We're in Belfast, Maine for the All Roads Music Festival - a two day event that transforms historic buildings into music venues. Hang out with Lamont as she wanders around town before meeting up with the founder of the fest, Meg Shorette for a conversation on booking bands and process behind pairing musicians with eccentric spaces. We'll also hear from Jon Fishman from the band PHISH!
We're in Belfast, Maine for the All Roads Music Festival - a two day event that transforms historic buildings into music venues.
Hang out with Lamont as she wanders around town before meeting up with the founder of the fest, Meg Shorette for a conversation on booking bands and process behind pairing musicians with eccentric spaces. We'll also hear from Jon Fishman from the band PHISH!
Kyle:
It's a monochromatic day here on the coast of Maine with pops of pink from cherry blossom trees, lobster Beuys are bobbing on top of the sea and the tempo of waves lapping up against the wharf mimic a ticking clock. I'm Kyle Lamont and the Belfast waterfront is a great place to begin your tour of the town, which is known for its pristine New England architecture. And for All roads, a two day festival that transforms a handful of these historic buildings into music venues
Announcer:
To unspool America's soundscape, you must start at the music venue. This is Concert Cast the podcast in Audio Atlas filled with music, maps, conversations and discoveries created and hosted by Kyle Lamont. Concert Culture is travel centric in every venue has a voice. So let us go and listen. Concert cast the podcast is brought to you by Maven making high class leather and motorcycle seats from the woods of Downeast Maine handcrafted and shipped worldwide. https://www.mavenupholstery.com for custom creations.
Kyle:
I wipe the web of ocean mist that's caught my eyelashes and start walking up Main Street. I feel like I'm inside a postcard. The pre-Civil War architecture dating back to the 1830s is a direct reflection of New England heritage and also of Mainers sturdy with colorful character.
To really feel the weight of time in this town, I visit Colburn's the oldest shoe store in America, which was built in 1832. Afterwards, I wander in and out of art studios, boutiques and candy shops, load up on local snacks at the co-op and grab a cuppa at Bell on the cat.
I make my way to the Crosby Center on Church Street, an old high school built in 1923, which has been repurposed into a venue, and the building also has office spaces and small apartments.
I'm scheduled to meet up with Meg Charrette here. She's the director of All Roads and a mover and shaker in Maine's music industry. I walk into the high school fully expecting to see a teacher and hear class bell, but instead I'm greeted by a cool chick with tattoos and a beaming smile. She's standing behind a table a.k.a. the pop up box office, and I ask if Meg is around. She points to a firecracker blonde who's wearing a worn jean jacket and faded black jeans. She's repositioning the makeshift bar to better serve all the festi goers. Even though I'm anxious to talk with her, I'm not a dill weed and let her finish the important task at hand. And while doing so in intransitive fuzzy rock band called Capture the Sun lores me into the gymnasium.
They're performing on a stereotypical elevated high school stage with velvet curtains. You know, the one I'm talking about. It's the same exact stage you sang holiday songs on in front of proud parents. But this band is far from innocent. They are tuned to an ocean's undertow that brings you to an inky bottom where kelp grows while listening. I can't help but picture high schoolers from the 1920s gathered in the very same spot to watch a musical or cheer for the basketball team. My imagination moves around the murky reverb and bounces around on the bubbly bass. And when the band announces they're from Portland, I make an ear popping assent sent to the surface and head back to the lobby where I see Meg talking with a volunteer. I kindly interrupt and introduce myself. Give her kudos for being so hands on and ask if we could head outside to chat for a bit before the night lifts off for her. We perch on top of the picnic table, a perfect place for her to keep an eye on everything. So what's going through your head?
Meg:
It is five o'clock on Saturday. We're about half way through maybe. I think this is the halfway marker, so I'm feeling good.
Kyle:
And how would you describe Belfast to someone who's never been?
Meg:
Belfast is the best. It's about an hour and a half, I think, from Portland. It's on the ocean. It's quaint. The people who live here are amazing. I feel like people who don't live in Maine wouldn't believe that a town like this exists.
Kyle:
Charrette is from a small town in the middle of Maine called Skowhegan. And it's safe to say she lives for live music. She's the executive director of Launchpad, an arts incubator in Maine, and together with her business partner, Josh Gas. They curate the All Roads Music Festival and also operate a venue in Bangor called the Bangor Arts Exchange. She manages a few local bands and. Oh, yeah. She's also the talent buyer for the Port City Music Hall in Portland.
Since you were maybe in high school in Skowhegan compared to today, how would you say live music in Maine has changed?
