This Little Underground

Indie Fall Fest (Firestone Live, Sept. 24) wasn’t exactly the homerun that its successor, last year’s surprise hit, Indie Summer Fest, was. The move away from Audubon Park no doubt alienated some people. Still, the relocation to Firestone was interesting. The venue has the multiplicity and ampleness of space to allow for nice, nonstop pacing and compact, 360-degree movement between six stages. For the most part, the logistics worked. The issue this year, however, was the lineup. First and foremost, the quality was uneven. Moreover, the actual indie-ness of many of the acts, particularly the daytime ones in the main room, is highly debatable. No one’s saying you gotta be indie. But if that’s how you’re going to bill the event, then you must live up to it; if you don’t, then you have a fatal identity crisis on your hands, and people can sense that. Rebrand if you must, but if Indie Fall Fest is going to work, much more cohesion and authenticity needs to happen.

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