2010 - The Year in Awesome
It’s been an awesome year for us here at Queen City Awesome. We sprang into existence, both on the interwebs and on the radio, and we’ve met some awesome people, seen some awesome things, and heard some seriously awesome music. Please accept this list as an abbreviated (and probably very incomplete) list of 2010: The Year in Awesome.
<3
QCA
Part 1: Awesome Live Shows! (in chronological order)
2/18 - The Daredevil Christpher Wright and the Harlequins with the Sleeping Sea at CS13 - CS13 has always been a study in juxtapositions. This night was no exception, with the quiet, acoustic, harmonizing touring band the Daredevil Christoper Wright playing before the local, psychadelic surf punk rock and roll of the Harlequins. But it worked out great. Highlights include the Harlequins’ vocals being distorted because the PA couldn’t get them loud enough to be heard over the roar of the instruments (but in an awesome way) and a blasting car stereo flitering through the walls just at the end of a DCW multi-part harmony acoustic song. (Note: this was also the first time I’d ever heard the Harlequins, and they totally won me over.)
2/27 - Bad Veins with You, You’re Awesome at the Mad Hatter - This show was particularly awesome because of the dude in the front row singing along to every Bad Veins song who kept requesting “Fake Baby.” He was *so* into it, in fact, that the boys actually busted out the laptop (because the song wasn’t on the reel to reel) and played an encore of “Fake Baby.” For real. It was pretty awesome.
3/12 - The Seedy Seeds with the Loyal Divide at the Mad Hatter - The Loyal Divide melted our faces and then the Seedy Seeds made us really happy. There were even kazoos. What else do you want?
4/30 - Quasi with Let’s Wrestle and the Harlequins at Southgate House - This was actually like one pretty good and two awesome shows in one. The night started with local boys The Harelequins, who I love. And then Let’s Wrestle was surprisingly good at being a British punk/emo band. They did it well and I was pleasantly surprised. And then Quasi was awesome, of course. But, best of all, even though they’re famous and stuff they sold their own merch, and signed stuff. I’m kinda a sucker for things like that.
5/30 - Visqueen at the CityBeat Tent (5th and Race) at the Taste of Cincinnati - This was definitly one of the more random shows of the year. A band from the west coast, touring on an album I love (Message to Garcia) makes a last minute to stop to play a free afternoon outdoor show at the Taste of Cincinnati. But, hey, it was really awesome, and I don’t think I have ever heard a band play that tight of a show and sound that good in a parking lot. Seriously. Well done, folks.
7/23 - The Tigerlilies at Northside Tavern - These guys have been around forever, but they’re still local heroes for a good reason. And recruiting Brendan Bogosian to play guitar for you is probably a pretty good idea just in general. By the time they played a cover of 20th Century Boy/TV Eye we were up and dancing. Just saying.
8/21 - Turmeric in Isaac’s back yard on Orchard Street - This was Turmeric’s last show, which is a sad thing, in conjunction with the Aural Grid, which was an awesome thing which I’ll talk more about later. Turmeric was instrumental, usually cello and acoustic guitar, and totally doesn’t sound like my thing. Except they were awesome. Seriously awesome. Transcendent, maybe even. Check them out, I’m really sad to see them go.
9/1 - Not Blood Paint with Slack Panther at the Comet - Ok, ok, Slack Panther is my band, and this was our first show, so it’s memorabe to me. But Not Blood Paint is amazing. Seriously, completely amazing. They played MidPoint too, but this show was the one that really blew me away. If you can pull off glam rock theatrics at the Comet, you can do it anywhere, and these guys can do it anywhere. Go listen to them right now. RIGHT NOW.
9/23 - Wussy at Grammer’s outdoor tent for MidPoint - I’m just going to say it: I’m in love with Wussy. I think they are amazing, and it makes me feel the spirit of rock and roll every time I listen to them. The main reason that this show won out on the list over their other shows that I’ve seen this year is because 1) it was in a huge outdoor tent, which was cool and 2) Chuck played an awesome guitar solo using a tallboy can as a slide. How freaking awesome is that? So, so awesome.