Meg:
I think that I don't see I don't know if it changed or if I just got more aware of what there was out there or got more crafty in ways that I was, you know, searching out and seeking out music. But I know live music. I feel like there's performances everyday all the time. And I I love that. I mean, I live in Portland now, and everywhere you go, there's bands playing constantly and even even in venues that don't even make sense for there to be a band playing in it. People are booking shows in these small, small rooms and I just love it so much. It's really exciting and it's fun for a really small bands to play in really small rooms, but it's also really cool to see really big bands underplay and playing these tiny rooms. They know they can outsell
Kyle:
Every May all roads lead to Belfast, where people come to celebrate indie bands mostly from Maine and who represent all genres. The event stands out because it allows concert goers to go inside places they otherwise wouldn't have a reason to be in.
Let's talk about all of the buildings you are repurposing as venues.
Meg:
Yeah. So when we first started this festival, we wanted to do it and we weren't too familiar with Belfast. So we started looking around at what rooms there were in town. And we actually another non-profit in town, the Belfast Creative Coalition, kind of helped us. So we came down one day and did like a venue tour. We looked at like a yoga studio. We looked at the movie theater that we use now. We looked at a couple bars in town. We looked at a deli that had a really big like dining room that we thought maybe we could, like, get away with. And in the end, we settled on kind of these core venues, the American Legion Hall with the bingo board on the stage that everyone loved so much and a church and a library and an old high school that reopened as a music venue today. And we bring in professional sound and lights and try to you know, we want to make sure the back bands sound as good as possible, but most of it is just super grassroots and really low budget.
Kyle:
We're living in a time where religious nuns are growing, so a live music venue can be considered a house of sacred sounds, a nexus of architecture, social gathering and sonics, and also a bridge that connects generations. And when everything is aligned, emotion is transmitted.
And there is constant conversation between architecture and sound, which affects how the music is heard. And more importantly, how we listen. And this pragmatic realization is the foundation to appreciating the physical building and its purpose within a shared experience.
Meg:
A venue is a place where you can go see a band, you either you may know them, you may not know them, but no matter what everybody is there is there for the same purpose. They're there to take in music. To have a new experience, to dance, to remembers things, to forget things. So a venue is just as really beautiful communal space. And I love it. Like, I love like sharing a look with someone I don't know. And we're both thinking this band is awesome or like this is the best night or I know that sounds super cheesy, but it's really true. And I think that's why stay in music because it's, you know, making those moments for not just myself but for other people is really cool.
Kyle:
Yeah, like you're a curator of concerts. And by doing that, you're curating like people coming together and and thinking as one. And it's just so neat when you repurpose buildings to a venue like talk to me more about that process just a little bit, because I think it's so special. What you've done here in Belfast is like taking these buildings, knowing that they can cater to a certain sound. And what is that process like? Like I just walked from a heavy metal to maybe more of like a alternative, like sound like. But this sound really won't make sense. Maybe at a different building, like, is that part of your process? Like listening to the sounds per the room?
Meg:
Yeah, I think. I think when I finally decide what bands I want to book, then it's sitting down and thinking, OK, well, this band is really loud, so they should probably be in, you know, a larger room. And this band is really folky. So they sound really sweet and they look really beautiful in a movie theater. And, you know, my friend Ginny is a musician. She has an incredible voice and she actually is a very religious woman. And so to put her in the church today and see her just belting it out in a church full of people was really awesome, you know. And so you do you think about the type of band, you think about the sound, you think about the type of crowd they're going to bring to. Because we made the mistake of putting Spose in a small venue the first year. And I I'm surprised I lived to tell the story. Fans were so mad that they couldn't get in like
Kyle:
So a quick side note on Spose here. He's a prolific hip hop artist and entrepreneur from Wells, Maine. Last year, he made a mobile video game app to support his album. Good luck with your life, where you can collect pinecones and battle. Former Governor LePage to be the king of Maine. He also hosts a podcast where he interviews other entrepreneurs and musicians. And it's his passion for creative collaboration that keeps fans coming back for more. That and clever lyricism, fun music videos and a true love for Maine.
Meg:
Yeah, there's a lot of thought. I think people don't realize how much plotting and scheming goes into these type of things.
Kyle:
Would you say the history adds to the character of a space and to like the vibe of the performance?
Meg:
Oh, I think definitely. I think, you know, when you go to like a venue that's completely polished and you know what to expect your expectations are different when you come to something like this where you know you're in a freakin high school from 1923, you know, your expectations are a little different. And it really allows you to like get your mind away from like how perfect everything has to be and really just enjoy what the moment is. And the band that's playing and the fact that you're in a gymnasium right now.
