Chix Rock

Three shows in three days. An estrogen-powered festival with local bands and touring regional acts. Country, electronica, opera, folk, hardcore and rock -- lots of rock. Certainly enough to name a festival after.\nBloomington's own Chix Rock festival kicks off tonight and continues through Saturday. While the festival is certainly an opportunity for some of Indiana's most talented ladies to flex their creative muscles, it is also an event centered around nurturing -- a community of care.\nProfits from the event will go to benefit the Middle Way House, Rhino's Youth Program and United Food Pantries -- programs aimed at people whose home lives are less than idealistic.\n"The American family has changed, so the community has to kind of take the place of it now," says Bloomington resident and festival organizer Amy Kincaid. "You gotta take care of the kids, you gotta repair the damaged family unit. It's kind of a weird thing, but I feel this is part of that, where before you had the familial backup, which you don't have now. You gotta turn to other sources. I don't have money to give, but I have time, so that's the currency I'm dealing with."\nWhat initially began as Kincaid's quest to find an inexpensive way to kill time this summer has culminated in a festival featuring 23 bands from across the state and the region, spanning all influences and all genres of music.\n"I started out by myself," says Kincaid, who is also the rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist of ChuckMarten, a half-female quartet scheduled to play both Friday and Saturday. "It was kind of a spontaneous thing. At first I didn't know what I was really doing. It was all kind of by the seat of my pants." \nAs commitment to the festival became more serious and word began to spread, bands began pounding down the doors, asking to play. Kincaid says while some were drawn by the temptation of an all-female festival, others simply wanted to help the cause. And what was originally planned to be a small showcase for a dozen bands quickly grew.\nFestival sponsor WIUS, which held a preview concert and radio interview last Friday, says it tries to be supportive of any and all efforts at building the local music scene and the Chix Rock festival is no exception.\n"The station has a relationship with the local scene where we support them and, as a result, we hope we get support from them," says WIUS program director junior Erik Johnson. "We both gain from it.\n"WIUS is here to promote independent music, and there's nothing more independent than what these people are doing."\nWhile the artists playing at the Chix Rock festival are all female or female-fronted, that is where the similarities end. While the festival does not boast a clear headlin act, good nominations include Chicago hardcore punk standouts Mary Tyler Morphine, Washington, D.C.'s Polyplush Cats and Fort Wayne's the Beautys, which features former Bloomingtonian and Smears member Chica Baby.\nThe festival also mixes up the influences. Ann McWilliams is most easily classified as country; IU opera singer Mary Black is playing right before Indianapolis electronica act FUZZ. For every one of folk singer Emily Wells' soft vocal lines, the hardcore front women of Perfect Nothing and Mary Tyler Morphine will counter with their harsh yet passionate voices.\n"Some of the static I got was 'You can't mix it up like that because the crowds don't like this mixed together,'" says Kincaid. "But that's what's cool. You don't get to see that too often."\nOverall, Kincaid says, performers and attendees are likewise excited about the show, and she is confident it will be a success.\n"It's just a chance for everyone to come out and see the girls," she says.\nFor a complete list of bands and venues, see the concert calendar, page 14.