PitchPorch Fest 1.0

By Karen Wennberg

June 16, 2008

9 comments

We called it: Pitchporch.  (to those not in the know...Pitchfork?)

Somehow we managed to have more people in our front yard than some downtown bars can boast on a weeknight.  (More than 10!  Actually we made it up to the 50 range, wowzers!) I call that success.  Don't give me any credit for this event however, I remained on the sidelines and outskirts of my shared household property, my roommates and neighbors brought this all together for one wild and memorable night.  

It began with a roommate of mine persuading a musical performer on his way through Ohio to do a stop-off in Youngstown.  His name is Lord of the Yum Yum, and his chillax personality is one that encourages the trade-off of: you provide a place to spend the night and I'll perform for you.  Not thinking much of it besides a guy on the coach and maybe a few friends and beers, by Monday night it had blown up into an all out party event.  Suddenly we had opening bands  for a concert at our house to handle on Tuseday night.  

Drafty-large-roomed-turn-of-the-century-mill-house aside...where the efff do we put all these performers, and how will people be able to watch them?  We decided the porch would be the way to go, despite its total lack of electric outlets.  How this would be pulled off I had no idea.  

Tuesday night came around and word spread fast.  And soon after our first performers setup their 93459 watt subwoofers/speakers, the sound spread fast as well.  Oh, yes it did.  We had them start out in the living room to "contain" the noise as to not "disturb" the entire northside of Youngstown.  The crowd gathered outside to mingle in the much roomier yardspace.  Dozens of six packs arrived in the hands of old friends, curious neighbors and various Ytown band folk (of Posture Coach and Gil Mantera that I saw) all caoe to witness this wondrously strange combination of porch and performance.

Sum of All Your Fears 
MySpace of singer Justin and his various musical pursuits here.

These guys opened with a screamy growly demon-noise serenade.  At this point everyone was in the yard trying to salvage some eardrum.  Don't take that as a criticism of their sound, I'm into it.  Despite the harshness of their sound (and everyone should enjoy a little head thrashing and gutteral screaming of their own once in awhile, it is very therapeutic!) it piqued everyone's interest and even drew more people inside. Justin is a man of various musical styles, you never know what he'll come up with next.

Da Kreek
Dtown and Mello Dee's MySpace found here, and their own site here.

Next up was Da Kreek.  They really got the crowd moving with their beats.  You could tell that they are star performers who love being in front of an audience no matter what the venue.  I mean look, they're performing on the porch of a garishly pastel house surrounded with halloween decor and still can get the whole neighborhood bumpin.  

 Lord of the Yum Yum 
and his own website here.

This kooky guy is hard to boast about unless you've actually seen him.  He wears a powder blue ruffle tuxedo and comes armed with only a microphone and a loop-recording effects pedal.  He beatboxes his own mishmash of sound effects, layering on lyrics from classical to pop to rap to oldschool rock.  Iiiiintersting.  His stage performance was something else.  I've never seen someone totally engage the audience out of wackiness and talent like this guy did.  

 Edit:
Hell, here take a look for yourself.  Thanks to a certain northside dwelling lady we have EVIDENCE!

Our next coming attraction?   GRILLITH FAIR. 

BRING YOUR APPETITE for food fun and music, and a taste for the bizarre.

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