As the final day of the Summit rolled around I think I may have been getting my second wind. Its too bad since this was the final day of the fest, however, all good things come to an end. I began the day at Starbucks as mentioned previously where Wendy, and Eric and myself shared a laugh over the Clell Tickle video. Quite hilarious. Then we jumped over to the Alley Cat for free beer and pizza, yes free. And it was very good I must say.

The first performer of the day we took in was singer/songwriter Hayward Williams, who I quite enjoyed with my Bells beer and pizza slice, he did a wonderful cover of Thunder Road, which made the Bonnie Prince Billy- Tortoise version pale in comparison. The next singer/songwriter was only steps away inside the Alley Cat in the aformentioned Vandeveer, also the lead man from The Apparitions. The day did indeed get better with his Dylanesque songs of which I picked up a CDR of. Ill be spinning that very soon.

From there I went over to Indy CD and Vinyl to catch the guys in Brown Shoe. Ive spoken about them here before and they played a quality set despite constant shocks to the lips from the microphone for the lead singer. The afternoon had plenty to offer though and I left the Brown Shoe gig a tad early to head on over to see Pela at the Rouge. These guys played a really great set considering about 10 of us took it in. Shiv, myself, Eric and a handful of others appreciated the effort though. A Pixies cover of Holiday was well received also. Afterwards we found out after talking to the lead singer that he had to catch a plane back to NY to work that night at 9pm bartending. Oh, the indie rock life.

I barely made it back to the Alley Cat afterwards to see the end of local Cincy favorites The Turnbull ACs play under what had now become a blazing sun. I later thanked Dan Meecher for the tunes and for being the hardest working band in Cincinnati. Its a shame more folks didnt take these guys in, though they did play later as well.

And continuing on our afternoon path the next stop was Someone Still Love You Boris Yeltsin over at Connors under one of two tents. Not knowing what these guys looked like and being late caused EJ and I to step into the wrong stage and nod along for about a minute only to realize that we were not hearing SSLYBY. We made it next door though to the correct stage and listened as 4 guys that didnt look a day over 15 rocked out like they were 30. I cant wait for the re-release of Broom from Polyvinyl in the fall.

Back to the run around town and back to Indy CD and Vinyl to check out Forget Cassettes. I had taken their set in at Desdemona a couple months back but this was before I was hooked on “Salt” the newest album from the Nashville three piece. The small record store turned out to be a great place for these guys to pound out some great songs and Im glad EJ and I made the set. Afterwards I got a chance to say hello to the band and tell them I looked forward to the Southgate House show this weekend, (PS, get there!).

By this time, it was not yet 7pm. Yes its true, all that music is that short of a time and more importantly, in Indiana! Good news for people who like….well, you know, music.

My time however was short and so I hopped over to the Secretly Canadian showcase back at The Alley Cat. Early Day Miners played first, followed by Odowas. The sound was not cooperating in the Cat but the bands seemed to make the most of it. And finally, my own personal finale for the evening was the Chicago boys from Catfish Haven. I spoken about them before and it was really great to see them play again. If my hearing and proverbial rock shoes were not yet tapped out the Catfish Haven set brought them there. These guys are not to be missed rock music in its essence. Its a shame they had such a lousy turnout when they came to Cincy last. I later did my best to convince them to come back to Porkopolis sometime in the future, so I hope they come back. And you should as well.

Well, that ends the MMS 2006 coverage from ENS. Had a great weekend and got to know some great folks. Its really amazing that all this took place in Indianapolis, heres to more great rock festivals for years to come.

Technorati Tags: Thunder Road, Alley Cat, Brown Shoe, indie rock, The Turnbull ACs, Southgate House, Catfish Haven, Indianapolis