Kyle:
Located right next door to the Crosby Center, is the first church of Belfast which boasts an original Paul Revere bell inside. You can't help but be quiet and respectful. It's just ingrained in us to act differently in a church. But once the band begins, all that goes out the window. Spirituality is felt, but not in a religious sense. The acoustics are great in here, but it's sort of hard to dance in between pews.
Meg:
I think when we added the church not last year, but we added at the second year it became the favorite venue. And I do have bands that'll reach out and be like, you know, put in requests for venues they'd like to play or whatever. It is definitely the favorite. Everybody wants to play in there because of the sound and the vibe. And like I think for some musicians, it's like a dream for some reason, just like rock out at church.
Kyle:
How would you describe Maine in general on the musical map? I feel like compared to the rest of the states I visited for music. It's its own genre.
Meg:
Well, I think Maine musicians in general are unapologetically original. They do their own music. They make their own sounds. I just think that somehow, like music, like musicianship and creating and storytelling is just kind of ingrained.
Kyle:
The sentiment echoes John Fishman, the drummer of Phish. From our interview at the community radio station in Belfast, where he has a weekly show.
Fishman:
I think there's some pretty great bands that the two beds are really stick out. For me, there was this when Bernie Sanders was running. For office, I I I did this one day where I sat in with like 10, 12 bands and 12 hours or something from P- from Portland to Fort Kent. It was like this incredible marathon of sitting in with bands. It was like one or two songs. And that was I met the Mallett brothers doing that, sang with them. They they really impressed me. That's one of the things I liked about the band was the storytelling. And it's one of the things I like about the Mallett brothers love to shop. And the Ghost of Paul Revere, we're the ones that, you know, I went Oh, those guys are pretty cool.
That they're really Maine, you know, lore. And I really start to get into that. I didn't know anything about any of these bands at first, and the other band is this band See People See Peoples from, I think they're from Portland. They were great there. And they're totally they're all three of those bands are totally different. One was like SeePeoples was a little more good and weird.
Meg:
You know, John Fishman lives in Lincoln Ville Lake, not that far from here. So he's playing tonight. And when he agreed to play this, I almost died like he's drumming with the mallets tonight. I know this is a week. This developed a week ago.
Kyle:
Wait. OK. Back out. Are you kidding me? Right. OK. Just start over.
Meg:
So Jon Fishman of Phish is drumming with the Mallett Brothers band tonight to close out this venue.
Kyle:
Did he reach out to you or how did this transpire?
Meg:
So they had played. They were doing that. They've been doing this kind of tour around. And it was like, you know, two drummers, Chuck, still drums and then John drums. And they did it at Port City. And I booked there and sold out. It was great. And now it's played at bay. Being rich exchange. And they sold it out. And so we knew he was like familiar with us and with the venue and all that stuff in the festival, obviously. So Scott Mueller, who's the agent for Mallets, I was just like, what are the odds that this would happen? And like months ago, he was like, not good, probably not good. And I was like, all right. I figured, you know. And then like three weeks ago, I like I think I sent an e-mail with the subject. I'm like, Dude tell me what I got to do. You know what I mean? And then, like he responded, he was like, I don't know. I don't know. And then he got back to me like a week later. He's like, you're good to announce Fishman whenever you want. And I'm like, what?
Kyle:
And based on my interview with him, he had a kick ass time.
Fishman:
As much as I love Madison Square Garden and the big stages and all that. It's great. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's awesome. And the festivals and everything. But I really do kind of like the little rooms. I do. I like I like going in little clubs and like that VFW hall thing, you know, that is as fun a place to play as any place really.
Kyle:
For Meg and everyone at launch pad, their vision is simplicity and sustainability.
Meg:
I'm not gonna bring in Ferris wheels in Year 5. I'm not you know, I'm not gonna change the game up in out of film festival next year. It's literally just about the bands and it's just about the indoor venues. And people have asked about outdoor stages and things like that. I don't think we'll ever do it. It's it's just what this is now is what it is. So and I'm totally content with that. And if we get to a point where a we cap out, we only sell a thousand tickets, I'm totally fine with that. I don't feel like I need to add six more venues. You know, I don't I don't I think it would lose. I think it would lose part of itself if it got that big and out of control.
Kyle:
They're also very focused on developing the music and art scene in Bangor.
