How you view Labor Day Weekend depends on if you are a ‘glass half empty’ or a ‘half full’ kind of person. You can view this particular weekend as the end of summer or the beginning of fall. I’m going with the notion that it’s the beginning of fall, because for music fans autumn is a great time of year. It’s when a lot of venues who were in sleep mode over the summer reopen, theaters boost up their schedules and there are still plenty of music festivals to enjoy (without worrying about the heat).
There is a particularly big music festival happening this Labor Day weekend right here in Franklin County. The RPM Fest will take place from Friday, Aug. 30 through Sunday, Sept. 1 at the Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club. This festival is presented by PDP Productions and Promotorhead Entertainment and is for those music fans who like their music fast, loud and hard. The RPM Fest will feature over 50 rock, punk and metal bands playing on three stages and will include doom, thrash, death, prog, grind music and more.
The RPM Fest, which is in its fifth year, is a camping festival and tent camping is included with the price of admission.
In addition to all the music, there will be food trucks, craft beers, heavy karaoke, lawn games and metal pub trivia. And for those of you who like to do the downward dog accompanied by some loud Metallica music, they will even have metal yoga.
The lineup is a mix of nationally known and local acts and includes wacky metal band Psychostick from Chicago, Death metal group Swashbuckle from New Jersey and metal band Byzantine from Charleston, W. Va.
Kindling and Problem with Dragons, both from Easthampton, are just a couple of the many local rock bands playing the fest. According to Brian Westbrook, who is one of the co-founders of the festival, 16 of the bands scheduled to perform are from Western Massachusetts.
The students from Matt Kim’s Rock Shop will also be on hand, showing off the skills they learned at Kim’s Academy of Rock summer program, which is held in Greenfield each year.
This festival is truly metal-head heaven, and you get all the details on its website at rpmfest.org. You can purchase advance tickets from the website until 11:59 p.m. Thursday night (tonight) or get them at Great Spirits Tattoo at 22 Federal St. in Greenfield until the end of the business day on Friday. Prices at the gate are $70 for the weekend, $25 for Friday and $35 for Sunday. VIP parking is $50 and regular parking $10.
While that festival is the local highpoint of the Labor Day weekend, I should note that it’s a big weekend for fairs with the Three County Fair in Northampton taking place and the Guilford Fair in nearby Guilford, Vt. going on as well. But for Franklin County residents it’s all about the Franklin County Fair, which will be held Thursday Sept. 5 through Sunday, Sept. 8. Steve DeJoy is the entertainment director for the fair and he has put together a varied lineup of local musical talent that is a mix of original and cover bands featuring something for everyone.
Booking music for the fair can’t be easy as you have to appeal to such a broad audience, but DeJoy has said that having music at the fair has become so popular that musicians are coming to him.
“Mostly, I look for ‘are they from Franklin County’ usually first as it is a community stage for local talent. Then there’s the type of music popular within the county. But I think it is mostly the sound,” wrote DeJoy in a recent email. “I try to mix it up the best I can — not everyone likes the same music. I try to book groups that appeal to a wider audience for the weekends and more specialized music on Thursday and Friday.”
So in between eating fried dough and wandering through the round house, be sure and check out some of these acts. The music takes place on the 22 News and CW Springfield Community stage and is included with admission.
The music begins Thursday at 7 p.m. when, fresh off their gig at the RPM Fest, Matt Kim’s Rock Shop will rock the Community stage. These shows are a chance for Kim’s young students to show off their hard work and talents to a large audience — do come out and support them. While the focus is on bringing in new acts, Rock Shop is so popular and DeJoy is so committed to the work that Kim is doing with these young musicians that they have played the fair for the past eight years
On Friday, the alt-country band Opal Canyon from Conway kicks things off with a 5 p.m. show. Opal Canyon is built around the songs and vocals of Debra DeMuth and play music that they describe as “modern country finds psychedelic escape.” The band released its debut album “Beauty and Loss” in April and has a fast-growing audience here in the Pioneer Valley. It will be drastic musical switch when Sledge comes on at 8 p.m. This Franklin County-based band is a hard rock cover group that covers Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard and all your other favorite hard rock bands.
Greenfield’s Chickenwire will be the first band that plays Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. The group, which specializes in covering Southern rock, rock, and even classic county, has been a presence on the local scene for some 10 years now and the band’s music is the perfect soundtrack for the fair.
The ‘60s Experience will provide the soundtrack to Saturday nights’ festivities. This band, which is comprised of a group of seasoned players from Franklin County, started out as a Beatles cover band and soon branched out to play the songs of other ‘60s bands like the Monkees, Rolling Stones, Zombies and other great artists from that era. The ‘60s Experience will play two sets, the first at 7 p.m. followed by a break while Erin Lynch takes the stage, and then return at 9 p.m. (You can also catch the’60s Experience at Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center this Friday night at 7:30 p.m.)
Sunday is a full day of music that begins at 11 a.m. with Nice Try Kid, a progressive rock band from the Berkshires that play original and heartfelt music about lost youth, growing up and trying to handle real-world problems.
You might want to bring your dancing shoes for the 4 p.m. show by Flathead Rodeo. This Northampton-based band features dynamic frontwoman Miss Marion (who was given her name by Iggy Pop when she lived in New York, but that’s another story) and play rockabilly music in addition to styles that influenced it including blues, Western Swing, and R&B. The band covers artists like Elvis, Gene Vincent, Wanda Baker and others while mixing in some of its own material. The music winds down at 7 p.m. with a set by Caylin Lee, a country singer from Colrain known for her honest, emotional lyrics. A couple of years ago, Lee spent some time in Nashville before returning to Massachusetts and she is currently working on her second album. Expect to hear some of her own songs along with covers of Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert, Loretta Lynn, Little Big Town and many more. She is the perfect choice for wrapping up this full weekend of entertainment.
Advance tickets can be pur chased at various locations throughout Franklin county and the full list of ticket outlets is available at FCAS.com. The Franklin County Fairgrounds can be found at 89 Wisdom Way in Greenfield.
Sheryl Hunter is a music writer who lives in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national magazines. You can contact her at soundslocal@yahoo.com