Review & Photos: Ohio Is For Lovers Festival in Huber Heights, Ohio

By Neil Shumate, OOTB Publications

It was sort of like a mini-Warped Tour—a day full of emo indie punk rock, sunshine and summer heat—except, we’re all old now. But, that’s okay, because we’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time.

And, good times were had at The Rose Music Center in Huber Heights, Ohio on Saturday, Sept. 5 for the seven band Ohio Is For Lovers Festival; returning as a smaller version compared to past years when the event was held with more bands and more stages, previously on the grounds of Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati.

Huber Heights is less than ten minutes from Dayton, which is the hometown of the festival’s curators and creators—Hawthorne Heights—who started the music fest in 2022, naming it after their debut album’s 2004 hit song anthem by the same name: “Ohio Is For Lovers.”

Although the overall majority of the crowd was older, there was a notable presence of younger folks; a new generation embracing their inner emo.

To beat the heat, The Rose accommodated attendees with an air conditioned tent, cooling mist stations and a free water bottle refill station.

Dayton’s own A While After kicked off the 8-hour day of nostalgic music with a solid 30-minute mix of emo rock—performing new single “Mope,” a superb cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “Sweetness” and a slew of originals, one of which was naturally a sad emo song.

Energetic Cincy punk rockers The Dopamines ruled the stage with natural ease (after all, they’ve been at it for two decades), firing up the crowd with each and every thrash paced (er fast paced) song—giving it their aggressive all, with fun humorous banter between songs.

Well known pop punk band Hit The Lights performed songs from their four albums and six EPs, including: “Body Bag,” “Drop The Girl,” “Fucked Up Kids,” “Speakers Blown” and a cool cover of Gin Blossoms’ “Hey Jealousy.”

Lead vocalist Nick Thompson gave a shoutout to their hometown Lima, Ohio (mentioning Kewpee Hamburgers) and recalled communicating with Hawthorne Heights via an online message board in the early 2000s.

Pure Noise Records’ post hardcore Canadian quintet Arm’s Length dominated the stage with crushing riffs and Midwest emo, even briefly bringing in a banjo (during “You Ominously End”) and a fun “yee-haw” crowd chant.

The energetic chemistry between the string player with Marty Hacker-Mullen (former merch dude) and himself shined bright throughout the set, including during crowd moving songs “Tough Love,” “Funny Face” and “The World.”

East Coast rock stalwarts Saves The Day performed a straightforward 45-minute set with energetic, smiling vocalist and band founder Chris Conley never ignoring any part of the stage or crowd.

They played newer popular catchy single “Invader,” releasing next week, along with other familiar songs. Fans proudly sung along to 2001 set closer hit, “At Your Funeral.”

Conley mentioned this was the band’s first time performing at Ohio Is For Lovers Festival.

With 14 albums released—including two just last year—Canadian post hardcore emo rock heavyweights Silverstein are no strangers to the scene, and with such rousing performances, they prove time and time again why they've maintained such longevity, nearing 30 years.

Vocalist Shane Told mentioned to the crowd that they looked up stats, and this show was their 265th total performance with Hawthorne Heights.

Silverstein’s setlist was triumphant—with both older (“The Afterglow,” “Smile In Your Sleep,” “My Heroine,” “Your Sword Versus My Dagger”) and newer songs (“Stress,” “Bad Habits,” “Negative Space,” “Drain The Blood”).

The band went all the way back to the very first song on their very first album, “Smashed To Pieces.” Before performing it, vocalist Shane Told dedicated the song to “all the Elder Emos, if you will.”

Told connected with the crowd often: “I look out at this crowd and everyone is having the time of their lives—friends, family. I want you to close your eyes and hold onto this moment.”

Ohio Is For Lovers Festival founders’ Hawthorne Heights closed the terrific 8 hour day of music with a terrific set of their own.

Lead singer and rhythm guitarist JT Woodruff gave much praise to Dayton and expressed gratitude to concert attendees of the MySpace generation for helping ignite emo music, and ultimately helping propel Hawthorne Heights to the top of the genre—“a band from Dayton, Ohio, not a big city like Los Angeles, California.”

Woodruff expressed his disdain for creepy Internet trends and encouraged everyone to enjoy and soak up unplugged time—“removing your face from phones and putting the phone down.”

The setlist, with a few songs having brief story intros by Woodruff, included many songs from the platinum selling bands’ popular 2006 chart topping No. 3 album If Only You Were Lonely and others, as well as new single “Like A Cardinal,” released earlier this year.

Other songs included: This Is Who We Are,” “Where Can I Stab Myself In The Ears,” “Language Lessons (Five Words Or Less),” “We Are So Last Year,” “Dandelions,” “Niki FM,” “Light Sleeper,” “Cross Me Off Your List,” “Pens & Needles,” “Saying Sorry,” “Ohio Is For Lovers.”

Everyone left happy and hoping for a 2027 Ohio Is For Lovers Festival next summer.

HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS