[Flyer courtesy of Hudson Forman]

By Grace Koennecke, Columns Editor

This weekend, ACRN’s annual student-run music festival, Lobsterfest, is back at The Union during the height of spring. Running from March 31 to April 2, this year’s festival has a stacked lineup coming to southeast Ohio, with nationally known and local acts taking the stage.

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The event’s performers include established groups such as Wednesday, The Bobby Lees and Greet Death, as well as regional and local talent Six Flags Guy, BABYWAVE, The Fibonacci Fellas, Kaiba, book not brooke, coralilly, and FOREST FUCKER. 

Wednesday have been dropping music throughout 2023, including songs such as “Bath County,” “Chosen to Deserve” and “Bull Believer” via Dead Oceans. The band made their breakthrough in 2021 after their third album Twin Plagues gained critical acclaim for its combination of genres such as country and shoegaze. Wednesday released their newest single from their forthcoming album. “TV in the Gas Pump” is available to stream now ahead of the release of Rat Saw God on April 7.

Recently, the group was featured on Pitchfork’s website, with the publication saying, “Bull Believer captures the immediacy and intuition that defines Wednesday. The band builds each song together, standing in a circle and filling in their own parts. The creative leaps between each of their records are a testament to their expanding connection as bandmates and individual musicians.”

Meanwhile, The Bobby Lees are from Woodstock, N.Y., serving as a four piece band. They recently released their album Bellevue in the fall through Ipecac Recordings. Guitar World has described their music as “deliciously sleazy garage rock… that recalls the spit and vigor of CBGBs in the ‘70s.” 

Greet Death, hailing from Michigan, released Dixieland in 2017 followed by New Hell in 2019. “Pedalboard gawkers might show up to a Greet Death gig a half-hour earlier to get a look at their distortion rig, but New Hell isn’t dirty or grimy itself, more comparable to heavy machinery coming up against the stubbornness of nature,” Pitchfork says of New Hell. Last year, the band released an EP consisting of five songs titled New Low.

Wednesday will be Friday’s headliner, while The Bobby Lees and Great Death will play for fans as the following day’s headliners at The Union. There will also be a Sunday brunch show at Galbreath Chapel.

Sponsors of Lobsterfest include Donkey Coffee and Espresso and Precision Imprint. Tickets for Lobsterfest are $8 for 21+ attendees and $10 for those underage.