Summer of ‘08 has been an exciting one here at MIDWESTpeeps headquarters. We have been all over the land from May to August, and finally the ship is going to dock. We have seen so many new faces, and connected with so many great people from all over the country. You all really kept us going! It has all seemed to go by so fast. Some of the highlights this summer have been: Mayflowers Festival at Nelson’s Ledges to kick off the summer, with Aleph-1, Papadosio, Macpodz, and Pnuma Trio to mention a few. Mayflowers was followed by Summercamp which turned out to be the best one yet with Umphrey’s Mcgee headlining one of the nights, and lots of our MIDWEST favorites there! This festival was one for the ages!!! Summercamp included The Macpodz, The Station, The Hue, PMG, U-Melt, Brainchild, Bill Smith, and one of our new favorites Steez from Madison. The fun did not stop there as we had a 3-NIGHT run with Umphrey’s right here in the Mitten the first week of June, what a great time to have all of our friends in our home state!!! The third week of June brought Land of Atlantis and Aleph-1 to Papa Pete’s in Kalamazoo for a great night of music, and the start of some great things with Papa Pete’s and Some Kind Of Jam’s DJ Pretentious. We really look forward to making some more things happen over there in the fall and winter months. Lazy River in Elgin was next on the MWP train, headliners included Rusted Root and Banyon with special guests Joel Cummins, Jake Cinninger, and Willie Waldman. This was the first year for the festival and hopefully not the last. Then it was off to the big one this summer (at least for us) ROTHBURY. What an amazing event, it was absolutely incredible to see all of the people come together in Michigan for the best all around festival that we have ever witnessed. The grounds were unbelievable, the weather was perfect, the music was unmatched, and the people… oh man the people were amazing. There are amazing results when people truly try to make a difference and at ROTHBURY the difference was everywhere. People were picking up after themselves and respecting the area around them and each other to a level that really had to be experienced to be believed. To see sculptures and artistic creations in the exact state that they began the weekend with 35,000+ people in, over, under, and around them is a testament to the product of the organizers imagination and effort through volunteers and the fans involved to really make this one different. We cannot wait for next summer so we can do it all over again. July 18th was UM in Indianapolis, where once again it was proven that “INDY RAGES”, and then on the 19th UM played Northerly Island in Chicago for the first time. After the show in Chicago The Hue and Land of Atlantis threw down at Reggie’s, so we all piled onto the Reggie’s bus and headed down for some drinks and good times. The last weekend in July brought the Dunegrass Festival in Empire, MI and Aleph-1 at Summerdance at Nelson’s Ledges in Ohio. Both events turned out to be really amazing and while MWP was not physically there we were in spirit and heard lots of great things. Getting August rolling U-Melt and UV Hippo threw down on a Thursday at Bell’s Brewery with a good number of people coming out. This was a winner for all involved.
Now we are looking into the fall. Umphrey’s is back out on the road after a their big tour with Sound Tribe Sector 9, all of our friends are winding down from the insane festival season and playing the usual venues, and we are back in full swing. We have a couple of shows coming up, and we know you don’t want to miss them!
We have had an amazing summer and project great things as we close out 2008. We are revamping the mission of MIDWESTpeeps a little bit so that we can service this community better. We have begun to see where we fit and how we can make the most impact in the coming months and years. We always welcome new ideas and introductions to new people and places, otherwise we would never grow. MIDWESTpeeps was started to bring more people together to see live music for one band and its grown to encompass a region and multiple bands. We want to continue to make progress and build on what has been started and we can’t do that without all of you. The fans are what makes this community work. It is your sacrifices, and your enthusiasm, that keeps the musical engine running. We can’t thank you enough for supporting us and the idea of a Midwestern community that rivals the left and the right and makes people say “look what’s going on in those cities… I want to live there!!”