New England has until recently never been known for putting on those big summer music festivals, at least not on the level of a Coachella or Bonnaroo certainly. However, the return of the Gathering of the Vibes to its permanent home in CT in 2007 initiated what may be a new beginning for the Boston festival scene. The first Nateva Festival held this past July in Maine was a success and hopes to hold an annual spot on festivalgoer’s calendars.
Now it’s time to add a third to the list. The first Life Is Good Festival held September 11 and 12 in Canton Mass, promises to be another premier stop on the summer circuit. Put on by the Life Is Good Company, it drew over 30,000 over 2 days according to the organizers. The non-profit event raised over $600,000 for the Life Is Good Foundation, devoted to helping kids overcoming obstacles and challenges in their lives.
It says a lot about the good time, family oriented nature of Boston’s first 2 day festival that the ubiquitous smell of weed so common at music events seemed oddly out of place among booths for storing strollers and another for tagging kids beside a seed spitting contest area.
On top of that feel- good-about-doing-good vibe, add bands like Ozomatli, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, OK Go, Dr. Dog, Mavis Staples, Galactic, Trombone Shorty, and Ziggy Marley, and it was hard not to feel Life was, indeed, Good, at least for the 2 days. The organizers were savvy enough to bring in Superfly Productions to handle the logistics of getting bands and putting together a major event.
The underage set seemed to represent about 1/3 or more of the audience and had their own stage. No wimpy Barney-type acts there however. The high energy, hard rocking sounds of They Might Be Giants and Dane Zanes also managed to draw a fair amount of adults not ashamed to be there without a kid in tow. My favorite was the quirky Sippy Cups who had kids and adults on their feet throughout, featuring among other things, an electric sitar.
Sets ran like clockwork. With the two main stages alternating acts at opposite ends of the large open common area, there was virtually no down time between sets, it took a fast pace to get to the other side before the next set started. Stopping for a beer or a burger on the way was no loss though, the sound was well placed and could be heard across the area.
Saturday’s highlights included a soulful set from Mavis Staples, who at 70+ still carries the message begun by her father with the Staple Singers over 60 years ago. LA’s Ozomatli and Ziggy Marley offered different takes on international music. A hard rocking Grace Potter, with her new made for MTV look, closed the smaller stage Saturday and featured a guest appearance from Sippy La La of the Sippy cups playing electric sitar for a version of “White Rabbit”, a song that, with its double entendre lyric, seemed to fit in different ways for both the young and the old. The main stage’s closing set was ably handled by Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, offering some hard hitting blues influenced tunes.
Sunday’s promised main stage opener, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, were delayed by a missed flight and their set was moved to the kids stage later in the day, one of only a few hiccups over the weekend, but a fortunate one because it gave the band a much more intimate stage to showcase their mix of New Orleans funk and jazz mixed with a bit of hip-hop. The band feeds off the energy from their audience in a way few others manage to achieve. The band ended their set with a “second-line” through the crowd, managing to breathe life into the oft clichéd “When The Saints Go Marching In”
Another New Orleans band, Galactic, continued its never-ending tour, featuring Corey Henry on trombone and also Cyrille Neville from New Orleans legends The Neville Brothers. International flavor continued with the Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars offering mesmerizing tunes and onstage moves. Corinne Bailey Rae, promoting her new cd, closed out the smaller stage Sunday night with a powerfully entrancing set, holding the audience even as the opening notes form the night’s headliner on the main stage, Jason Mraz, could be heard as he began his set. After her, the poppy, overly sweet sound from Mr. Mraz seemed anti-climatic.
The success of this first event should ensure Life Is Good becomes a permanent summer stop among the summers festivals.
