MONTAGUE — Performers at the 11th annual RPM Fest said the heavy music festival was “a breath of fresh air.”
Hundreds of metalheads flocked to the Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club in Montague this weekend for the self-proclaimed “heaviest party of the summer,” where 40 rock, punk and metal bands took the stage.
“We actually played RPM last summer and we got invited back, so we’re super stoked to be here,” said Jacqui Powell, vocalist for sludge and doom metal band Witching of Philadelphia. “We loved it here last time. We like the friendly vibes and how everyone’s just hanging out in nature.”
Powell said the band is currently on tour with fellow RPM performer Royal Thunder, and the festival is one of their last stops of the summer before they take a break from performing to begin working on a new album.
“We’re about to start writing our new record after this, so this is a really good way to end the summer,” Powell said. “RPM feels more intimate. It’s very laid back, kind of like everyone knows each other.”
“It’s just very unique,” said Christopher Cruz, vocalist for So Hideous, which took the stage Friday evening. “Our bassist, DJ, he plays in various bands, but he was telling us we have got to play this festival and we didn’t know anything about it and it just exceeded our expectations. … It’s such a great community of people and I love the way it’s set up.”
Cruz said the band is from New York City, and is used to playing “dark, dingy clubs” in the city. Playing at an outside venue in western Massachusetts is a new, but welcome experience.
“This is a breath of fresh air to just come out here and eat good food, hang out and walk around and talk to people,” Cruz said. “It’s definitely different and something we hope that we can continue next year, and the year after that.”
One selling feature of the festival noted by the artists was that it was independently produced.
“I like that Live Nation and Ticketmaster aren’t involved,” Powell said. “And they always have local bands play which is really cool.”
Bigger and better
The festival is produced by Brian Westbrook, a musician and audio engineer who runs PDP Productions, and John Gulow, of Promotorhead Entertainment, along with their team of staff and volunteers.
Westbrook founded RPM in his backyard in Greenfield, and the event has only grown in the 11 years since then. He said this year the festival saw 30% more ticket sales, welcomed more bands, and expanded the vendor market to over 65 vendors.
“It feels like everything’s just going a lot smoother this year,” Westbrook said. “We’re kinda honing things in, figuring out what works and what doesn’t, and just making little improvements year by year.”
This year, the festival welcomed plenty of new faces, as well as returning bands, volunteers, and attendees, Westbrook said. Even bands and volunteers who attended the first RPM 11 years ago came back for this year’s event, bringing along with them their children and introducing the next generation of metalheads to the festival.
“It’s been 11 years and we’ve seen a lot of our community get married, have kids, progress in life, so to speak. For example, one of my friends, Lou Ruff, has two kids. His son was 6 when he started coming to the fest and he’s still coming back every year,” Westbrook said. “We’re watching a lot of families grow up with the fest… It makes it feel like we’re doing something right when the fest keeps expanding, and seeing pillars of our community return year after year.”
Westbrook said he plans to keep making little tweaks to the festival to make it to make it the premier heavy music event of New England.
“We’ll be back next year, and we’ll just keep doing it bigger and better every year,” he said. “I think this is a very important thing for western Mass, and the New England metal community, and I’m really honored that a lot of people make this one of their big events every year.”
“We’ll be back next year, and we’ll just keep doing it bigger and better every year.
Brian Westbrook
Gulow added that with plenty of bands, artists and vendors, the festival was a great place to be introduced to new bands and find a new favorite metal artist.
“I feel like a lot of people are apprehensive because they may not be familiar with the artist, but that’s half the experience, discovering this in person instead of on the radio or on the internet,” Gulow said. “I encourage it and I guarantee you will have a good time.”
More than just music
Westbrook said that what makes a great event is having a diverse event with plenty to offer. In addition to featuring 40 bands playing on two stages over three days, RPM offers an artist alley with painters, fiber artists, and more, as well as a vendor market selling a range of items, including hats, pins, comics, herbal remedies, witch’s tonics, and custom leathers. The festival also included food vendors and on-site camping for metalheads looking for “the full festival experience.”
“It’s not just bands on stages. We’ve got the vendor marker, artist alley, post entertainment and the Ultraviolet Lounge,” Westbrook said. “We’re just trying to do a little bit of something for everybody.”
Horror author B.R. Yeager attended the festival with Apocolaypse Party Press, and said it’s a great place to highlight the literary works of authors inspired by metal music and the same themes found throughout heavy music.
“We’re all huge music fans, and speaking for myself, I like listening to music and it’s an integral part of my writing process,” Yeager said. “Our goal as a independent publisher is trying to push new voices, and, you know, shake up the standard genre, is essentially to try to by finding like authors who write work that’s intensely personal, often psychological, but usually pretty transgressive, and also in terms of prose, very psychedelic as well.”
Metalsmith Louis Garcia agreed the music can serve as inspiration for other arts. This year is his second year attending the festival, and he said he enjoys spending the weekend camping out and listening to music while working on handcrafted jewelry and meeting new people.
“It’s fun to work pretty much all weekend and see what happens,” Garcia said. “Depending on what’s playing I’m either doing what I’m doing right now (bending wires) or I just take out the anvil and start working on something. It’s a much nicer environment than the basement.”
Listen to some of the sounds of RPM:
