All the Info You Need to Know About the International Pop Overthrow!

This weekend head out to the Lager House for the International Pop Overthrow. This festival is now in it's seventh year in Detroit, but actually started in L.A. sixteen years ago. It features a ton of different "pop" bands, most of which are from the area with a few out-of-towners occasionally. This year's Detroit IPO will kick off on Thursday, April 24th and runs through Saturday, April 26th. There are a ton of great bands on it, such as The Paper Sound, The Static Dial, The Bruised Reed and Blaire Alise & The Bombshells. You can check out the lineups and set times below.

Thursday, April 24:
7:30 Vox Vera
8:15 The Paths
9:00 The Paper Sound
9:45 The Static Dial
10:30 Greater Alexander
11:15 Max Pain and The Groovies

Friday, April 25:
7:30 Matt Fig
8:15 The Bruised Reed
9:00 The Romeo Flynns
9:45 The Secrets
10:30 The Tearaways
11:15 Blaire Alise & The Bombshells
12:00 The Blue Squares

Saturday, April 26 (afternoon):
1:00 Thumbs Up
1:45 Walter Senko
2:30 Andy Klingensmith
3:15 Chris Degnore and the Black Drops
4:00 Dave Rave
4:45 Jeremy

Saturday, April 26 (evening):
7:30 The Starfire Band
8:15 The Pounders
9:00 The Legal Matters
9:45 The Sugar Clouds
10:30 Fireking
11:15 Shapes & Colors
12:00 The Dives

Admission to the evening shows is $10/day and 21+ are welcome. For the Saturday afternoon show it's only $8 and 18+ can get in. We wanted to learn a little more about this fun festival, so we went right to the source, IPO founder David Bash. Here's what he had to say.

HID- What is the International POP Overthrow? What can someone that has never been to this event expect?

David- "International Pop Overthrow is a pop music festival which I started in 1998, in Los Angeles, and have since expanded to more than 15 cities throughout the U.S., Canada and the UK. IPO (as it's affectionately known) features some of the best pop and rock bands from around the world. Anyone who comes to an IPO show can expect to discover some amazing pop music; there are a lot of talented bands out there who, due to the nature of the industry, haven't been discovered even though they are more than worthy. Each IPO festival features several bands who fall into that category."

HID- How do you choose the bands that play this festival?
David- "I, along with my girlfriend, Rina Bardfield, do exhaustive searching on the internet, looking on sites like Bandcamp, Facebook, Reverbnation, etc...to find bands who do the kind of melodic rock 'n roll that we showcase at the festival. Most of the bands who play in a particular city are local to that city to ensure that we have sizeable crowds, but we also like to have at least a handful of bands from outside of the area to add to the variety and exoticism of the festival. The one exception is IPO Liverpool, at which we have bands from all over the world, because it's held at the World Famous Cavern Club, where every Beatles fan wants to play...and let's face it, just about every IPO band is fans of The Beatles!"

HID- The first IPO was in LA. Now you have spanned out to several different cities. How did you choose all of the cities?
David- "It's necessary that each city have a strong local base of pop bands. If a city doesn't meet that criterion I won't do it there because, sadly, there won't be enough people who are curious enough to come to the shows."

HID- How does the Detroit IPO compare to IPO in other cities? Which is your favorite spot?
David- "Detroit has a very healthy scene; while not as big as those in Chicago or Los Angeles, for example, it's very strong, and has a lot of amazing bands! Plus, PJ's Lager House, where we're holding IPO Detroit, is a really cool place and PJ is an excellent club owner!
My favorite spots to do IPO are Liverpool, because we have some of the cream of pop bands from around the world, and Vancouver, because it too has a healthy scene and is my fave city in the world!"

HID- Any bands that you are particularly looking forward to in Detroit?
David- "All of them, and if that's a diplomatic answer, so be it (wink)!"

HID- Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?
David- "Yes, indeed. I want your readers to know that, while they may not recognize many of the bands on the IPO Detroit bill, if they're fans of melodic rock 'n roll music which is inspired by the '60s and '70s, while not necessarily being derivitive, they really should come out to the festival because they will discover some amazing music! I can't tell you how many people, after hearing one of our compilation CDs, tell me "wow, I can't believe that there are bands who still do this kind of music". Well, there are, and I'm proud to say that most of them can be found at the IPO festival!"

For more details head to IPO's website at InternationalPopOverthrow.com or visit the Facebook event page here.

~C