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Midwest Friends Fest 2025 2 Day Pass
The Southgate House Revival
Fri May 30, 2025 3:00 pm (Doors: 2:00 pm)
All Ages
$30.00 Buy Tickets
Honeycrush is the solo project of singer-songwriter Alexandra Antonopoulos. Though a classically-trained vocalist, the Brooklyn artist first picked up a guitar in 2021, recording her debut EP, Milk Teeth (2023), in her home studio to critical acclaim.

Drawing comparisons to artists Cat Power, Scout Niblett, Mark Lanegan, Jeff Buckley, and PJ Harvey, there’s a distinctly rock influence even in Honeycrush’s most somber melodies.

Antonopoulos weaves themes of identity, the fraught struggle of self-discovery, and generational experiences of womanhood into lyrics that tiptoe between abstract poeticism and diaristic confession. Honeycrush performs live as a four-piece rock band, with Antonopoulos playing solo shows on rare occasions.

Honeycrush’s first headline show sold out Bushwick’s Sleepwalk and a regional tour of the Northeast and Midwest soon followed. Honeycrush and her most recent single, Fruit Is Year Three, were featured on WFUV’s New York Slice highlight.

Honeycrush is planning a more extensive tour with a new EP, Dog The Lamb, slated for release this fall

Est 2011. Pop-Punk/Alternative from Kettering, Ohio. LII isn't just your average Blink-182 cover band. They set out to break the barriers of mainstream genre classification. A vast variety of musical backgrounds and influences combined with energy and passion are what sets this band apart from the rest. After 5 years of writing music, it is clear that Life In Idle is here to stay.

Laced with melodic emo hooks, spiteful lyrics, math-influenced riffs, and full-force rock rhythms, Columbus, OH's Manor Gates, have crafted a debut LP primed and ready to be your next earworm. Griffen Holt (vocals, guitar) and Jeremy Hill (drums) wear their emo-rock influences proudly while charting their course into the next wave of emotional journeymen. Recently rounded out by Matt Silea (bass, vocals), the trio is just starting and will surely be your next obsession. Manor Gates' debut LP "So Much Brooding" out now via Refresh Records/We're Trying Records.
Rock band from Newport, Kentucky, USA

Tooth Lures a Fang is a dynamic Power Pop band from Cincinnati, OH. Their 90s-soaked guitar rock emphasizes satisfying vocal harmony, tight chord progressions, and memorable melodies; making them stand out from other garage rock bands. With a focus on intricate and thoughtful songwriting, they preserve the song's integrity over the tropes of the genre.

Zach Starkie - vocals, guitar

Katy Evers - guitar

Nic Pater - bass, vocals

John Kathman - drums, vocals

Abandoned Malls of America is a midwestern rock band that combines the feel and emotion of classic Midwest Emo with a modern punk energy and grit.

Guitar driven, melodic, and with a cynical edge that most any disillusioned millennial can relate to, this band exists to fill an artistic void. People of this generation openly opine for the emotional and impactful music they grew up with, but mainly through winking nostalgia and meme culture. What if there were bands that picked up the original thread of emo music and carried the torch (in earnest) into corporate life, mortgages, and physical degradation?

Abandoned Malls of America intends to connect with this audience of those wallowing in the same 5 albums from the early aughts. They know those albums will most likely never be usurped, but the chance to find a place alongside these classics is all the band can ask for.

Formed in the fall of 2022, Bear The Moon combines a widely influenced line up of midwestern musicians to create a refreshing indie alternative sound.
Modelo fueled emo/math rock.
Heist is a prog-punk power trio from Cincinnati, Ohio.

@heistohio on all platforms
Sleepy Drums brings together a close knit group of friends who have collaborated for years. This project hones in on the creative focus of J. Stout, the founder of Lo Fi City, a Cincinnati based DIY record label; and channels inspirations ranging from punk, grunge, psych and more.

Beginning as a solo side project, J. Stout crafted the first Sleepy Drums album "Spooky" in 2012. This album served as an experimental outlet, with ranging genre styles. In 2015, J. Stout decided to switch the focus from free form experimentation to garage punk and lo fi indie rock, somewhat in the vein of fellow Ohio rockers Guided By Voices. Once again, he recorded and performed the next Sleepy Drums EP "Lucy" on his own, self-releasing it on Lo Fi City Recordings.

Once both Dinosaurs & Thunder and Little Trees (J. Stout's other bands at the time) began to dissolve, Sleepy Drums emerged to the forefront of creative focus. Calling on long time friends Michael J Hamilton (Revenge Pinata, Flux Capacitors) and Christopher Berning, Stout finally turned the project from a solo endeavor to a full fledged-band, releasing "Cosmic Imagination pt. 1" in late 2015. Joshua Bradbury, known for his bass work in Dinosaurs & Thunder, was added to the lineup in 2016, assuming the rhythm guitar position. 

"Cosmic Imagination pt. 2" was released on August 5, 2018 and expanded their experimentalism while also honing in on their now trademark sound. 

They entered the studio with Todd Uttley to begin recording their next album in 2019, but the pandemic thwarted it's progress, eventually forcing the album to be completed remotely. 

In the meantime of finishing this album, Sleepy Drums released a series of singles, many from the sessions with Todd, that solidified their new sound with much more clarity of vision. 

"Cosmic Scraps," a collection of previously unreleased demos and b-sides was released exclusively to Bandcamp on August 24, 2022. 
Since they started making music in 2023, Cincinnati-based trio Alex Kasznel & The Board of Directors have developed a sound some call “surprisingly un-whiny,” a style they affectionately refer to as “pop punk for grownups.”

Their debut album, Everything Is Important & Nothing Matters was released in May of 2023, and was followed up by their 4-Song EP, Parachute, in December of that year.

moody garage surf rock set to uplifting story topics such as edgar allan poe and nuclear fallouts. you know, normal music.

As It May is an emo trio based in Bellevue, KY. Originally launched as a solo project by guitarist and vocalist Hunter Swope in 2017, the band expanded its lineup in 2021 with the addition of Brian Duffy on bass and backing vocals, and Justin Smith on drums.

Drawing on their heavier influences, As It May is poised to release new music soon. The band has had the honor of sharing the stage with notable acts like Free Throw, Grayscale, Saturdays at Your Place, and Greyhaven.