Chicagoist: MOBfest ... BLAHfest.

tankboy

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:17:41 -0600

Zing!

t

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:13:04 -0600

I believe you meant "naiveté," but still.

dave

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 09:12:11 -0600

AMEN TankBoy! The sooner MOBfest dies the better for Chicago bands. Promoting a bunch of crappy bands promotes the whole scene as crappy. The Switchyard Fest this weekend at Continental is Darwinism at it's best. That's the where all the "buzz" bands are playing. I doubt any of those bands even considered playing MOB.

tankboy

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:26:59 -0600

We are who we are.

Them

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:03:13 -0600

See, this is one of those cases where Chicagoist's royal we doesn't make any sense. Obviously this is tankboy speaking for himself (considering there wasn't even the idea of a Gothamist when MOBfest started, let alone a Chicagoist) and it's not an opinion that was reached as a consensus among the staff, even if they all happen to agree with him. Let Tankboy speak for himself, not for "ourselves."

Huge Bizarro Fan!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:01:15 -0600

WHERE IS BIZARRO! One of Chicago's best rock and roll bands, just the kind of rockers to show all these MOBfesters how it should be done! Disgraceful that they are not on a show somewhere! Have you guys ever seen them live? Killer band.

In the know ...

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:35:35 -0600

Considering that the festival is now in it's 10 or 11th year and still has yet to matter to anyone - says volumes. I just did a Google search to find that there is this, and 2 other articles on this piece of garbage. I realize that these are 2 different animals, nonetheless, look what Pitchfork has done in a few short years. It has taken MOBFest, a decade to go nowhere. If you look at the panels, these are the same people in town that you can contact any day of the week. In terms of getting signed???? Who the hell, in this day and age wants a f-ing record deal? When you can put you jams on iTunes, CDBaby, MySpace, etc... the major label is dead (thank God).

asewd

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:15:06 -0600

loserpalooza

darcell

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:08:06 -0600

I thought they were Music Over Business. Maybe it should be called BOM fest. darcell

Tattoo

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:50:19 -0600

Mobfest, Pride Parade, holy damn I'm glad I'll be in Toronto this weekend.

Bill V

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:10:40 -0600

From a fan's point of view, when I want to see a band, I go see a band. When it's associated with some kind of "band signing" festival it makes me want to go even less, like the band is doing some one-off special show for industry big-shots and not for me!

Gina

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:09:10 -0600

Wait, did people ever really take MOBfest seriously? I just always saw it as a way to see all your friends play shows in the same weekend. It was nice that before your set, you could run over and see L&G at the Note, or Suffrajett at Double Door, then they'd come to see you at SubT. But did people actually ever play it because they thought it was going to get them somewhere?? If so, that's kind of sad. The Clubs handled all the booking, and they booked the bands they liked, not the bands who submitted their crappy demo to the MOBfest committee. It was the most egregious example of cherry picking and favoritism this city's music scene has to offer. But as long as myself and all my friend's bands were being "cherry-picked," it was fun. What the hay.

honk honk

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:42:43 -0600

music over business...isnt there some sort of fee to be even considered? that says it all right there. i guess if you dont want to go to schaumburg to ska band its the way to go. emergenza, however, is good for one thing... and i found out the hard way...sign up your friends as a joke. they will relentlessly call you - like 10 times a day.

Mr. Smith

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:10:35 -0600

Right on. If you need further proof, compare the bill of the Switchyard Festival to any bill at MOBFest. Far more "buzzworthy" bands at the former.

Some Guy In A Very Well-Known Chicago Band

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:45:11 -0600

Emergenza stinks, Mobfest stinks. Those Emergenza a-holes don't even bother to research the bands they bombard with their slimey propaganda - like a band who has toured the US and UK multiple times really wants to enter a contest to win shitty equipment and drum sticks and a spot on a CD comp destined for the trashbin! Take it and stick it!

chris debrizzio

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:44:52 -0600

right on, tankboy. I for one am sick of hearing about mobfest jump starting the killers' career.

tankboy

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:43:16 -0600

I haven't seen this week's Onion, but I'm glad other folks are just as fed up as I am and unafraid to call MOBfest out on it. My only regret is that I started building a bill with some local bands that are actually good before I decided I just couldn't be involved any longer, so they're stuck playing tomorrow ...

Tony

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:41:56 -0600

Agreed. It's kind of a wannabe/sham "fest." Maybe in it's first inception it helped some bands out, but it's becoming a joke. Any "label execs" that show up are so low on the totem pole that they can't even present a deal memo to a band or even set up a meeting with the label. MOBfest doesn't celebrate anything but a chance to give bands a shot at gigging on a weekend that haven't gotten to that point yet. Take a look at the bands, signed or unsigned, in this City that have made even the slightest name for themselves- they aren't playing MOBfest. Most of the bands on MOBfest don't play out a lot. Now, if MOBfest promoted itself as a fest that gives folks the opportunity to see bands that they might not have heard of yet, or are getting their feet wet in clubs, or are testing the waters at clubs, it would work great.

Kyle

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:31:55 -0600

The Onion this week says the same thing: If you want to find the city's best bands, look elsewhere this weekend. Bands "in the know" so to speak completely avoid MOBfest, and every year, it reinforces why they should continue to do so. Plus, there has long been speculation that MOBfest is essentially a money-making endeavor for its organizers, who give their friends/clients the good shows, then just fill in the holes arbitrarily. It's only *slightly* less sketchy than Emergenza, but that's hardly a compliment.

safecraka

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:18:30 -0600

thank you

The Curmedgeon

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:11:30 -0600

Mobfest is just as terrible as Emergenza. Bands who don't know how to properly market themselves, or even use spellcheck on their bio information, flock to these types of festivals firmly believing it is their ticket to bigger and better things. You couldn't be more right about the naivety of such bands. It's dissapointing to watch bands hype themselves because of such association, especially those where you can see a glimmer of potential in their songwriting - yet their only goal is to "get signed" but they have no conception of the work it takes to even have an ounce of hope that it will ever happen.

Not Ready

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 10:49:11 -0600

Damn- uoi tell the truth, loud and clear.