Metro Weekly

All Things Go debuts a festival of pop acts worth discovering

“We see our work as early adopters as far as getting behind bands, hopefully getting music out early,” All Things Go‘s Will Suter says. “We certainly pride ourselves on a certain level of discovery.”

Over the past three years, Suter has helped the D.C.-based All Things Go grow from its roots as a music-promoting website and blog to a presenter of concerts — both locally, at venues such as the 9:30 Club and U Street Music Hall, and nationally at leading indie-music festivals South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin and CMJ Music Marathon in New York.

Future Islands Photo by Tim Saccenti
Future Islands – Photo: Tim Saccenti

This weekend the company launches the first festival of its own on the covered outdoor stage at D.C.’s hip Union Market. The lineup at this Fall Classic is a strong showcase of many of the most buzzed-about indie bands around — and well beyond buzz generated by All Things Go itself, or even Pitchfork Media, which is the model for this D.C. company as it works “to kind of blend the online and the off-line music worlds.”

For the Fall Classic, All Things Go enlisted Baltimore’s Future Islands as headliners after catching the great new wave-inspired band at this year’s SXSW — to say nothing of its lead singer’s wildly captivating performance last February on The Late Show with David Letterman. They also recruited new Swedish starlet Tove Lo, currently getting radio airplay on both DC101 and Hot 99.5 in an alternative-to-mainstream crossover pattern that Suter compares to Lorde or Ellie Goulding. Washington is represented by the pure rock band US Royalty and the pure pop sound of songstress Young Summer. Suter sees bright new New York electro-pop act Panama Wedding as the next Bear Hands or Haerts, two additional Fall Classic acts that All Things Go started presenting years ago, well before they became sell-out sensations at clubs and festivals around the country. Festival goers can say they heard Panama Wedding here first — which is the point.

Says Suter: “I think a lot of people really trust our brand and what we’re doing, so much so that they may not know the artist, but they’ll…come out and see the band and hopefully fall in love.”

All Things Go Fall Classic 2014 Schedule:

Young Summer 12 p.m.
Sun Club 12:50 p.m.
Panama Wedding  1:50 p.m.
U.S. Royalty 2:40 p.m.
Bear Hands 4 p.m.
Haerts 5:10 p.m.
Tove Lo 6:55 p.m.
Future Islands 8:40 p.m.
 

Plus DJS B-Roc (of the Knocks) and Lightwaves

All Things Go Fall Classic is Saturday, Sept. 13, starting at noon, at Dock 5 at Union Market, 1309 5th St. NE. Tickets are $50 in advance or $60 day-of. Call 800-680-9095 or visit allthingsgofallclassic.com.

 

Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism

These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!