Beaten path

During Reno band Failure Machine’s performance at last year’s Off Beat Music Festival, attendees packed Pignic Pub & Patio to the point of people hanging out the open windows. In fact, when front man Spencer Kilpatrick stepped out to get some air before his set, he almost didn’t make it back in to play.

“Last year at Pignic got real rowdy,” Kilpatrick said. “I had to have one of my buddies step out. So, you know—one in, one out.”

Failure Machine will return for the fourth Off Beat Music Festival this year, and Kilpatrick is one of the organizers. Taking place from Nov. 8 through 10 and occupying dozens of venues with over 100 performances from local and out-of-town bands, Off Beat began to hit its stride last year, according to co-founder and festival organizer Flip Wright.

“I feel like last year was kind of a tipping point, a little bit, where we had lines at our venues, which was a new experience for us,” Wright said. “I think this year, more than any year we’ve had so far, we know that there are people coming. And bands, actually, this year, for the first time, seem to be bringing contingents of people with them.”

Wright, a life-long music fan, grew up in Reno before moving to Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest for grad school. After his return over a decade ago, he and his business partner Baldo Bobadilla set out to create a city-wide music festival &#;agrave; la Austin’s South by Southwest or Boise’s Treefort Music Fest.

“It’s irritating that our local music scene doesn’t get recognized as well as it should, and it’s irritating when out-of-market bands don’t come to Reno because they’re not really aware of what the scene is either,” Wright said. “So, if we’re able to, over the course of a weekend, bring 100 bands to Reno, you know, 60 to 70 of which might be from out of town who haven’t played here before, then, with each year, that number grows pretty rapidly. So, now we will have booked over 400 bands to play Reno, to play Off Beat, in the past four years.”

One of those bands is Up is the Down is The, founded by Reno transplant Andrew Martin, who will play Off Beat for the first time this year. Martin has lived in Boise for the past three years and has played Treefort Music Fest every year since he moved there.

“It takes over all of downtown Boise for four or five days, and they have everything from music to food to film to art installations to poetry to actually creating art on a canvas, and then they have a bunch of speakers come from all over the world and musicians from all over the world come and share their talents,” Martin said.

To Martin, Treefort makes sense as a model for Off Beat because of the cultural similarities between Reno and Boise.

“[They have] similar music scenes—really, really tight knit music scenes and a huge variety, and they all work together,” Martin said. “So, in that sense, Reno and Boise are definitely the same. I used to say that the comparison between the two is Reno and Boise are like siblings, and Boise is like the sibling that has its shit together, and Reno just kind of has fun a lot more often.”

This year, Off Beat concerts will be concentrated around midtown and California Avenue to make them easily accessible by walking, Wright said. He’s expecting around 4,000 attendees. Artists from similar genres or labels will play at the same venues. Wristbands will provide attendees different levels of access over the three-day festival, and are priced from $10 to $119. (Full disclosure: RN&R editor Brad Bynum will perform with one of the dozens of groups at this year’s Off Beat.)

“I think that there’s just an organic nature to all of this,” Wright said. “Like, we know that certain people want to go to Shea’s, and they expect to hear certain music. Certain people want to go to the Loving Cup and have a certain experience. If we’re going to bring in awesome punk or heavy metal bands, let’s put them where they’re going to feel the most comfortable or the most welcome.”

Band together

Guy Keltner, front man for soul/rock band Acid Tongue and founder of Freakout Records in Seattle, will be returning to the Loving Cup this year with a contingent of artists associated with his label and their accompanying music festival, Freakout Festival.

“Freakout Fest is now the week after Off Beat, so the last two years it’s really become a great working relationship as far as booking goes,” Keltner said. “These things do wonders, you develop relationships, too, with people. And I think that’s what happens whether we’re hitting Reno or Boise or Seattle. When you do it regularly, you start seeing the same faces, and people start showing up who know the lyrics, which is amazing.”

Keltner said that smaller, independent music festivals like Off Beat are an easy way for bands to increase their exposure to different markets and make relationships with local musicians that could be mutually beneficial—or even just mutually appreciative.

“I’m just attending it as a fan really,” Keltner said. “Like, our stage is our stage, and I’m on that night, you know, as a Freakout and a band representative, but every other night that we’re there, and when I’m walking around town, I’m just enjoying everything.”

Off Beat’s visibility as a showcase of Reno’s musical talent comes at a time when the city itself is suffering some growing pains. But Wright and his team think Off Beat serves as an open invitation to the West Coast to partake in all of what Reno has to offer.

“I think we’re growing at the right time as a festival as the city is growing as a city,” Wright said. “I think those two things are in tune with each other. We talk about a love for Reno without trying to sell Reno. I think we’re all passionate, and we want to see Reno be successful. I think we all feel growing pains and understand that there are those people who do and don’t like what’s happening, but we can’t really do anything about that. I really will never apologize for this place, ever, in any sense of the word.”

Some musicians, like San Francisco-based Thomas Johnson of the band Killer Whale, have found an appreciation for Reno as a regular tour stop through Off Beat. Its capacity for after-parties makes the festival unique as well.

“Last year, it was a packed show at Off Beat,” Johnson said. “Since then it just seems like we’ve been growing crowds in Reno. It reminds me of South By [Southwest] in a smaller, cooler way, honestly. And I like playing there. I like Reno. I like the late-night vibe. I like being able to play a late show and then hang out after that as well.”

To Reno acts like three-piece garage rock outfit Basha, however, touring opportunities are more than welcome. They made connections at last year’s Off Beat that made some out-of-town shows possible.

“For us, it’s not really about selling merch or the follower count,” said guitarist Amber Scala. “I think the cool thing about Off Beat, as a local band, is getting to represent our city and getting to meet bands from all over the place and kind of introduce them to the city and our music scene and what it has to offer.”

The Reno arts community should be the primary draw of an event like Off Beat, according to Bryan McAllister, whose modern jazz band Very Stable Genius will play the festival for the first time this year.

“I think the thing that all music festivals need in their infancy is the support of the community,” McAllister said. “If my music can be played for 45 minutes on one of those nights, and I get to be a part of it in that way, then hopefully it’s a way in which I can give back to what I have reaped the benefits of for years, which is an important and supportive and talented music community here in Reno.”