Iron Chic plays at Breakin’ Even Fest in March 2016 (Photo by Jake Cunningham/Courage Music Photography).
After hundreds packed the house at Songbyrd in Adams Morgan for the inaugural Breakin’ Even Fest last March, it was almost fate that organizers Steven Rovery and Bryan Flowers would ask themselves, “why not do this again?”
“We were happy with the outcome last year, so we were like, let’s see if we can reach a little further and pull some artists that aren’t East Coast bands into the bill,” says Rovery.
Breakin’ Even Fest 2, set for this upcoming weekend, has indeed drawn more far-flung talent. Ohio alternative rockers The Sidekicks and Toronto punk quartet Pkew Pkew Pkew will headline on Friday, May 5, while Philadelphia-based shoegaze punks Restorations and Brooklyn’s Worriers are the featured artists for Saturday night.
Joining them will be a mélange of other punk, rock, and indie artists, from locals like D.C. rock vets Dot Dash, Alexandria-based alt-rockers Flowerbomb and all-woman trio More AM Than FM, to visiting acts like female-fronted Dead End Lane from Baltimore, Richmond grunge punks Teen Death and New Jersey’s Honah Lee and Aspiga. Rovery and Flowers’ melodic punk group American Television is also playing Saturday, making the the only alumni band from 2016.
Last year’s lineup was heavier on the punk side, says Rovery. To pick a more diverse lineup this year, he and Flowers say they looked to their band’s influences for ideas.
“We like music that’s all over, granted it’s all kind of in the spirit of DIY and independent music,” says Flowers. “We used those inspirations that shape our band to shape our festival.”
The format will be the same, with two days’ worth of shows buzzing in the basement of Songbyrd, the café-record store-concert venue housed in a historic building near 18th Street and Columbia Road. The space fits about 200 people, an ideal fit for a DIY showcase, artists say.
Songbyrd “has that communal house venue vibe, which for DIY bands is really great,” says Flowerbomb lead singer Rachel Kline, “but then you also have the benefit of having really good sound and a big enough space where you can play for more people than you would be able to in a house venue.”
Restorations frontman Jon Loudon looks forward to playing a more intimate space than some of the ones where his band has performed on tour.
“It’s not just like you’re in a weird space with lights blasting your eyes and you can’t see or hear anybody,” he says of Songbyrd’s size. “You’re able to have a conversation, an evening with those people. That’s a special experience—it doesn’t happen a ton.”
Another key change this year is the age limit. Last year’s festival was 18+, with minors allowed in only with a chaperone. This time around, Flowers says they wanted to keep it open to all.
“All-ages events obviously have a huge part in the history of punk rock and independent music,” says Flowers. “We want to be able to advertise and yell from the mountaintops, ‘This is open to everybody,’ because we were all those kids looking for something to do at one point. We don’t want to exclude them from this experience at all.”
It’s no small task to set up a music festival like this, particularly a diverse DIY showcase spanning two nights. That’s not lost on the artists in this year’s lineup.
“This is entirely to their credit,” says Dot Dash guitarist and lead vocalist Terry Banks of Rovery and Flowers. “Stuff like that doesn’t happen unless somebody does it. They’re doing it—they’re not talking about it, they’re actually doing it, which is very cool.”
Aside from PBR, the sponsors for this year’s festival are all local or small businesses “somehow connected to the local music scene,” says Rovery. They include Furnace Record Pressing in Fairfax, CD Cellar in Falls Church and NoiseKICK FX custom guitar pedals in Baltimore.
Asked whether they’d like to build a larger tradition, he and Flowers say that’d be great, so long as it keeps its DIY roots.
“I would always want to challenge us to do bigger and better,” says Rovery. “But at the same time, I would hate for it to become a corporate event—not just put on, like, the ‘Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Rock n’ Roll Concert.’”
Tickets for Breakin’ Even Fest 2 are on sale for $15 per night ($30 for both) online, or for $18 per night ($35 for both) at the door on Friday, May 5, and Saturday, May 6. Doors open at 7 p.m. Songbyrd Music House and Record Café is located at 2475 18th St., NW in Adams Morgan.
