The 6th annual Mid West Music Fest brought an impressive array of acts and styles to downtown Winona over 3 days in late April.  Here are some of the acts we caught:

The Weathered Heads

Coming from the heart of Mid West Music Fest (Winona MN), The Weathered Heads brought an amazing sound to the Masonic Temple on Saturday evening. Featuring guitars, saxophones, and keyboards, this band brought it all.

Lead vocalist, Craig Weatherhead, wowed the mid-sized crowd with his singing, strumming, and dancing while he performed. All of the band members were in on vocals, either singing back-up or leading a verse themselves.

Before they performed their popular song “Lose Control”, the band invited friends and former members to join them on stage to dance and sing the chorus with them. It brought a new life to the crowd and their grand finale had nearly the whole room jumping.

There were many different instrument solos throughout the performance, but none stuck out more than the saxophone. Bringing a jazzy vibe to the songs, the sax player brought a punch not only with the notes he was playing, but with other band mates as well. They seemed to feed off of each others energy, which made for a very great performance.

Their first studio album, The Sinner, was released in February. The band plans on dropping new music in the  near future.

Brass Messengers

I don’t know what was more fun, the brass instruments or watching the dancing crowd from the balcony.

Playing at the Masonic Temple on Saturday night at 8:00 pm, Brass Messengers had an almost packed venue. All ages came to enjoy the jazz parade-style band toot their horns to a number of self-composed songs and even a few covers.

This band has broad appeal, so whether you enjoy tuba, trumpet, or some trombone, you’ll be able to find a groove you can swing to no matter the song playing.

J.E. Sunde

Minneapolis native Jon Sunde has been playing in Mid West Music Fest for two years. MWMF 2015 was the first as his newest project, J.E. Sunde.

J.E. Sunde performed at the Historic Masonic Temple on Friday at 6:00pm and at the Winona Arts Center at 7:30pm.

First playing in The Daredevil Christopher Wright, Sunde met Sam Brown who invited them to perform at the fest.

With influences from the 60s and 70s, Sunde says he is “currently working on a new record and working to play live in the region, and hopefully beyond.”

Stereo Confession

These Minneapolis high school headbangers played in Wesley UMC on Saturday at 8:45pm.

“We’ve never played this venue. From what I’ve heard it’s like a church? Really excited to play in a church I guess,” Max Timander says.

This was the second year Stereo Confession has played MWMF, the first time was played with the band Neon (from La Crosse), and how Stereo Confession met their current bass player.

“MWMF is a great way to meet and hang out with other bands. Really fun festival to be part of” Timander says “Right now we’re working hardcore on writing new songs and finding where we fit in musically.”

No Coast, Stereo Confession’s late 2014 album is just a start for this band. In the future, they are continuing to record their newest single and hope to release a 7 inch this summer.

They held nothing back from the first note and brought some very non-churchy music to life at Wesley.  They also had some fans, friends, family and new converts in the audience for their 40 minute set.