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Tonight: Herd Fest Day 4

June 18, 2017

After a whirlwind of a weekend, it is bittersweet that our last showcase that we have our last showcase tonight. Mohawk Place is set to host four up-and-coming acts tonight which will be the icing on the 56 layered cake. Starting off tonight is experimental rock act Planet Three followed by grunge-y newcomers Major Arcana. Next on deck is atmospheric space-y act A Relative Term, with driving indie rockers The Etchings rounding out the evening. Doors at 7pm with a $5 cover.

Tonight: Herd Fest Day 3

June 17, 2017

Herd Fest Day 3 launches tonight and after catching so many acts the past two days and lack of sleep, my ability to craft creative introductions isn’t what it used to be. Mohawk Place kicks off the night with sets from plucky up-and-comers Johnny and the Man Kids, new rock act The Gennies, Brooklyn indie band Kissing is a Crime, pop act Suburbs, fun indie outfit Gillian, and rounded out by alt-rockers Younger Then. $7 cover with doors at 7pm. Milkie’s also kicks off early at 7pm with sets from synth-pop act Small Smalls, pop-punkers Dead Lounge, bluesy alt rockers White Shade, post-emo outfit Into the Wake, and rounded out by noisey punk act Filthy Gorgeous. $7 cover. DBGB’s is set to have one of the biggest shows of the festival, with Made Violent headlining with support from buzzing newcomers Ugly Sun and a recently subbed Super American. $5 cover with doors[...]

Tonight: Herd Fest Day 1

June 15, 2017

buffaBLOG is proud to launch the first day of events for this year’s Herd Fest. A lot of planning and curating went into crafting these shows and we are psyched to gather some of the most buzzed about local and regional acts for your viewing/listening pleasure. We encourage you to seek out bands you are not familiar with, and bounce around from venue to venue to get a real feel for what Western New York’s music scene is like in 2017. Mohawk Place opens it doors at 7pm for a night that will please any music fan. Set to open are up-and-coming indie rock act Hundred Plus Club, scene staples dreambeaches, Ithaca buzzing emcee Sammus, and the unveiling of the new project God Save the Queen, a collaboration between DJ Mario Bee and Mic Excel. $7 cover. NIetzsche’s also has a stacked line-up. Starting off the night will be whiskey folk act[...]

Just Announced: Herd Fest 2017

May 17, 2017

After months of preparation, today we are pumped to announce the line up for Herd Fest 2017. Our goal when putting together this festival was to bundle as many as the up-and-coming, buzzing bands from Buffalo and beyond and package them into one four day festival. Ticket prices range based on the event, but if you are looking to attend multiple shows over multiple days, it might make more sense to buy our all-access pass for $20, which will save you some money in the long-term. Full Schedule: Thursday, June 15th @ Mohawk Place | 8pm | $7 Hundred Plus Club, dreambeaches, Sammus, God Save the Queen Thursday, June 15th @ Nietzsche’s | 8pm | $5 Rust Belt Brigade, Wren Williams & Sons of Luther, Stress Dolls, Cannon the Brave, Award Show, Ryan Howze Friday, June 16th @ Mohawk Place | 5:30pm | $7  Griffin!, Kerry Fey, qwelis, Jack, Big[...]

Herd Fest 2017 Dates Announced, Applications Open

January 30, 2017

Today we are psyched to announce the dates and opening of applications for Herd Fest 2017. Entering it’s fourth year, this year’s Herd Fest  begins on Thursday, June 15th, 2017 and ends on Sunday, June 18th 2017.  Much like last year, we will be centralizing the application process over on Herd Fest’s website in order to streamline submissions. Herd Fest 2016 had over a thousand attendees, 14 showcases, and about 70 acts playing live over the course of the festival. This year we plan on expanding our showcases and centralizing venue locations. If you are interested in sponsoring the festival or have any proposals to make this event sweeter, e-mail herdfest@gmail.com.

Tonight: Herd Fest Day Four

June 19, 2016

Woooo Herd Fest Day Four! I am writing this with one hand dangling off my twin mattress. So far, we’ve had twelve showcases since Thursday, featuring some of the very best acts locally and beyond. Tonight is no different. This evening Mohawk Place plays host to some of the areas most talented emcees. Leading off the night is Rochester-based hip hop collective, Chemical Ape. Next is conscious rapper Dean Chatham, who will be including a live drummer in his set. After that we have Buffalo’s Chill Ali, set to perform smackdab in the middle. Rounding out the night are sets from wordsmith emcees Prime Example and lit-rap act 200 Kids Outside. Fun starts around 8pm with a $5 cover. <iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/a76d7vfwgFk” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Tonight: Herd Fest Day Three

June 18, 2016

Herd Fest day three – another full day of banging musical acts highlighting the best of the best in the WNY region and beyond. Today’s programming spans six of Buffalo’s finest venues. Right about now, you should be lacing up your converse and smoothing your hair to make it to the Record Theatre showcase at 2:00pm. Indie-poppers Good Neighbors, gritty DIY-ers Slowcooker, avant-garde act Lifemusic Mit Andre, songstress Velvet Bethany, and glammy Whiner are all playing today. It’s a $5 cover all across town tonight (unless you have our all-access wristband). After Record Theatre, Mohawk Place is hosting an early showcase starting at 6:30pm. Spooky rockers FKA SHEDS are starting the night out, followed by lo-fi grungers Nylon Otters, calculated post-punk act Hundred Plus Club, and Rochester garage twang Cantelope. We suggest you snag some dinner and head over – this showcase would be a great way to start off your[...]

