Forget The Business, Stay For The Music

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 23, 2005 5:58PM

MOBfest is dubious at best in its claims of being a major player in the record industry even though it continues to infer that it has helped create album deals for Rachael Yamagata, The Killers and Kill Hannah. It’s pretty obvious that all of those groups had things in the works, though, long before they hit the stage at what is currently Chicago’s only music festival that claims to draw in the big label A&R types. Come to think of it MOBfest, unlike other music festivals around the country, doesn’t even book its own showcases, leaving that part of the job to local promoters and club talent buyers. From our stand point the only thing MOBfest really offers the aspiring career rock and/or roll performer is their (newly expanded) two days of industry panels…but even these seem a little weak when compared to similar events held in Austin or New York.

At the same time, Chicagoist finds itself throwing its heart and heavy support behind the festival anyway. A paradox? Not really. While Chicagoist is not sold on the merits of MOBfest as an industry festival per se, we do salivate at the mouth this time each year in anticipation of the deluge of great local music. You see, while they know they’re not going to get signed but every local band worth their salt still wants to play this weekend…just in case.

Now since the showcases are largely put together by local promoters who can pick and choose amongst the cream of the crop that is basically begging to play a show -- any show -- over the next three days. The end result of this frenzy is a weekend of live local music that can’t be beat. You can walk into almost any club participating in the festival at any given time and stumble across something noteworthy.

The festival's kick-off party is tonight at Metro with the pairing of two of Chicagoist’s favorite local bands, The Assassins and Sybris, and that alone should give you a hint of what’s to come. Due to Chicagoist’s personal involvement in some aspects of the fest we feel it would be unfair to offer any recommendations beyond tonight, but we can assure you that this is by far the best weekend to take in bands that are still (for now) under the radar.