Attending this year’s Mid West Music Festival felt like a no-brainer. The lineup included a number of artists I’ve played on my program, The Local Show, but have never seen live. Over the course of the weekend in Winona, I was also able to socially interact with musicians I so often talk about on air. What a treat it was to be in their physical presence. 

Music is ever-changing with the advancement of new technologies and one of the trends I noticed at MWMF was the use of vocal processors to manipulate the sound of the human voice. I heard everything from Auto-Tune to robotically processed harmonies. (Reminder: it’s a misconception that Auto-Tune will actually correct a singer’s pitch.) Vocal processors, like guitars and keyboards, can only be used effectively by professionals. Bands like Poliça, WHY NOT, Good Night Gold Dust, and Papa Mbye use these advanced technologies simply because it sounds cool. It adds a layer of complexity, individualism and texture to the music.

Not only are more artists increasingly using this technology, some are even creating it. In an interview with MWMF headliner Channy Leaneagh of Poliça, she said her husband and creative collaborator Ryan Olson designed a new production tool called Allovers.

“It basically is a way where you can input sounds, conversations,” Leaneagh says. “There’s a song off [Poliça’s forthcoming record, Madness] that is Ryan Olson and our son, Schwa, talking and that gets turned into a melody line. And then Ryan kind of messes with that and I write over it. So a lot of these songs were kind of an experiment and a way for us to just promote our tours this summer by saying, as it goes in music, ‘Hey we made something. Come see us play’ … it’s kind of seeing what kind of messed up stuff that comes from AI. Not trying to imitate humans, but to sort of communicate the soul of the computer.”

Electronica was not the only brand of music showcased at MWMF. “Indie” best describes the collective of musicians represented. It’s a term that can be used to describe the genres of punk, rock, folk, and pop. But what makes a band “indie” is the self-made aesthetic that is born out of a niche community of like-minded artists. The lineup was complete with bands who’ve been hometown heroes for years. And then there are bands that have reached or will reach the national circuit of the music industry.

“Honestly, I’ve always loved this festival for the DIY portion of it. And we’re just making it work,” says Rosei Skipper, festival organizer and social media manager. “Our board is amazing, but more importantly our volunteers are incredible. And everyone who’s come out to music and just been super flexible and rolling with it.”

Indeed, anytime an event is scheduled outdoors, rain can spoil the fun and cause a major operations shift. On Friday, the rain was light enough to keep the music outdoors. But by nightfall, the risk had people on edge.

Bad Bad Hats performed the festival's last set on the outdoor mainstage. “Can I handle this? I don’t know,” said lead vocalist Kerry Alexander, while light rain was pouring sideways into their faces and gear.

Naturally, Alexander’s demeanor was as pleasant as the music was. Her charm kept the crowd energized for the duration of their set while the rain continued. 

Kiss The Tiger, who were supposed to follow Bad Bad Hats on the side stage, ended up moving to No Name Bar about a mile away. And headliner HALEY, who I performed with, was moved into a smaller tent outside Island City Brewery nearby. On the second day of the festival, every performance was moved to an indoor venue. 

So, how was the music? Here’s what I experienced from 18 different Minnesota acts.

(Regretfully, I missed some acts I really love, including Mike Kota, Humbird, Kiss The Tiger, Sleeping Jesus and more.)

Day One

Scrunchies: Having recently interviewed this band (set to air on The Local Show later this month), I developed an increased fondness for their music. They played loud and thrashy to an attentive audience at No Name Bar. Lead vocalist Laura Larson shouts back and forth with her drummer Danielle Cusack creating a sort of rhythmic ping-pong effect. Scrunchies have one of the most traditional punk rock sounds I’ve heard from a newish Minnesota band.  

Theyself: Doc, a.k.a Theyself, is all about the drone. They use a stomp pad to create a low-end pulse over finger-picked blues guitar and single note howls. They are also a 10-year veteran of MWMF. 

“It’s like this big, giant family reunion,” they said. “You get to walk around the town and you see old friends, new friends, and new bands you’ve never seen before. And then by the end of the weekend it’s like Groundhog Day – you’re like, let’s live here.”

Lapdogs: Lapdogs played indie/punk music with elements of jam rock. The vocalist possessed a country-rock growl that would mutate back and forth into a falsetto. 

Good Night Gold Dust: This duo had an intense interlocking with one another. It was clear they've played together for years, developing a sort of sonic trust that blended with glittery acoustic effects and electro harmonies. 

Double Grave: Double Grave, normally a trio, performed solo and then as a guitar and bass duo consisting of newly engaged Jeremy Warden and Bree Meyer. Their music is slow, intimate and tender. They had a modest, but beautiful presence accompanied by steady guitar playing that parallels the vocal melody.

“Maybe 2023 will be full of releases. But we’ll see,” Warden told me in an interview post show.

“Yeah, we can also plug that we’re getting married in a month, so that’s what we're gonna be doing,” Meyer added.

