By ROB MEYER

By ROB MEYER
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
hirty bands. Three stages. One day.
Welcome to Vex Fest 2003.
The free show will take place Sunday in Federal Plaza, sponsored by The Plaza Cafe.
This year, national act and Cleveland product Mushroomhead will be featured at the show. They will take the Outside West stage at 12:15 a.m. Monday
Other local bands performing include Via Sahara, Alias X, Ivet and Kitchen Knife Conspiracy.
For fans and concert-goers, the opportunity to see 30 bands for free is not something easily passed up. But for the bands themselves, Vex Fest provides an opportunity to showcase their music in area that doesn't hold too many concerts like this one.
For example, Mushroomhead has never played in Youngstown because the clubs in the city aren't big enough to hold their stage production and the amount of fans that follow them.
Finding new fans
But Vex Fest is a different story. It takes place outside and it gives the band a chance to reach fans in a new location.
"We haven't played a free show in a really long time," band member Rich Thomas a.k.a. "Stitch" said.
Thomas does the sampling for the band and works with various electronic effects.
"We want to expose people to our music that would not normally listen to it," he said.
For local bands like Via Sahara, the show is a chance to gain even more local followers.
"Vex Fest is one of the only shows in the Youngstown area that gets people down here," Via Sahara drummer Matt Colla said. "This is the third year we've done this show, and it's been a success everytime."
Via Sahara is a band that blends the different sounds of rock, funk, reggae and jazz. They played their first show in Youngstown in October of 2000 and have since played at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. They are currently promoting their upcoming album "With the Weight of the World."
Colla said that the biggest payoff for playing at Vex Fest is local exposure.
"We play all over the Eastern region of the country, but playing local in front of familiar people is great," Colla said.
An interesting parallel
In Mushroomhead's case, playing at Vex Fest is an interesting parallel to playing at Ozzfest, the show put on by Ozzy Osbourne every summer that features superstar acts such as Osbourne himself, Korn and Marilyn Manson.
At Ozzfest, Thomas and his bandmates were one of the less-known acts, playing on a side stage in the morning. At Vex Fest, they are the main attraction.
"It's good playing with some of the unknown acts," Thomas said. "We can school them in different things, maybe teach them some things But the two shows are two different worlds."
Though Vex Fest is obviously not Ozzfest, Colla said the show has run smoothly every year and is a lot of fun for everyone involved.
Better than ever
And with the addition of Mushroomhead, Colla said this year's show should be even better.
"I haven't met them personally, but I have seen them play," he said of Mushroomhead. "They play their type of music very well."
The masked members of Mushroomhead formed in 1993. They released an album titled "XX" under Universal Records in 2001.
Their next national record is titled "XIII" and will be released Oct. 14.
rmeyer@vindy.com