Secret Saturday Festival

For the past year, one of the most pleasant places in town to see live music has been the patio at Shady Tavern on the northern edge of the Heights. Every Saturday afternoon, rain or shine, DJs warm up the crowd before three or four local bands (plus occasional out-of-town friends) play for free. The promoters' policy of not announcing the lineup beforehand ensures a surprise — these are Secret Saturday Shows, after all — but just about every local band worth seeing has played at some point: a partial list includes Teenage Kicks, Sabra Laval, Alarma!, the Factory Party, Sew What, Elaine Greer, Perseph One, the Tontons, Mathletes, Blades, Black Black Gold, the Wild Moccasins, Monocles, AWAKE, Fat Tony, Lenny Briscoe, Giant Princess, the Jonbenet, Nosaprise, You(Genious), Young Mammals and Buxton. (Whew.) To mark its first anniversary, Secret Saturday Shows is throwing a two-day festival. Naturally, organizers are being coy about who exactly is playing, but they do promise more than 30 bands, many of whom are doubtless listed above. And although there is a cover this time — $3 per day or $5 for both — it's still pretty hard to beat.