Student artists to shine at Broad Ripple Music Festival

Musicians will make the streets, bars and records stores of Broad Ripple Village come alive Saturday when they hit the stages showcasing some of the best local, regional and national artists in hip-hop, indie rock, dance and electronic.

Proceeds from this year’s Broad Ripple Music Festival, which takes places on 25 different stages with more than 200 artists, will benefit local non-profit partner, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.

Fourteen years after their last performance together, an 8-by-5 feet photograph of the Bloomington band Johnny Socko still hangs on the wall at Bluebird. Johnny Socko will reunite to perform at the festival’s kickoff party at The Vogue in Broad Ripple on Friday at 9 p.m.

Because the band members are in various bands that are geographically scattered, Johnny Socko guitarist Joe Welch said that he first doubted the reunion would happen.
“But it was a combination of I’m free that day and I really love this band that brought us back together,” Welch said.

Welch said that presale tickets are going fast and he has every reason to believe the show will sell out.

“We have fans that we haven’t seen in years flying in from New York, Atlanta and California to be a part of this,” he said.

Openers for Johnny Socko include Mab Lab and Nightjar, who won their performance slot on a virtual battle of the bands contest.

Festival director Daniel Fahrner, who was a drummer with the Deadbeats and Everthus, said that Friday’s kickoff show was just one change he made to the festival in his first year directing. He said that he has also focused on promoting the event as a whole, pulling in local sponsors and trying to book less traditional venues for performances.

“My expectations are for the fans to have a really good time and the bands to have a good experience, so they are willing to contribute the next year round,” Fahrner said.
IU sophomore Joseph Denney, who goes by the musical name Spirit Spine, will perform in the record store Indy CD and Vinyl at noon.

“I have never played during the day so I am nervous, but really excited,”  he said.

The summer before freshman year at IU, Denney sent his music to friends and bloggers. He said that everything just snowballed from there. He compares himself to the lead singer of Joy Division and Panda Bear from Animal Collective.

“I play sleepy music that you can’t fall asleep to because something interesting may happen,” Denney said.

IU alumnus and former WIUX DJ Eric Radoux will also be performing at Indy CD and Vinyl at 7 p.m. “This is the biggest performance I have had in Broad Ripple, which is a hot spot for music culture. This is huge for me,” said Radoux, who plays experimental pop with spirited melodies.

Fahrner said that some of the other musical festival standouts include Jookabox, Bloomington band Early Day Miners, Elsinore and the local hip-hop duo Mudkids.

“They embody the celebration of music and that’s the goal of this festival,” Fahrner said.