Indie music conference brings local and national bands, industry professionals to downtown venues
Posted on April 7, 2008
Students scattered all over Downtown Harrisonburg and Memorial Hall this weekend in honor of the biggest indie music festival in the Valley. The Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference (MACRoCk) featured impressive local and other bands from as far as Chicago, New York City and Georgia.
Volunteers in purple and black T-shirts manned the doors of each venue that offered its space to the MACRoCk conference Friday and Saturday evenings. The diverse mix of bands included groups such as Video Hippos, who melded their recordings with live music. The Court Square Theater showcase introduced Meadows, a band from Washington, D.C., who used an array of uncommon instruments, including a saw and a recorder.
The live music started up again late Saturday afternoon, including a hip-hop showcase at The Blue Nile. The concert at Memorial Hall featured a line-up of Brooke Waggoner, Shapiro, Anathallo, Aloha and Owen.
Waggoner soon proved to be a favorite as she charmed listeners with her complex, quirky piano melodies, accompanied by cellist Hannah Schroeder and guitarist Aaron Roach. Later in the evening, almost 400 MACRoCkers flocked to Memorial Hall’s auditorium to hear Shapiro, a favorite among locals. Students crowded up front and stood in aisles, bobbing their heads to the catchy tunes.
Anathallo made an impression on those hearing them for the first time.
“I’ve never heard of these people before, but that was what art in its truest form should be,” said grad student Taylor Adkins. “It was something really special to see.”
Anathallo stood out from the line-up due to its intricately overlapping melodies and teasing buildups. At times, all seven members of the band sang together and each demonstrated mastery by playing several different instruments throughout the set.
Owen, one of the main headliners for the weekend, ended the night with an acoustic session.
The different setup of this year’s MACRoCk also made a favorable impression. Adkins, who has attended each MACRoCk since high school, expressed his approval regarding the change of setting for the event.
“I loved the fact that everything was downtown and within walking distance,” he said. “I think it’s run more smoothly because of it.”
The panels presented by the conference inspired a creative buzz among students as veterans in the indie music scene shared their stories of success and humbling circumstances. Brian Walsby, illustrator for the comic Manchild, explained his method of scoring jobs with bands to design their covers.
“I would basically kiss these bands’ asses and just show them I can draw,” he said. “That’s how I would get in.”
Many students looking to start their own labels and magazines were able to participate in a question-answer session with the experts. Meredith Burns, a sophomore anthropology and geography major, sought advice Saturday at the DIY Publishing panel at the Massanutten Regional Library. At this panel, independent writers and artists discussed how to create and publish their works.
“I think the [magazine] culture is really cool. Just distributing it shows people it’s possible,” Burns said. “I wanted to hear how it’s done from someone who’s started from the ground up.”
The label exposition was held at the Masonic Temple Saturday afternoon and allowed MACRoCk attendees to interact with record label representatives and independent vendors selling records and other merchandise.
Overall, MACRoCk 2008 proved a success to many attendees. Gareth Schoonover, 20, drove from Roanoke, Va., to see his friends in Shapiro play.
“There need to be more events like this,” Schoonover said. “It’s a chance for independent music to really make an impression.”
