Relocated Music Is Art Festival loses some of its buzz

By Brian Campbell

The Music Is Art Festival was created in order “to create unique and challenging programs that encourage involvement in the community, inspire active participation in the arts, enhance academic performance and promote personal and civic responsibility.” Unlike a lot of other mission statements, MIA actually accomplishes what it sets out to do.

In years past, the MIA Festival has been held in Allentown, Buffalo’s artsy neighborhood that also hosts the long-running Allentown Art Festival. Conflicts between the two festivals resulted in MIA moving this year to the Hamburg Fairground at America’s Fair. I don’t know about the politics, but I can say that the move did not benefit MIA. Not only did America’s Fair cram MIA into a tiny corner of the Fairgrounds, but they cut down on everything else besides the music. It seemed as if there were fewer artist booths and fewer vendors in general, not to mention fewer performers.

Still, the festival used three music stages—the main stage, an acoustic side stage and a dance stage under a tent. There was also a beer tent, various college booths, a Time Warner hub for surfing the internet and watching TV, and a booth by radio station 103.3 The Edge. Well, I guess the Edge would have to be there since Agent Me played, but I digress.

Perhaps the most fun part of MIA was the Kids Tent. Here kids of all ages (including my age) could go in and get a free DVD, watch a drum circle and take part in other interactive shows. They could also take part in arts and crafts. It was nice to see all of the kids under that tent happy and occupied, and they all looked like they were having fun. MIA did a sparkling job in that aspect.

The Dance Tent Stage showcased a lot of local talent from different dance studios around the area, like the Center of Dance Motivation and Lynn’s Dance Studio, among others. The tent also featured Brandon DJ between sets, so there was no dead air. There was consistently a large crowd gathered around the tent when there was a performance going on, which is really a testament to how talented the dancers and performers were.

The Acoustic Stage was off to the side--hence me calling it a side stage--and it featured young artists at their most intimate and raw. The best of the bunch was Last Conservative frontman/mastermind TJ Zindle. This guy as an acoustic singer/songwriter is really something special. He jammed about five or six songs, which was enough to captivate the small crowd completely. He really made this stage for me and he was the best musician to play at MIA.

“I want to thank Music Is Art. I appreciate them giving me the opportunity to play here,” Zindle said. “There were a lot of amazing bands and artists here today, huh?”

The main stage was the main attraction of MIA, unless it the beer tent. Regardless, there was a lot of good talent (and some not so good) on the main stage. It started for me with the West Seneca West middle school rock band. Did you ever see that movie School of Rock? Yeah, it was pretty much the same thing except it blows you away to see it in real life. They blasted through a sound set of covers ranging from the classic “99 Luftballons” to an almost picture perfect cover of the Cranberries hit, “Zombie.” The group was made up of a bunch of eighth graders, led by their history teacher on bass. It really was a sight to see, and it also told me that the future of music, at least locally, looks promising.

The main stage also played host to a pair of hip hop acts,the Hardcore Godcore tour and Crooked Letta (spelled wrong for the extra effect and street cred). The first of the bunch, the HGT, were pretty good and very uplifting. They billed themselves as “hip-hop with a purpose,” which is something you don’t really see much of nowadays. With Crooked Letta, I thought they were a joke when they first took the stage but they turned out to be completely serious. The crowd was completely into it and they got a good ovation.

“Thanks to everyone who came out today to Music Is Art. We really want to thank MIA for having us here to play,” said Crooked Letta. “We have to give a big shout out to all of the bands that played; it really takes a lot of guts to get up on stage and play.”

Agent Me followed to a pretty warm response. Their live act was much the same as their record but they also included some new material. For those of you don’t know who Agent Me is, where have you been? This is the band that has Tyler Banks and Evil Jim from the Edge handling guitar and vocal duties.

The music at Music Is Art was good, but you’d expect that, wouldn’t you? The set up was terrible and the attendance was less than I expected or the promoters might have hoped for. The artists started packing up their booths pretty early on in the day, so closer to the end the festival looked barren with many empty tents. Between us, here’s hoping they can somehow get the festival back to Allentown next year.