta added, “but also just because I feel like you’re around like-minded people.”

The lineup

Bands scheduled to play at this year’s MOVE Music Festival in Albany – which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday — by venue, are:

At Dawn’s Victory Sports Cafe, 10 Sheridan Ave.:

FRIDAY:

• Hasty Page, 6 p.m.

• Secret Beaches, 7 p.m.

• Flakjacket, 8 p.m.

• Dead Stars, 9 p.m.

• Furies, 10 p.m.

• Macero, 11 p.m.

• Chaser Eight, midnight

SATURDAY:

• Uslights, 6 p.m.

• Gordon St, 7 p.m.

• Humble Braggers, 8 p.m.

• Restless Streets, 9 p.m.

• Silverbird, 10 p.m.

• Rechorduroys, 11 p.m.

• Trapped in Static, midnight

At Blue 82, 80 N Pearl St.:

FRIDAY:

• Another Michael, 7 p.m.

• Vada March, 8 p.m.

• Ryan Leddick, 9 p.m.

• Benjamin John, 10 p.m.

SATURDAY:

• Belle-Skinner, 7 p.m.

• Ryan Lovelock, 8 p.m.

• Siobahn, 9 p.m.

• Kyle Albano, 10 p.m.

At Stout, 904 Broadway:

SATURDAY (in Stout Tent):

• The Racer, 6 p.m.

• Food Will Win the War, 7 p.m.

• Black Mountain Symphony, 8 p.m.

• The Flux Machine, 9 p.m.

• The Late Shift, 10 p.m.

• Jane Lee Hooker, 11 p.m.

• Eastbound Jesus, midnight

SATURDAY (at Stout Bar):

• Builder of the House, 6 p.m.

• Basic Cable Preachers, 7 p.m.

• Vera Bloom, 8 p.m.

• Fort Rooster, 9 p.m.

• Good Fiction, 10 p.m.

• The Boobies, 11 p.m.

• Hard Soul, midnight

At Parish Public House, 388 Broadway:

FRIDAY:

• Nobody for President, 6 p.m.

• Tambourelli & Her Super Trips, 7 p.m.

• Revibe, 8 p.m.

• The Falling Birds, 9 p.m.

• Space Carnival, 10 p.m.

• The Big Takeover, 11 p.m.

• Roots of Creation, midnight

SATURDAY:

• Echo Bloom, 6 p.m.

• The Glazzies, 7 p.m.

• Jae, 8 p.m.

• Sly Fox and The Hustlers, 9 p.m.

• The Walking Tree, 10 p.m.

• Treehouse, 11 p.m.

• Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, midnight

At McGeary’s Irish Pub, Clinton Square:

SATURDAY:

• Tommy, Tommy, Tommy, 5 p.m.

• Blue Streak Blvd, 6 p.m.

• Wyland, 7 p.m.

• North & South Dakotas, 8 p.m.

• Barroom Philosophers, 9 p.m.

• Super 400, 10 p.m.

At The Hollow, 79 N Pearl St.:

FRIDAY:

• New Madrid, 7 p.m.

• Arkells, 8:30 p.m.

• The Shelters, 10 p.m.

• The Wild Feathers, 11:30 p.m.

SATURDAY:

• School of Rock House Band, 5:30 p.m.

• Mayve, 7 p.m.

• Hoonch, 8 p.m.

• The Parlor, 9 p.m.

• Titanics, 10 p.m.

• New Beat Fund, 11 p.m.

• Skaters, midnight

• DJ Kulture, 1 a.m.

SUNDAY:

• Let’s Be Leonard, 7 p.m.

• Sirsy, 8 p.m.

• Mirk, 9 p.m.

At Fuze Box, 12 Central Ave.:

FRIDAY:

• Girl Blue, 7 p.m.

• Civil Savages, 8 p.m.

• One Red Martian, 9 p.m.

• Rescott Renegades, 10 p.m.

• Nine Votes Short, 11 p.m.

• Shift the Paradigm, midnight

• New Red Scare, 1 a.m.

• DJ Ryun, 2 a.m.

SATURDAY:

• Sheen, 8 p.m.

• Band of Ghosts, 9 p.m.

• Ampevene, 10 p.m.

• Turbo Goth, 11 p.m.

• Lord Electro, midnight

• DJ Scooter, 1 a.m.

• DJ Wolverine, 2 a.m.

At City Beer Hall, 42 Howard St.:

FRIDAY:

• Danielle and Jennifer, 8 p.m.

• What is Broken, 9 p.m.

• The Wonderbeards, 10 p.m.

• Carl Daniels, 11 p.m.

SATURDAY:

• Jason Irwin, 8 p.m.

• Last Daze, 9 p.m.

• The Ricecookers, 10 p.m.

• Matt Butler, 11 p.m.

• Seth Adam, midnight.

At the Madison Theater, 1036 Madison Ave.:

Music Video Awards

SUNDAY at 6 p.m.

Performances by:

• School of Rock House Band

• Shane Guerrette

• Darling Valley

Reach Gazette reporter Jeff Wilkin at 395-3124 or at [email protected] or @jeffwilkin1 on Twitter. His blog is at www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/wilkin.

Categories: Entertainment