Tonight: Herd Fest Day Two

June 17, 2016

Tonight we launch into the busy portion of Herd Fest with day two of the festival. Tonight programming spans across five venues. Earliest show starts at 8pm at Mohawk Place with gravelly indie rockers via Syracuse, Bridge Under Fire, dreampop synth artist Daniel Robinson, sunny Bryan Johnson and Family, indie-pop act Comfy, industrial goth duo and the heavily anticipated psych set by Ex-Pat. $5 cover. At about 9:30pm, Milkie’s launches into their set programming, with emo revivalists from Rochester (and formerly of Michigan), Charmer. After that are straight rock band The Soft Love, psych-rock act Deadwolf, stripped down indie original Moody Cosmos, and rounding out the night is comedy act Wood Bois. If you are a fan of Flight of the Conchords or The Cure, then you should mark this set down. $5 cover. If you get there before 9:30pm, you might be able to catch WWE Hall of Famer[...]

Tonight: Herd Fest Day One

June 16, 2016

Tonight is the night. After close to nine months of planning Herd Fest is finally launched. This year we did things different. In the past we subcontracted shows to various scene reps and labels in order to diversify the voices being represented for the festival. This highly collaborative process was fun and confusing so we decided to do things different this year. For our third year, we took the reigns and centrally booked all of the shows. We had bands go through an application process in order to diversify and cater to fans of up-and-coming indie acts, resulting in four days of showcases at seven venues with 67 bands set to perform. We launched our Herd Fest app, where you can go and download and create your own schedule for the next four days. In addition, we have on-site managers for each venue ensuring stage management. Bands will be playing very close[...]

Titanics – “Close Enough”

June 9, 2016

Albany electro-pop duo Titanics just released the beguiling single “Close Enough” a few weeks before their performance at Herd Fest, and it’s safe to say that we should start getting stoked for this show sooner rather than later. Consisting of Mark Lombardo and Derek Rogers, Titanics deal in a sub genre (dubbed by them) “tranquil pop,” and the description is accurate as “Close Enough” is a gorgeous slice of Washed Out by way of M83 electronica, all hazy vocals, sexy attitude, dreamy synths, and tastefully deployed guitars and sax that gets all in your ear to shives your timbres. Titanics will be part of Herd Fest 2016, playing at Dreamland Saturday,  June 18th with Brat’ya, Humble Braggers, and M.A.G.S..

Just Announced: Herd Fest

May 17, 2016

For the past six months, we’ve been chugging along trying to put together our third annual Herd Music Festival. The festival, which began in 2014, aimed to gather all of Western New York’s up-and-coming bands into one hustled weekend that showcased the city’s growing music scene. In the past we partnered up with various labels and collectives to deliver snapshots of cultures and tastes, but this year we decided to try something new – centralized programming and open applications. With centralized programming this put a lot more pressure and workload on our staff as opposed to working with conjunction with another organization. This will aid to ensure time flow management. We are positive that with this, showtimes will be close to the announced times, allowing festival-goers the opportunity to drop in and out of shows and curate their own concert experience. We’ve also developed an app for both Google and Apple IOS,[...]

Herd Fest Accepting Applications for 2016

January 22, 2016

Yesterday afternoon, various Herd Fest social media accounts announced that the annual festival is now accepting applications for 2016’s event, which beings on Thursday, June 16, 2016 and ends Sunday, June 19, 2016 at an array of different venues. In the previous two years, Herd Fest had organizations curate their own showcases based on brand leanings, and although all our partners did an amazing job setting lineups, each year we’ve had the same gripes from bands wanting to get in on the action. “I wish we were knew about this,” “No one asked us to play,” and “Hey I’m in a super cool band coming through and have no contacts in Buffalo and we are playing North by North East in Toronto, Canada and we would like to be added to one of your shows 48 hours beforehand.” Unfortunately, while we cannot do much for traveling bands with poor tour planning skills,[...]

Herd Fest 2015: Day 3 (Part 2)

June 27, 2015

Herd Fest 2015 returned to Allentown Saturday night with three more loaded showcases sprinkled on to the block. With Silo Sessions setting up shop at Nietzsche’s, Quiet Country Audio taking over Duke’s, and the Wax Museum crew manning both rooms in Hardware, the final evening of the 2015 edition of the festival featured something for everyone. Tireless festival photography, Candace Camuglia, was able to capture the evening. Check out some select shots below, and for the full gallery from Day 3’s night time showcases, head over to the festival’s Facebook page.

Herd Fest 2015: Day 3 (Part 1)

June 26, 2015

Day 3 of Herd Fest proved to be the young festival’s biggest day yet (so big, in fact, that we made the photo galleries two parts), featuring five loaded showcases spread all over town. The afternoon saw local record shops Record Theatre (along with Steak & Cake Records) and Black Dots host in-store and, in the case of the latter, outdoor patio bills. Candace Camuglia was once again on hand to shoot all of the action. Check out some select shots below and for a full gallery, visit the festival’s Facebook page. Keep an eye out soon for a part 2 gallery from Herd Fest’s Day 3.

Herd Fest 2015: Day 2

June 24, 2015

Herd Fest 2015 officially kicked into its second gear last Friday night with three loaded showcases littered over Allentown. First off, though, long time local photog, Michael Mulley, opened up his “People That Rock” exhibit over at Sugar City on Niagara St.. The 20 + years in the making gallery featured photos of Henry Rollins, David Bowie, Social Distortion, and more. Later on that night, Nietzsche’s, Duke’s and Hardware were taken over by showcases from Harvest Sum, Deep Thinka Records, and the Cool Dad crew, respectively. Our festival photographer, Candace Camuglia, was once again deep into all of the action. Check out some select shots from the night below, and for a full gallery of Day 2, visit the festival’s facebook page.