James Madison University hosted the Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference, or MACRoCk, last weekend, marking the eighth year in a row that JMU has hosted the indie, or independent, rock festival.
Admittedly, this was my first year at MACRoCk and, for reasons beyond my control, I was only able to attend the festival Saturday, even though it is a two-day festival that began Friday. Saturday, three of the four festival stages scattered around JMU and greater Harrisonburg were dominated by hardcore music, a particularly fierce amalgamation of punk energy and metal intensity. Bands such as Cast Off, Paint It Black and Spitfire rocked JMU's Godwin Gym early Saturday evening, inciting some audience members into a circle-pit (a hardcore, interpretive dance, if you can imagine that) with punishing musical riffs and "I-may-be-strait-edge-but-the-Man-still-holds-me-down" lyrics.
I left the JMU campus in search of other indie delights and found myself in the skeevy family fun center Captain Tee's Arcade, where bands and fans crammed behind the kiddies' obstacle course and rocked out underneath a cartoony skull and crossbones painted on the wall. All the bands that crossed the makeshift stage at Captain Tee's were various forms of hardcore. The bands ranged from Dear Tonight, which featured beautiful rock instrumentation dragged down by a barely audible vocalist who sort of talked angrily, to Mass Movement of the Moth and their hard-partying fans, particularly -- and I'm not making this up -- the astronaut and the screaming pink unicorn who traded stage dives.
A few hardcore bands later, I retreated to JMU's College Center Ballroom, the only stage boasting quieter, more indie-rock oriented acts. Matt Pond PA, an emo band with sublimely understated rock melodies and passionate vocals, opened for the Magnolia Electric Company, which moved the crowd with ethereal pedal steel riffs and indie-folk storytelling.MACRoCk, though claiming to promote all genres of under-the-radar music, seemed to lean too heavily toward hardcore bands, choosing quantity over quality in many cases (despite notable appearances by hardcore stars Pig Destroyer and Circle Takes the Square). Past festival attendees said hardcore was underrepresented in previous years and that MACRoCk might be trying to make up for it.
The highlight of my evening was Matt Pond PA, one of the rare quieter bands Saturday. I have a soft spot in my heart for hardcore music, but MACRoCk would be better off presenting a more diverse array of bands. And though the Mid-Atlantic College Radio Conference is an excellent festival for those whose musical tastes march to the beat of a different drum, next year, I'll research the bands ahead of time.
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