Musicians take a 'Pit Stop'

Eight nights. Thirty-one bands. Two venues.

The first Pit Stop Music Marathon started March 6 with a performance by The Clovers at the Video Saloon. The marathon will end this Saturday when Murder by Death plays at The Bishop.

Patrons can buy $10 tickets to get into both The Bishop and The Video Saloon on a given night, or can buy a $50 pass for the entire week.

“Shows here are gas stops between Chicago and Nashville,” alumnus Dan Coleman said. “Bloomington is the gas stop of the music industry and the pit stop to South by Southwest.”

Marathon-founder Coleman started Spirit of ’68 Promotions four years ago and since then has brought the majority of artists that have performed in Bloomington, including Neon Indian, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend and more.

But this year, Coleman decided his love of music but unwillingness to travel motivated him to give Bloomington its own music festival on a smaller scale.

“I don’t want to drive to Indy or Cincinnati to see Grizzly Bear, I want to bring them here,” Coleman said. “We have the venues and we have the people so there is no reason we can’t become Athens, Georgia, or Gainesville, Florida, as an offbeat city.”

Coleman said having record stores and labels, house shows, various venues and more help put Bloomington on the map.

“A lot of the bands don’t know what it is but once they get here, they are excited to play the show,” Coleman said.

From the beginning days of Spirit of ’68 Promotions to now, Coleman said there has been an increase in quality and amount of shows.

“Joanna Newsom is not going to St. Louis, but she is coming here,” Coleman said. “We are going from being a place that occasionally got shows to a place that makes other cities envious.”

Choosing both nationally touring acts as well as local bands was important for the festival, Coleman said.

“We don’t want to make it something where we are excluding bands in Bloomington because we have a music scene that needs to be highlighted,” he said.

Coleman said it is Bloomington’s small-town reputation that makes it a struggle when trying to convince bands to stop by.

“We have to prove ourselves when they come here. A good turnout is really important,” he said.

Graduate student Elizabeth Mortenson said she was excited to have people stopping in the Midwest instead of up and down the east and west coasts.

“It’s awesome for people who can’t drive to Texas for South by Southwest,” Mortenson said. “It’s cheaper than driving all the way to Austin.”

However, Mortenson’s friend and graduate student Andy White will attend the South by Southwest Festival, which falls during spring break, unlike the Pit Stop, which both Mortenson and White said interfered with school.

“I don’t think it’s bad that they did it during the week, but it’s bad that they did it this week because people have midterms. But it’s a nice relief from school,” White said.
Coleman said the mild overlap between performances at both venues allows patrons to see the majority of the shows. But this frustrated junior Taylor Swaim.

“To run back and forth is kind of annoying so maybe they could cut back the number of bands,” Swaim said. “And kids are being discouraged because they can’t go to shows at the Vid.”

Despite some of the critiques, Coleman is happy with the turnout and looks forward to next year’s music marathon.

“It is a learning process. When all over I’ll say what could I have improved, but I’m just going to ride it out,” Coleman said. “The crowds have been good, the bands have been good, so we’ll see how it goes.”