Midwest Friends Fest is back for year two in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area. Once again taking over Southgate House Revival on May 28-30 (tickets), the festival brings together an incredible and diverse mix of national and regional acts for two days of loud guitars, DIY spirit, and the kind of community you only find in independent music scenes. With artists like Teens in Trouble, Little Low, The 1984 Draft and Tooth Lures a Fang joining dozens more across multiple stages, Midwest Friends Fest is shaping up to be another unforgettable weekend.
This year, MWFF is treating the lineup like a pack of trading cards where each band is its own collectible piece of the Midwest Friends Fest universe. In the lead-up to the festival, we’re spotlighting the artists one by one so you can get to know the players before the doors open. Next up in the set: Hit Like A Girl
For anyone discovering you for the first time… what should our readers know about Hit Like A Girl? What’s one song in your catalog that feels most important to you personally or best displays your sound and voice, even if it isn’t the one people know best?
Your readers should know that Hit Like a Girl is more than a band at this point, it feels like a community. I’ve never been able to secure a permanent lineup of bandmates, so it feels like this beautiful collective of whomever’s available at the time fills in. You’ll never see the same HLAG set twice, that’s for sure. My favorite song of ours currently is You’re Giving Up, the first one on our new forthcoming record titled Burning At Both Ends which comes out 3/27.
You’re gearing up for Midwest Friends Fest. What does the festival circuit mean to artists like you right now… especially festivals that feel community-driven rather than industry-driven?
I feel like the festival circuit for us personally means everything if we want to keep touring. Much like everything else in life, touring has gotten even more expensive for smaller DIY bands, and is wildly unsustainable. So if there’s a festival included on our tour route, it sort of helps make the whole thing a bit more worth it for us financially. We’re taking time off work to do these tours, I’m paying for all the expenses out of pocket such as van rental, per diems, merch costs, gas, tolls, gear, lodging, insurance, etc. So when you’re 8 days into a tour, you’re smelly, hungry, and broke, and you roll up to a festival and see all these beautiful people who want to care for you, or you see your friends from across the country you only ever see at these festivals, it feels like such a light at the end of the tunnel.
Your work with No More Dysphoria is incredibly impactful. In what ways do you see music and advocacy intersecting in your life right now?
I feel like I just don’t have anything important to say. There’s a 100000+ bands/artists out there. We don’t need any more whiny emo songs about ex girlfriends (Every HLAG song to exist). If you’re going to give ANY artist a microphone, in my opinion, they better damn well use it, and use it for good. Speak up about things that are important and actually matter. My ex girlfriend doesn’t matter, but advocating for trans equality absolutely does.
When someone discovers Hit Like A Girl for the first time, what do you hope they feel… or feel less alone in… after listening?
My cynical goal is I always hope someone gets emotional listening to these songs. My favorite songs to listen to are the ones that are just absolutely gut wrenching, heartaching, love, or love lost, songs, and I always want to be able to write that way. So anyone experiencing any sort of monumental loss, I hope they know that I’m right there with them in solidarity.
Hit Like A Girl feels deeply personal while also carrying a strong sense of purpose. How do you balance self-expression with the responsibility of representing broader experiences in your music?
I guess I’ve never thought of it that way. In my personal life, I don’t really have any friends or people I feel like I can talk to besides my therapist, so songwriting becomes my journal, my outlet, my avenue for expressing myself, and have always used it in that way.
When it comes to live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the MWFF crowd? Ideally, what do you want people to say about your set when they’re driving home or texting friends who skipped it?
Like I said before, I want people to feel emotional. I want people to have an experience. I love watching funny banter as much as the next guy, but when I’m watching bands, and they’re able to basically transcend me into this different kind of inner-body experience, that makes me question things or reflect, that’s what I hope people feel when they watch us.
Punk, ska, and indie scenes have long been leaders in inclusion and community, yet gatekeeping still creeps in. Why do you think these scenes can feel so welcoming on one hand and so closed-off on the other?
Hmm good question. I think it has something to do with people being obsessed with labeling things/people. For example, I identify as a queer trans-masc nonbinary person. I don’t feel particularly comfortable existing in all cis-gay male spaces OR all cis-lesbian female spaces. I feel like because I am not 100% living my life as “male,” other men don’t see me as one of them, and reject me. And also, I don’t identify as 100% “female,” so lesbians reject me, the “man,” from their spaces. So it feels the same with punks. It’s like if you’re not “punk enough,” you get the side-eye. Which goes against everything “punk” is supposed to be in the first place! It’s supposed to be about rejecting the norm, so invite as many freaks as you can if you asked me.
Midwest Friends Fest has a reputation for feeling intimate even as it grows. What makes a festival feel “right” to you as an artist?
Seeing a diverse crowd, a diverse lineup, and seeing folks who are marginalized get priortity.
Post-show, stereotypically Midwestern empty field, questionable bonfire, everyone’s tired but happy… what song are you covering?
AJ’s by Park (no one knows it lol)
MWFF is stacked. Which bands are you most excited to see, and are there any you’re hoping to connect with offstage as well?
I’m excited to see a bunch of bands I’ve never heard of before tbh.
Once MWFF wraps up, what’s next for Hit Like A Girl? New music, touring, a reset, or something unexpected?
We are putting out a new album on March 27th and are announcing a bunch more Fests and tours in the Fall >:) I’m also booking us a Europe run in 2027.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/