Summer Daze, a one-night music festival at Wave, will feature eight bands from Kansas.
The bill is a collaborative effort between Trever Taylor of The Skeptics and Colton Cox of Afro Jim. Six other bands will perform at the 18-and-over concert, including Wichita's Fairweather Friends, In;Retrospect and Kapybara. Lawrence groups Stone Grower, The Dear Misses and Sweet Ascent will also join in.
The concert is Friday, May 24, at the Wave, 650 E. Second St. Taylor and Cox recently stopped by the KMUW studios to discuss the concert.
Interview Highlights
What was the origin of Summer Daze?
Trever Taylor: My band, The Skeptics, played a random show at Wave and the manager, Frannie [Pacheco], reached out and said, "Do you want to get on this lineup real quick?" It was a week before the show, so we had zero time to prepare for it but we went and did it anyways. It was super fun. Frannie really liked us. So I thought, "Why not just plan something big here?" It's a big enough venue and there's a lot of great bands in Wichita that not really a lot of people know about. Also some bands from out of town: The Dear Misses, Sweet Ascent, Stone Grower.
This is a chance for you to hear a bunch of bands maybe you haven't before and that's exciting, right?
Colton Cox: We get a lot of traveling bands that come through Wichita from all over the country. All of the bands that we have on this list are from Kansas, so it's cool to have a local … even if it's a statewide type of festival and get to hear some bands from other places in Kansas.
What are some of the more difficult things, logistically, in doing this?
CC: I think the most fun that we had—fun with air quotes around it—was trying to figure out how we were going to fit eight bands into four, five hours. I guess it's longer than that. We spent a week-and-a-half trying to figure out how [to do it]. We wanted everyone to be able to play longer sets, at least 45-minute sets. It just didn't, logistically, work out, but we ended up getting it to where everybody can play a half hour set and then the last three bands, I think, are playing a little bit longer. Those are some of the out-of-town bands as well.
There's a logic that says bills shouldn't be more bands. When you think about something like that and know that peoples' attention spans aren't that long, how do you approach that in a situation like this?
TT: I just hope that people want to go. Just to see all these new groups. I can't realistically expect that. I'm just hoping that everyone comes out, just to support as long as they can. If people stay for the whole time, great.
CC: If we're talking about attention spans, I mean, each band's set is going to be like half an hour. That's like five songs, maybe six. If you're trying to get a little sampler, a little taste of each band, that's the perfect situation to do so rather than having to set through an hour-long set.
Jedd Beaudoin is the host of Strange Currency. Follow him on Twitter @JeddBeaudoin. To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.