Authors: Authors’ air-tight harmonies between the drummer, lead singer and lead guitarist made them particularly alluring. It’s a sound that can only come from commitment. Their music can easily be defined as indie, though it borders on commercial pop-rock. 

Bad Bad Hats: Catchy songwriting meets infectious positivity. Bad Bad Hats makes listeners want to joyfully sing along. They sound wonderful live, just as you hear in their recordings. To pull that off in rain and wind makes it even more impressive. A number of fans were seen clutching their latest LP Walkman post show. 

Mae Simpson: Speaking of positivity in music — Mae Simpson is a pure showwoman who has fun with her band and interacts with the crowd. During her set she’d trade bars with the saxophone player, have the crowd waving their hands in the air, and, not to mention, soulfully sing her brains out. People couldn’t help but dance and scream. 

Day Two

WHY NOT: WHY NOT is one of the most exciting young bands in the Twin Cities. Each member of the three-piece band is a killer musician, but it was easy to tell the crowd was especially enamored by the drummer, Josh MacGregor. He’d go from heavy four-on-the-floor beats to flashy polyrhythmic fills in the most unpredictable moments. Lead vocalist Henry Breen tastefully uses Auto-Tune and vocal processing accompanied by sing-able melodies. 

“It’s great,” Breen commented to me about the festival. “Having to shift everything at the last second – going from a complete outside to plan to inside – and now it’s all together, it’s crazy.”

“I feel good. It’s my first time playing at a festival,” added Papa Mbye. “It’s all inside but the vibes are still nice.”

Fires of Denmark: This five-piece ensemble was packed into a small corner of a coffee shop during the day playing experimental, electronic and moody music. It felt surreal and unconventional, but just the kind of experience you’d expect at a small-town music festival.

Durry: Island City Brewing was at capacity with festival goers anxious to see Durry, a band that rose to TikTok stardom with their unforgettable anthemic song “Who’s Laughing Now.” Their recorded productions translate seamlessly into a live show with the use of backing tracks, while still having a full, live-band sound.

Early Eyes: Early Eyes put on one of my favorite sets of the festival. They featured clean, dexterous musicianship met with explosive dynamics met with genre-blurring songs. They are a young indie-punk band that somehow incorporate soul and hip-hop into their grooves. And they write shouty choruses that have audiences jumping and screaming. 

Lead vocalist Jake Berglove told me in an interview after their set: “We make the joke that we’re an indie band with jazz rising and punk moon.”

Bassist Megan Mahoney, who performs in about 12 bands (including Early Eyes), told me: “I am very lucky to play with people that value my playing, as well as value who I am as a person. And I just think by virtue of that, it all works out somehow.”

Papa Mbye: Papa Mbye was the inaugural artist of my very first episode of The Local Show, so I couldn’t miss his set. “Lit” might be the best word to describe his energy. Certainly, it helps that he has a talented rock band backing him. Though they clearly follow his lead when it comes to driving the crowd wild. His music is enriched with smooth singing and hard rapping. 

26 Bats: 26 Bats performed as a duo with an elaborate set up of electronics, making for a futuristic spectacle with an appealing soundtrack. Lead vocalist Bailey Cogan had a lot of giddy feelings throughout their set. “I hate Minnesota for the cold, but the people are warm,” they confessed to the crowd.

Keep for Cheap: Keep For Cheap writes harmony-driven folk music with pleasant melodies and endearing lyrics. Nylon-string guitar, banjo, electric guitar, bass and drums round out their “prairie rock” instrumentation. The audience was swaying, hooting and hollering along with the band the entire duration of their set.

Graveyard Club: Graveyard Club plays music of a synth-y sonic dreamhouse. And from outside the venue, you could hear lead vocalist Matthew Schufman wail the lyrics “It’s getting closer / I know where / I’m nowhere”  from their newest single “Nowhere.” They also nailed one of the best cover songs of the weekend — “Dreams” by the Cranberries. 

Poliça: Poliça set the bar for modern electronica, not just in Minnesota but worldwide. They are masters of their craft. Unconventionally, their set up at MWMF consisted of two electronic drum kits with their usual bass with backup vocals, and lead vocals with vocal electronic processors. Their music brought in a compelling mood that blanketed the entire crowd into a pleasurable stupor.

Prior to the show, Leaneagh gave me a little backstory about their new LP, Madness, set to release this June:

“The new record has a lot of brand new songs that we wrote over the past couple years. We wanted it to be sort of a little record because we had just finished a pretty big opus of a record, When We Stay Alive. And that kind of got thrown in the garbage during the pandemic, as a lot of people’s records did. It was like it never happened. And so we’re done with that cycle in our creative minds, but I still had some more things I wanted to say and wanted to try. And a lot of this record was built off of AI generated melody lines and beats that were first inputted with samples.”

Catch more short interviews with bands at Mid West Music Fest on The Local Show’s May 8 episode.