Secrets of the Magic City: Secret Stages Festival 2019
By: Adam Jackson
The Secret Stages Music Discovery Festival will return in 2019 to make magic once again in the Magic City. While you might not yet have heard of Secret Stages, If this year’s crop of artists have their way, it won’t stay a secret for long.
For those unfamiliar with Secret Stages, the festival itself features more than 50 bands over the Aug. 2-3 weekend, and is spread out over multiple venues in the city, all within walking distance of once another. Ostensibly, the most logical comparison you might make would be to that of South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. You wouldn’t be wrong to unofficially subtitle Secret Stages “South By Southeast.” In the current events climate, it is beyond crucial to have the spotlight of diversity shone upon the 22nd state.
Geographically speaking, the festival is a nationwide draw, featuring not only acts native to Birmingham and other cities in Alabama, but from as far away as Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York. Sonically speaking, the performers slated to appear this year appeal to a variety of tastes: dreamy, introspective, ‘70s AM gold-esque lounge pop from Faye Webster (Atlanta); and fuzzy, shoe-gazey indie rock from Unwed Sailor (Tulsa, Oklahoma and Birmingham), Easter Island (Atlanta, GA), Partials (Athens, Georgia), and The Bouquets (more Birmingham peeps). Country-tinged rock comes courtesy of Young Valley (Jackson, MS) and Lily Hiatt (Nashville, TN), who take their audiences back to that last golden age of modern country music, the early 1990s, before the bro country virus took hold. And if you weren’t convinced to give them a listen, Hiatt is also the daughter of esteemed singer-songwriter John Hiatt. Also, Dazz & Brie (Little Rock, AR) will bring their brand of Forever 21-worthy dance funk.
If you’re looking for a more traditional country sound, local lovely Taylor Hunnicut is a refreshing take on “traditional” country music, albeit from a non-traditional perspective. You’ll want to grab a straw hat, a bottle of tequila and sit on the porch of a shack in the desert somewhere, isolated from most everyone and with nary a smart device in sight. There will also be more hip-hop than you can shake a proverbial stick at. WesDaRuler (Athens, Georgia) will appeal to the Outkast lover in all of us, while john.Average (Atlanta) has a flow sweet enough to cause diabetes and enough introspection and self-examination to give a listener the option to put his lyrics under a microscope, or simply zone out and enjoy. King I & Scienze (Brooklyn) harkens back to a Tribe Called Quest and early Nas, when lyrical intelligence was paramount to respect in the genre. There should be no shortage of club bangers and rump shakers at Secret Stages 2019.
This year’s participating venues include: 41st Street Pub (21+); Avondale Brewery (featuring an outdoor stage as well as an upstairs room, both open to all ages); Saturn (18+); and The Hangar, which is owned and operated by 41st Street Pub. A map has been provided of the area and venues, courtesy of Secret Stages.
One of the cooler features of the Secret Stages website this year is the ability to sort the schedule by time or venue, so you can decide for yourself whether to bar hop or stay at one spot for the evening. Opportunities to take in so many different artists in such a compact radius come along about as often as a comet sighting, and Secret Stages will more than deliver in 2019. Tickets are available now at Secretstages.com for “early bird” purchasers (although one price point had sold out at the time of this writing) and more will be available on the days the event is held.