10/2 - The Hold Steady at Southgate House - Ok, to be honest with you, I really miss Franz Nicolay and I thought this show had too much guitar heroics and not as much pure raw awesome as some of their other shows, it was still mostly pretty all right. And an ok Hold Steady show is still way better than most other shows. Hey, you gotta stay positive!
11/3 - Cloud Cult at the 20th Century Theatre - This was an all ages show, and I really do mean all ages. But, also, they had painters! On stage! Oh, and also, the music was awesome.
Part 2 - Our Random Most Awesome List!
Most Awesome New Bar: MOTR, hands down. I love this bar. Free live music, awesome jukebox, good food, beer, on Main Street in OTR. Awesome.
Most Awesome New Coffee Machine: The chrome beauty at Park + Vine’s new location in the old Kaldi’s space on Main Street. The cappuccinos are amazing.
Most Awesome Free Film Series: Watch This with Alex Shebar and Allison Johnson - These two managed to screen all 100 of the AFI’s top 100 films in one year, all in the Cincinnati area, including some at the 20th Century in Oakley and at least one at the Esquire Theatre on Ludlow. Pretty awesome.
Best Hire: Kudos to Yelp.com for hiring the aforementioned awesome Alex Shebar as their face of Cincinnati. Seriously, that was brilliant.
Most Awesome Free Concert Series: Indie Summer, the Friday night shows on Fountain Square courtesty of MidPoint Music Festival. It was a seriously awesome run, featuring bands including Camera Obscura, Neon Indian, Smoking Popes, Cash Flagg, Tigerlilies, Bad Veins, Pomegranates, Koala Fires, No No Knots, Pop Empire, Wussy, Eat Sugar, Buffalo Killers, The Guitars, We Are Scientists, and tons more.
Most Awesome Music Festival: The honors go to Bryce Dessner’s MusicNow Festival which, from March 30th until April 1st, brought amazing indie rock and experimental performers to the beautiful and acoustically miraculous Memorial Hall. Headliners were Joanna Newsom, St. Vincent, and Justin Vernon. You can read my full review of it here.
Most Awesome Free Musical Event: Aural Grid was this ridiculously hard to describe experience of awesome. Well, it’s not that hard to describe, really. One summer evening, about a dozen musicians took to the rooftops of and around two blocks of Main Street and started improvising with each other. In theory it sounded like a neat idea. In practice it sounded amazing, with the soundscape changing depending on where you went and what people decided to play. Thanks to the Marburg Collective, CS13, and Project CincinnatUS for making this happen.
Most Awesome Collective: The Marburg Collective makes the rest of us look lazy, and untalented. But I forgive them, because they make great music. See The Happy Maladies, No No Knots, Shadowrapt, for a sampling.
Most Awesome Coop: MoBo Bike Coop keeps it real in Northside, helping members learn about bikes and how to fix, build, and maintain them.
Most Awesome Non-profit Disguised as a Pizza Parlor: Venice on Vine Pizza on the corner of 13th and Vine is actually the work of Power Inspires Progress, a non-profit that helps adults with barriers to employment gain work experience. They also make good, affordable pizza, and pretty awesome sweet tea too.
Most Awesome Recurring Tuesday Night Event: Live band karaoke with Sexy Time at the Northside Tavern. Yeah, LIVE BAND karaoke. It’s so much better than regular karaoke it’s insane. And the band is awesome, and they play awesome songs. So who cares if you can sing or not?
Most Awesome Recurring Sunday Night Event: For those people who know me, they know that I love me some Sunday nights at the Comet. I mean, burritos, bluegrass, and beer! What else do you want? Well, in my case you probably want a quesadilla, bluegrass, and cider, but it doesn’t have the same ring. But still, the Comet Bluegrass All-Stars, who totally live up to their name, play two sets every Sunday night, at 7:30 and 9:00pm. If you want to sit at a table for the first set you probably need to get there by 6, but if you just want to see the band you can swing by at 8:45 after the first round of people leaves. Fair warning, though, the food on Sunday night can take over an hour, depending on the crowd. But it’s always worth it.
