New club in town—for a week. Old Firehouse 28—aka Community Stage—has a hot festival. The programmers are the DJs, writers and crew from college station WCOH, putting the music where their mouths are.

“We thought, ‘We’re always talking about the music, why don’t we make some?” explains station manager Mac Lennon, who changed his summer vacation plans to help ignite the harmonic Firehouse conflagration. Likewise, COH publicist/treasurer/“Hill Herald” DJ/Jill-of-all-trades Anna Air stuck around campus just for this.

Some of the bands are indeed COH-connected: Stein of Wine, The Slakes, Deputy Op and the Bearded Wordies all have membered who’ve mumbled through the station’s mics. Other fest participants hail from all over: The Waterhouses, Rush Stage, HerKansas, several dozen acts in all scattered over a 10-day schedule.

Headlining the final night are Humble Harry and Grace in Name Grace in Nature.

Some other collegians, the type who prefer to write their ideas down and not sing them aloud, are setting up symposia, holding trivia matches and giving a club tour of the community.

Nothing this fast and loud has been seen at Firehouse 28 since it had fire engines in it. Expect regular reports from us on this phenomenon, but be sure to stop by the firehouse yourself for a full schedule, and to congratulate them on what a swell job they’ve done setting up the space.

The alarms are sounding over yonder, but don’t neglect the trusted established music joints like the Bullfinch (which this week features Tranny Mall, Veer/Tell and Two or Three Beccas), Hamilton’s (with The Red Cats, Wood Fringe and The Culvers upcoming) and D’ollaire’s (hello to The Graumans, Bonaventure and Edit2Jeff)…