Michigan Becomes A Popular Indie Rock Festival Destination

Indie rockers Widespread Panic are one of dozens of bands at Rothbury

This year marks the beginning of more major music festivals than any year in recent memory – All Points West in New Jersey, Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco and the Rothbury Music Festival in the woods of Michigan, to name a few.

The Rothbury Festival kicked-off on Thursday and is wrapping up today in the woods of western Michigan. Highlights from the festival include performances from the Dave Matthews Band, 311, Widespread Panic, John Mayer, Modest Mouse, Of Montreal, Thievery Corporation, Sam Beam, Primus, STS9, Govt Mule and many others.

311 performing The Cure’s “Love Song” at Rothbury

Chicagoians and folks in and around Michigan are festival-spoiled. In addition to Rothbury Festival, there is the Pitchfork Music Festival less than two weeks away and Lollapalooza the weekend of August 1-3.

The lineup for the Pitchfork Festival is impressive, featuring artists and groups like Animal Collective, Public Enemy, Sebadoh, Mission of Burma, The Hold Steady, M. Ward, Spoon, The Ruby Suns, Fleet Foxes, Elf Power, Spiritualized, Les Savy Fav, Apples in Stereo, Cut Copy, The Dodos and dozens more.

On Friday, the theme of the show is centered around performing highly acclaimed, entire albums performed by some of alternative and indie music’s most cherished bands.

First up, Public Enemy will play It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back followed by Sebadoh performing Bubble and Scrape, and last but not at all the least, Mission of Burma will treat the festival crowds to the entire anthology from Vs.

The scheduled line-up for Saturday, July 16:

Animal Collective
Jarvis Cocker
The Hold Steady
!!!
Vampire Weekend
Dizzee Rascal
Fleet Foxes
Caribou
Elf Power – “Paralyzed” (MP3)
Jay Reatard
Titus Andronicus
No Age
Atlas Sound – “My Car” (MP3)
Extra Golden
The Ruby Suns
Icy Demons
A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Occidental Brothers Dance Band International
Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar

This is an awesome line-up for only $30. While I have to admit I don’t know all of the performers, $30 to see Animal Collective, The Hold Steady, !!!, No Age, Atlas Sound, Elf Power, The Ruby Suns and Caribou is a hell of a bargain.

Sunday, July 20 lineup is as follows:

Spoon
Dinosaur Jr.
Spiritualized
M. Ward
Ghostface and Raekwon
Les Savy Fav
The Apples in Stereo
Boris
Dirty Projectors
Times New Viking
Cut Copy
Bon Iver
The Dodos
King Khan & His Shrines
El Guincho
Fuck Buttons
HEALTH
High Places
Mahjongg

Sunday is another amazing line-up, including Spoon, Dinosaur Jr., Spiritualized, M. Ward, The Apples in Stereo, Cut Copy, The Dodos and many others.

Interestingly enough, despite a sagging economy, high fuel prices and saturation of big, outdoor music festivals spanning two to five days in duration, the fact is that ticket sales for both the veteran fests like Coachella and Bonnaroo, and the ‘newbies’, have been overall successful so far for 2008.