Most Awesome Did That Really Happen?: Tom Tom Club playing in the tent at Grammer’s for MidPoint. (Runner up - Shonen Knife playing a set at the Contemporary Arts Center, also for MidPoint.)
Most Awesome New Jukebox: MOTR. Hands down.
Most Awesome Local Music Guru: Dan McCabe. He used to book shows for Sudsy’s, now he works for CityBeat, runs MidPoint, and has a hand at MOTR. This is the dude, yo.
Most Awesome Creators of Public Art: ArtWorks, which has been putting up murals and other awesomeness for well over 10 years and is still going strong.
Most Awesome Public Space: Fountain Square has really come into its own, with fairly continuous programming over the whole summer and lots of events the rest of the year. Where else can you see bands, watch the world cup live on a giant screen, go to a beer tasting, and go ice skating? I mean, not all at the same time, but still. Awesome.
Most Awesome Chocolate: The Fleur de Sel Caramel dark chocolates (caramel, sea salt, and dark chocolate) by Chocolats LaTour maybe the best thing I’ve ever eaten. For serious. Made locally, sold at Findlay Market and other places, and amazingly delicious.
Most Awesome Bread: Blue Oven Bakery stole my heart this year. You can get them at Findlay Market too.
Most Awesomely Infectious Local Tune (Tie): This was an awesome year for local music, and we have TWO songs that we could not get out of our heads. I know there were two, because I’ve been singing them for months. The first is “City Girl + City Boy” by Pop Empire (you can stream it from their site). The second is “Fake Baby” by Bad Veins (you can stream it there on their facebook page). As you go listen to them, I’d just like to say that no matter how hard this world may be I’ve got you, fake baby. And, also, I love this city.
Most Awesome Music Scene Feature: No cover to see live bands. Do you realize how lucky we are? Appreciate, y’all.
Most Awesome Record Store: Shake It Records, of course.
Most Awesome Local Team on Skates (Roller): Cincinnati Rollergirls. If you haven’t seen them yet, do it as soon as humanly possible. Roller derby is, in fact, an amazing sport, and our team is legitimately awesome.
Most Awesome Local Team on Skates (Ice): Cincinnati Cyclones. Ice hockey that’s cheap, fun, and awesome.
Most Awesome Portable Burgers: Cafe de Wheels has some excellent beef burgers, and really delicious veggie burgers as well. And sweet potato fries, and other delicious stuff.
Most Awesome Diner: Tucker’s is where it’s at. Just go there, ok?
Most Awesome Saturday Morning: Findlay Market is the place to see, be seen, and buy your groceries. Consider it multitasking.
Most Awesome Sunday Brunch (Sweet): The French Toast Bread Pudding at Take the Cake is ridiculously good.
Most Awesome Sunday Brunch (Savory): The breakfast tacos at MOTR were so good I was talking about them days later. And I wasn’t even hung over that day.
Biggest Crush on a Band: Wussy. I’m in love with Wussy. I admit it. Seriously, why have they not been on the show yet? (Runner up because they don’t live here: Not Blood Paint)
Bands to Watch: I predict that 2011 will have a lot of The Happy Maladies and Pop Empire, along with QCA favorites Wussy, Bad Veins, the Seedy Seeds, and the Harlequins.
Favorite Local Album of 2010: The Harlequins - Baron von Headless. I wasn’t expecting to love them, but I do. The album is great and the live shows are too.
Other Awesome Things You Should Know About: Queen City Bike, Each Note Secure, UrbanCincy
That’s it y’all! Thanks for playing, and we hope to see and/or hear from you all soon. Don’t forget to tune in Wednesdays from noon-1pm on 95.7FM or at www.wvqc.org!