Meg:
I'd been in Bangor eight years and I obviously really enjoy music and going to shows. And there was a point four years ago where I opened an art gallery in Bangor called Central Gallery that was supposed to be an art gallery, realistically. And then when I got going, I was like, how do people make money owning an art gallery? And they don't. And so a bunch of bands like local bands convince me to let them play in there. And I fought it for so long. It was like, this is terrible. Like, no one's gonna want to come to your loud show in a tiny room, but everybody did. And so we started building this audience and this following. And the next thing we knew, we really outgrew it. And we had to kind of decide if we were gonna stay in that small space or look for something larger. So we did we partner with the Bangor symphony and got this big space. So, yeah, we share it with them. Our offices are there. The Bangor Ballet has an office there. So it's really this collaborative space and launchpad. My organization is the primary music booker of the venue. So I buy all the talent there just like I do at Port City and for this festival. And it's really nice. How would you describe the space? It is a beautifully redone old space. I wish I could remember how old it was. There's a huge ballroom on the second floor with one of those like domed stages like so half the folk bands that we put in there don't even fit on it. When you get all the amps and everything, it was just a different time when they built it, you know. And back in the day, I guess, that the symphony used to play there like in the 20s or 30s. Like that's how old the spaces. So to be in there, it's really beautiful.
Kyle:
On that note, we stroll together from the high school towards the VFW hall where she needs to be for the next show. We walked by the church and a row of adorable houses and split the sidewalk with some other festi goers. When we arrive, she effortlessly shifts into work mode, happily greeting people coming into the hall. I bid adieu and head across the street to the Colonial, an art deco movie theater from the 1920s. Just look for Hawthorne, a big grey elephant on top. Inside, the smell of popcorn washed through the air and I hear a siren. Esq voice.
It begins to guide me through a series of passages underneath the building, which eventually opens up into what feels like a double decker shoe box with satin lining. I find a spot in the back in seep into the dizzying sounds of Portland based singer Katie Metzl, who's singing Better Late than Never.
Afterwards, she explains that the song is about balancing ambition as an artist with her relationship to her husband, who's also in the band. She wears emotions on her sleeve and you could feel underneath that song many different layers to her soul.
From the Colonial, I walk over to Rollie's pub and grill. Always a fun time in here. It's wicked laid back but known to get rowdy. I'm mow down on their signature dish. The haddock sandwich. And once I'm adequately refueled, I jam back over the high school for the Mallett Brothers band whose raging with Fishman.
I reluctantly peel myself away from the encore because I want to get to Marshall Wharf, 3Tides, a restaurant here, host the closing party and insider tip you definitely don't want to be shut out of it. Walking back towards the harbor front is awesome. Why? Because we've come full circle. And because it rained during the show, and now that it's stopped, I can almost hear the lamp light shimmering on the street.
When I get to 3Tides, I order a dozen oysters because this place is known for their fresh oysters and compare show notes with people at the bar.
I love this part about a festival experience debriefing with others and exchanging favorite moments while dancing the night away on a bed of crunchy oyster shells. It's not hard to notice everyone smiling. This might be my favorite moment.
Announcer:
There are dozens of places to stay while visiting Belfast. We recommend the Gull. A roadside motel from the 1950s. It's affordable, clean and offers great access to both main street culture and coastal hiking trails.
If you're lucky to stay downtown proper. Definitely grab a room at the Belfast Bay. It is elegant and charming, with a cool courtyard and walking distance to restaurants and more on the next episode.
We drive down east and dig into main saltier sounds. Stay at the Lucky Stone retreat in Sullivan and hear from locals on why this remote region is so inspiring.
“My work is influenced by the quiet. It's a really, really great nurturing place for artists to set up their studios and work.”
Announcer:
This has been a good to go. Studios production created by Kyle Lamont Type in ConcertCast.Live to build your own music centric itinerary and find this on Spotify to listen to our main music playlist.
This episode was mastered by Portland Pod, Maine's first podcasting studio located in southern Maine. Special thanks to Meg Shorette and everyone that All Roads Music Festival. Jon Fishman and Vic Treadwell at 100.9 WBFY Belfast Community Radio. Mark Tekushan, our resident mastermind. Capture the Sun for their song. When the Sun Met the Ocean, Spose for his song King of Maine. Katie Matzell for their song Better Late than Never. Mallett Brother's Band for their live recording Ghost of Paul Revere for their song Ballad of the 20th Maine SeePeople's for their song Other Side and to Emma Thieme and Maven Leather Pepper Little, Abbey Rock Jessiman, Corey Channeler, Amy Charley, Kaili Rose, Tanner Campbell, Cara Romano. And thank you for listening.