[local-music] Keweenawesomefest

[Kevin Eder]

MTU's student-run radio station, WMTU is hosting Keweenawesomefest, a
two-day Midwest music festival. The festival will take place on
February 23 and 24 in the "Black Box," a theater located in the Walker
Arts and Humanities Building on the MTU campus. Doors open at 5:30 PM
on both nights.

While coined in humor, Keweenawesomefest is a genuine tribute to the
snowy peninsula, as well as the burgeoning independent music community
of Michigan.

More impressive than even Houghton's infamous winters are those
willing to brave possible blizzards to take stage. Among the farthest
travelers include southern Michigan experimental pop quintet Mason
Proper, the joyful and stage-filling Mighty Narwhale from Grand
Rapids, the next-big-thing Ann Arbor folk singer Matt Jones, and a
special indie-pop treat from Indiana, Arrah and the Ferns. Detroit
rockers the Terrible Two's and Mahonies promise to even the keel of
the event.

Such a gathering would be incomplete without a strong showing from the
Upper Peninsula. Representing the higher latitudes are legendary
songsmith Sycamore Smith, post-punk experimenters Hell Town Trio, as
well as several up-and-comers like bedroom folk outfit This is Deer
Country.

More information can be found at www.myspace.com/keweenawesomefest, or
by emailing wmtu-pr@mtu.edu. Tickets are now on sale at WMTU's office
in the basement of Wadsworth Hall. They're going quickly, but will be
available at the door if a sellout does not occur beforehand.