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Solution to Indie Audio Productions

Author: Harrison Bralower

The solver first sees a flyer with a bunch of supposed IAP classes on music along with MIT classroom numbers. Putting the class names in order of classroom number and taking the first letters yields the clue phrase PUT SHOWS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, which is an instruction for the second part of the puzzle.

Each classroom on the flyer has a public bulletin board near it that has a flyer ostensibly advertising a show along with several pictures. The bands are listed but the date and location are not. These pieces of information are clued by the pictures on each flyer. By determining the show location (all real venues in Boston and Cambridge) and the date clued by each flyer you can find sets of bands actually playing at each venue on that date. The correct set of bands is the one whose names are the same lengths as the ones on the flyer and this gives you the year of the show. By inserting the real bands in place of the fake bands on each flyer and then taking the outlined letters from the real band names you get the letters needed to form a clue phrase. When the letters from the flyers, in the order they appear on the flyers, are put in chronological order by show date (including year) you get the clue phrase MIDEAST DOWNSTAIRS HAS ONE MORE FLYER. If you go to the Middle East Downstairs in Central Square you find a flyer with thematic art on a nearby lamppost advertising a concert headlined by a band billed as "the answer you've been looking for," DARK OMEN, the answer to the puzzle.

The solution to each flyer is:

  • 10-250
    • Clues: Pennsylvania, A lounge chair, 20 junebugs
    • Date: June 20, 2009
    • Location: P.A.'s Lounge
    • Bands: Windy Smiles, A Brief Smile, Bad Girlfriend, MiniBoone
    • Letters extracted: MIDE
  • 34-101
    • Clues: A voting precinct map of Cambridge with a single precinct highlighted, April Ludgate from Parks and Recreation, a cat o' nine tails
    • Date: April 9, 2010
    • Location: Precinct
    • Bands: Toe Drag, Division Tree, Hatch, Alen of Dale
    • Letters extracted: ASTD
  • 3-270
    • Clues: Midway Airport, Coffee, January Jones, Magic 8 Ball
    • Date: January 8, 2011
    • Location: Midway Café
    • Bands: Coyote Kolb, Brown Bird, Grave Robbers, Audrey Ryan
    • Letters extracted: OWNS
  • 32-155
    • Clues: East Campus dorm, September from Fringe, an M16 rifle
    • Date: September 16, 2011
    • Location: East Campus, MIT
    • Bands: Air Traffic Controller, Mission Hill, Adam Ezra Group
    • Letters extracted: TAIRSH
  • 66-168
    • Clues: Something said by Doc Brown ("Great scott!"), The March Hare, We're #1 foam finger
    • Date: March 1, 2012
    • Location: Great Scott
    • Bands: Arvid Noe, Grass is Green, Speedy Ortiz, Sneeze
    • Letters extracted: ASON
  • 6-120
    • Clues: Conan O'Brien, The Hunt for Red October, Thirteen from House
    • Date: October 13, 2012
    • Location: O'Briens Pub
    • Bands: Pile, Mail the Horse, Fat History Month, Cartright
    • Letters extracted: EMOR
  • 56-114
    • Clues: A can tab, The crest of the Kingdom of Bohemia, April O'Neil, Bobby Orr (Bruins #4)
    • Date: April 4, 2013
    • Location: Cantab Lounge/Club Bohemia
    • Bands: Pariah Beat, Mestan Jean and the Klay, Family Band, So Sol
    • Letters extracted: EFL
  • 26-302
    • Clues: A plow, van Gogh's Starry Night, June Cleaver, the logo for MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering (Course 1)
    • Date: June 1, 2013
    • Location: The Plough and Stars
    • Bands: Royal Wedding, Fortran, Fey Rey, Freedom Sound
    • Letters extracted: YER