Last-minute music fest takes Rock Hall, Science Center

Humble Home – © The Rhythm Report 2011

Need to pull together a multi-artist concert with Northeast Ohio’s finest musicians in two weeks? Call Bad Racket Recording Studios.

Organizers for 6ixth City Tech Fest called on Bad Racket’s Tom Fox when they decided to add musical entertainment to its lineup of technology and entrepreneurial-based conferences held at The Great Lakes Science Center and The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum on Saturday, July 23.

Bad Racket has worked with a few of the area’s most successful musicians, some of whom Fox and partner Adam Wagner turned to as they sought to pull together a last-minute lineup of more than 10 bands.

“I just went through the Cleveland playlist of people who I like that play in Cleveland and people who I’ve worked with at Bad Racket and said, ‘Are you available?’” Fox said. “People just got back to me like, ‘Hell, yeah! I’m not going to miss that for anything. Rock Hall. Science Center. All this energy going on.”

Nick Zuber Band (NZB), Nights, and Tom Evanchuck and The Old Money are a few of the bands on the Bad Racket client list who came out to perform. NZB and Nights played the indoor stage at the Science Center and the Evanchuck crew headlined the outdoor set on the Rock Hall’s museum plaza.

Nick Zuber Band – © The Rhythm Report 2011

Zuber jazzed up his acoustic, boy-on-the-beach guitar sound with the backing of a saxophonist Bryan Connell and longtime drummer, Angela “AC” Cutrone. Also playing as a trio, Nights serenaded a modest audience in the atrium; the whimsy of their melodies capturing the attention of a few passersby. Evanchuck and band played a set in grueling, over 90-degree heat after standing by to support several acts who played before them, including Humble Home and Thaddeus Green and The So & So’s.

Much credit was given to the outdoor performers who braved the sultry weather to play for a small audience who sparsely congregated on the barren plaza. The lack of a solid crowd is one drawback to piecing together a music festival in such a short timeframe at two locations where visitors’ primary objectives are to tour the facilities and escape sweltering temperatures.

“I wish more people had stopped to listen, but it’s definitely cool to play at a place that’s made for music,” said Anthony Foti, drummer for Humble Home and Thaddeus Green, about performing at the Rock Hall.

Fox said beyond familiar acts to form the day’s roster, he also reached out to bands that Bad Racket is scouting to work with in the future. Two acts that stood out to The Rhythm Report were:

Humble G  – © The Rhythm Report 2011

• Humble G, a quintet that blends the sounds of classical violin, African beats and hip hop into forms of music it calls “HipHope” and “Afri-pean” and
• The rambunctious Zach Freidhof, of Zach and The Bright Lights, who played an acoustic set, escaping the confines of the stage during his final song to flee up the escalator and entertain Science Center visitors on the main level of the venue before security stopped him from dashing up to the third floor. (Watch the video here.)

“That’s rock and roll,” Freidhof said.

Bad Racket pulled together a multifarious cast of artists from Rob Geer, of The Conductor and The Creator, who played a solo set composed of original songs and creative covers, to the rap squad Wildlife Soundz, who performed with live drums and vocals over prerecorded instrumentals. Other acts included The Commonwealth, Filmstrip and Tha Outsiderz.

Bad Racket does not have plans to coordinate any other festivals this year. But who knows in another 16 days, Fox said. However, the studio is planning an event to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its video series Live from Bad Racket in the fall and its team plans on being a part of The 6ixth City Tech Fest next year.

“The Tech Fest is this entrepreneurship showcase. They’ve got all these people that are doing startup companies, and they’re all kind of in this rockstar mindset of going their own way and trying to figure out how to make something in this world,” Fox said. “It’s the same thing as music. It really is, from an emotional standpoint. If they do this again next year, we’re only going to do it bigger.”

Photos can be seen on The Rhythm Report's Facebook page. 
Videos of select performances are available on YouTube or in this previous blog post.


Written by Priscilla Tasker