A Review of Unicity Musical Festival
Unicity Peforming Arts Festival Invades Middletown, DE
by Kristyn Clarke and Julie Kissane:

This past weekend the Unicity Performing Arts Festival took place in Middletown, DE bring over one hundred artists of all varieties to play for the enjoyment of the small town. PCM had the opportunity to check out the festivities and we were quite impressed. We agree with the mission statement and say that diversity is the perfect word to describe the overall atmosphere. For example, on one particular stage, there were rock acts such as The Crash Motive and The Grilled Lincolns, Funk/Blues band The Kelly Bell Band, and musical theater acts from the Premier Center for the Performing Arts, and Doug Graham all together, so it could best be described as a musical buffet.

There was something for every musical taste. There were five stages set up across the town, at times it was difficult to figure out which artist to check out, however it seemed that all the performers gave their all and each stage brought the same diversity and variety to the complete the festivals goal. We enjoyed many of the acts on the Variety Stage such as Ska band Childlike Faith and rock bands John Trainor Trio and Cubane.

The festival was met with a small amount of controversy over one of the head lining performers, film director John Waters, who performed his "This Filthy World" lecture at the festival. He had about 100 people at his venue - which was very far from the actual fesitval - so that wasn't too cool, but people said he was hilarious.

For such an amazing concept and goal behind a festival, the crowds were disappointing and sparse. The purpose of the festival was aimed at uniting different races, sexes and cultures through the diversity of the performing arts. Sounds so fabulous, right? Sadly, stages were awkwardly spread out and we felt bad for some of the bands that would be playing for 10 people in a tent at times. The bands that performed there were too good to keep hidden, it was a shame.

100 artists came out and played during the 12 hour day for this first ever performing arts festival. Local radio stations and food vendors came out to support the festival and PCM tasted some of the best crab cakes we've ever had there, that's for sure! The festival did a great job with how fast they would get bands on and off the stage; I'll give them that, it was very organized. We've highlighted some bands that completely blew us away.

We saw our good pal Ian Walsh perform with his drummer Cam Tyler on the emerging stage early in the afternoon. Note: When I saw emerging stage, it was really under an overhang outside a store on Main Street. C'mon, give these guys a little respect and put them somewhere elevated, right? The bassist of another local Delaware band, The Crash Motive, was even nice enough to play with Ian and Cam. They did a great set! You can check out our interview with Ian here, too!

We came across two bands that are a complete goldmine and deserve some attention. The Kelly Bell Band and The Grilled Lincolns were by far some of the best acts we saw that day! They were almost too talented to be playing at that festival - some bands just have it. These two have that talent to the utmost degree!

The Kelly Bell Band mixes funk, blues and r&b into a killer sound. The band is fronted by a charismatic and entertaining lead singer (complete with a head of long dreadlocks) who seriously has MAJOR stage presence. This man talks and everyone listens. The Baltimore, MD based band has a MySpace that we're begging you to check out, these guys have some serious talent and are amazing live. Bands like The Kelly Bell Band are the reason why we love live music so much. We felt their love of music come through their music and they completely rocked us to the bone, man!

As we sat in the tent, Julie saw a woman wearing this cool t-shirt. It was the head of Abraham Lincoln with a stripe covering his eyes that said, "The Grilled Lincolns." How creative! Little did she know, she'd want that same t-shirt by the end of this band's set! The Grilled Lincoln's have performing live down pat - they have every aspect of a killer band covered. An amazing guitarist/lead singer, a white boy that can actually pull off hip-hop and a super talented drummer. Their secret weapon? The band's gem? Their keyboardist named Jeremy Ragsdale is a complete force to be reckoned with, the man sings like he is a blues legend on stage in a smoky bar in Louisiana. I can't say enough about the talent of this guy's vocals. Julie actually went up to him after their set and shook his hand. We became an instant fans.

In addition to their own catchy songs, The Grilled Lincoln's covered Stevie Wonder's, "Superstition" and Marvin Gaye's, "Let's Get It On." We will forever support this band and do whatever we can on PCM to get their name out there, they are too talented to play in local bars anymore. Visit their MySpace and catch a show if you're on the east coast, you certainly won't be sorry. They'll leave a memorable mark on your brain and have you humming long after their show is over.

We really did enjoy this festival - it has some kinks to work out, but we're sure as the years go on (which we hope they will, with this festival's continued success) that more and more people will come out! It has such an amazing message and there is so much talent out there that needs to be displayed at great festival's like this!

Check out the next page of this feature to see exclusive pictures from our day at the festival and all these great bands performing live!

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Unicity Review Page 1 - Slideshow