Victoria Station, Putnam, CT, Particle Accelerator… these are homes away from home for us. I Love coming back here, and though we’ve had good shows and bad shows, and wonderful weather and frightening weather, and though the venues and people and the very soul of the main street here have changed over the years, I still Love it. It has a special continuity for us.
I need to go back through the Journal and track down when the Love affair started, but it was something to do with taking a long-cut to Providence and stumbling into Victoria Station. I think it was one of the first places to help us define how some venues you play for your soul.
Victoria Station, and the people there, continue to be one of those venues that’s just good for the soul.
Through VSC and White Rose Confession we’ve then been drawn into Particle Accelerator, an amazing suicide prevention festival that happens every year here in this tiny town. It hasn’t blown up yet, but it deserves to. The music they draw in is nothing short of amazing and this year did NOT disappoint. I’m proud to be a part of it, sharing a stage with such incredible performers and drawing attention and funds to such an important cause.
We met a bunch of new artists this year, and unlike most festivals, I don’t know that I can point out anyone I WOULDN’T go see again. From the moment we got there and saw Santo Mambo jamming on stage with their Santana-esque noises to the close of the stage with the absolutely unreal Stone Crusher, the stages were filled with marvelous artists and I’m absolutely flattered to be a part of it.
If I HAD to point out a high point of the night, possibly EVEN BEATING OUT White Rose Confession performing their cover of rearview – Stone Crusher kind of blew my frakkin’ mind. My acquaintance Dana, oh mild-mannered Dana, who has been working at Wonderland Comics most days that I’ve been in there over the past several years, had always mentioned that he was in a little metal band: “we’re pretty good, but we don’t play much”. Holy crap. He’s the bass player for Stone Crusher, and they were like a local Iron Maiden rocking Putnam’s little Rotary Park on into the night, closing down the festival.
They were pretty unreal. Heather and Kristen and I had wandered back up to Main Street to get some food and figured we’d poke our head back into the festival to see how it was closing down – about halfway down to the fairgrounds, wending our way through town, we heard the lead singer’s wail (Chris?) and realized we had to get down there RIGHT AWAY.
Heather seemed to be having a pleasant day. Then she went nuts and attacked viciously! Speaker for the Dead was a sort of composite act headed up by a singer/songwriter (though he really doesn’t like it placed at his feet, he’s a strong believer in it’s collective nature). By the end of their set they were joined by another couple of horn players from ska band Llama Tsunami.
They were tight, they were talented, and they were just tongue-in-cheek enough to know that singing that SATAN WAS COMIIIIIING to 8 year-olds wasn’t strictly appropriate but COULD be a lot of fun. The lead singer said it all when he said “This is GREAT! There’s a lot of kids here! And I just fucking LOVE KIDS! They have such GREAT IMAGINATIONS!!!” And he launched into a song about Baba Yaga… you know… with entrails and demons and stuff… it was a sing-a-long.
Fantastic day. Absolutely fantastic.
This guy led a big drum jam, providing about two dozen drums and leading everyone in percussion versions of golden-oldie rock tunes. Heather gets dragged up on stage to help lead the drum jam She was pretty forceful and even got US into the act – with all the Remo you can imagine, including a cuica that done lost it’s stick! ilyAIMY performing at Particle Accelerator (photo courtesy of Dennis Scanlon).
Kala Farnham One of the odder creatures to come out at Particle Accelerator and represent one of Providence’s big puppet crews- and also to consume the unwary children of Putnam. Wrapping out the night, Stone Crusher roared onto stage and took us completely unawares. The picture above is specifically for Heather, as she felt it necessary to gush over this man’s admittedly hard, chiseled body, with his talented voice, balletic, muscular and yet graceful movements and charming on-stage persona. Heheh – I totally buy comic books and toys from the bass player.
