Things are gonna get pretty heavy at Piere’s at the end of the month.

On Friday and Saturday, Aug. 30-31, the third annual Midwest Metal Fest will fill the venue, featuring 20 bands from near and far.

Tickets are $25 per day or you can get a two-day pass for $35.

“We’re going to do day-of ticket sales so you don’t have to worry about online services charges,” co-organizer Chris Trowbridge said. “There’s always processing fees and other stupid stuff you have to deal with, and it ends up jacking the price up an additional $5. I’d rather people have that $5 to spend on other bands’ merch, at the bar, or getting food.”

Stacked lineup

Along with being an organizer, Trowbridge will also be performing the second night with his band Seventh Crown. Fellow organizer Justin Zacharias will also be busy on Day Two as the bassist for Cocaine Culture.

Despite both being in bands taking part in the festival, they fought the urge to make themselves headliners. Instead, that will be The Jasons out of New Jersey on Friday and Inoculation out of Cleveland on Saturday.

“We humbled ourselves and didn’t put ourselves anywhere near the end of the night,” Trowbridge said. “We found better bands.”

The first night will have stages in Stan’s Room and Bobby McGee’s with the bands alternating between sets. Things kick off at 6 p.m. with Ancient Days, followed by Dipt, Bit Back, Elijah, A La Carte, Dead Cassette, Mantra of Morta, Damage, and, lastly, The Jasons.

The music gets started at 5 p.m. on Saturday, with alternating stages between the Main Room and Club Escape. The second day’s lineup is Truckstop, Ghidora, Dedwurm, Shakedown, An Astonishing End, Voluntary Mortification, Cocaine Culture, Samarra, Seventh Crown, Hamarr, and Inoculation.

Coming to the rescue

This will be the third iteration of the festival but the first time it will be at Piere’s after two years at The Ruin.

“It’s going to open up a lot more possibilities,” Trowbridge said.

Although they are the organizers, that was not the initial plan for Trowbridge and Zacharias. Instead, they picked up where someone else dropped the ball a few years ago when, according to Trowbridge, a promoter was “flaky” and didn’t come through.

“(Zacharias and I) teamed up, re-hit up all the bands, outside of the ones that had guarantees that the promoter had flaked out on, and we threw it together, salvaging what we could, calling it Midwest Metal Fest,” he said.

“We had about two weeks to get things back together. We got lucky, and a bunch of the bands stuck onto it. It was a decent show. We didn’t have a lot of time to promote it.”

Despite the rush, they pulled it together and learned some things — fast.

“It was rough,” Trowbridge said. “It was a big learning curve for us.”

United Front

Helping with that learning curve were accommodating bands, which Trowbridge likes to see in the metal community.

“The whole metal community coming together to do something like this is fantastic,” he said. “I see it as everybody supporting everybody, no matter what. It’s a big undertaking, and it’s cool to see so many people behind us. Getting sponsors to cover the venue costs and friends chipping in money to make it a successful event so we can keep doing it and keep getting bigger and bigger.”

And these sponsors aren’t just kicking in dollars. They’re gonna be there, and they’ll gonna be providing some nice services.

Among those is Grim Gavins with some bone art: “She locally sources, and ethically sources, animal bones and makes art out of them,” Trowbridge said.

A mechanic, EnRoute, is sure to be in demand, as any band can attest to: “Always. Always,” Trowbridge said about bands encountering van trouble on the road.

For those looking to capture their live sound, Sundance Sound Studios will be on hand to record and mix on the spot.

“He will be recording live sets for people that are willing — it’s gonna cost, obviously, he’s not going to do it for free,” Trowbridge said. “He’s gonna record the live set and mix it right there before he gives it to them.”

There will be plenty of other vendors on hand, like a videographer, a booking agent, a record label, and artists, making this an all-encompassing event.

At the end of the day, Trowbridge is excited to see what his fellow metal-heads can accomplish when they’re all pulling in the same direction.

“I see the metal community as one that needs to unite and show that we all as a group can do something bigger than ourselves and not be so self-centered about it,” he said.