We promised we’d cover the COH festival at Community Stage (Firehouse 28), but you can hear it all for yourself. Every show was lovingly taped. Set lists have been framed. Leisurely afterparties allowed for
Which makes the whole thing kind of sad. Upstarts pop up where they weren’t expected, turn the town upside down for a few days—gathering at shows, starting debates, documenting everything in sight, then vamoosing as swiftly as they’d swooped in.
The memories:
A band member getting fired onstage, with the onstage patter for the rest of the night all about how the band was going to deal with—song by excruciating song.
The soldiers who wandered through a show blasting the bohemians.
The big out-of-town rock star who showed up ostensibly to trumpet the local scene but wouldn’t stop talking about his own legend.
The reunions, guest stars and switch-ups—soap operatic onstage hook-ups of talents who seldom speak to each other offstage, but went for it this time because the whole fest was obviously something special.
A least a couple of amazing performances unencumbered by non-musical drama.
The exploding electronic devices, the unintelligible field recordings and other clashes between body-rock and wire-rock.
We may tell some of these stories more fully later. For now, we’re still just recovering and wondering what exactly happened.
Art & Idey and Ray Darvish at the Bullfinch… Fist Fast Fussed at Hamilton’s, a band name we care not to dwell upon… The unfettered Frayed Fringe Musical Circus Revue at D’ollaire’s, and school’s not even in session…