For the third consecutive year, our friends at Drunken Monkey Promotions are daring to inject some energy into a sweltering SA summer with Monkeyfest, a three-night festival spotlighting some of SA’s finest underground bands.
While there are a few holdovers from last year (Sons of Sancho, White Elefant, Austin’s Muchos Backflips), this year’s festival is notable for the predominance of new faces, with an eclectic lineup featuring the hardcore cantina bop of Piñata Protest (whose members will also try to win themselves a new van this weekend at Sunset Station’s statewide battle of the bands competition), the punky pop of The Typicals, the earnest Americana of Middle Ground, the ambient spaciness of Pop Pistol, the sunny orchestral pop of Cartogaphers, and the emotionally scarred songcraft of former Big Soy frontman John Edds, among others.
It all adds up to a Reader’s Digest distillation of outside-the-box SA music, for a mere $5 a night. Monkeyfest 3 (Rise of the Anti-heroes) runs from Friday, July 10 through Sunday, July 12 at Limelight (2718 N. St. Mary’s). The shows are 21-and-up, and doors open each night at 8 p.m.