Lamont takes you to a drive-in concert in Farmington, Maine to talk with The Mallett Brothers Band plus their fans and the owner of the drive-in to experience what it is like to safely enjoy a concert from your car.
Announcer: Every music venue has a story, a culture, and each is a portal to discovery. Kyle Lamont, host and producer of Concert Cast, is your guide on a journey through today's concert culture. Season one. A road trip around Maine was released in the wake of a global pandemic rocked by the cataclysmic shift. Lamont began to document the movement in season two will connect deeper with thought leaders who are creatively adapting and recalibrating the next rendition of concert going and culture. In this episode, Lamont takes you to a drive in concert in Farmington, Maine, to talk with the Mallett Brothers band, plus their fans and the owner of the drive in to experience what it's like to safely enjoy a concert from their car.
Kyle Lamont: We've all been there on a road trip, driving along your merry way up into the music you're in cruise control, all relaxed, and then all of a sudden you see a detour sign and you have to take an alternative route. Immediately you feel flustered, like what the f this is going to be a mess will I get lost. Will I show up late? You spiral. But then being the courteous citizen that you are, you follow the signs and cross your fingers. They lead you back on track because is there really any other option? The metaphor for live music venues being closed right now couldn't be more striking and ironically, it's sort of what happened on my road trip from Elsworth to Farmington. I was distraught at first, but then embraced the moment because what else could I do? The route ended up being gorgeous, rolling green hills farm country for days and lots of little general stores. I'm obsessed with little general stores. I made it to Farmington with time to wander through the woods and decompress from the ride. Sun shone from the trees like little rays from heaven. The smell of sweet Maine was intoxicating, and I was rewarded with a hidden, yet very humble waterfall. Afterwards, I got back in my chariot and drove down Main Street in search of narrow gauge cinema, which was not hard to find, Farmington is home to Maine's current governor and is a humane college town, normally buzzing with hormonal coeds. Covid silencing was audible as I pulled into the brand new parking lot at the cinema, fans were lining up in their cars, which felt a lot like waiting to get into the grounds at a music festival. And while fans mingled in a new, socially distant way, sweet sounds of music beckoned me. I followed it and as I turned the corner, I was taken aback by a wide open field of bright green grass and a jaw-dropping view of Rangeley Mountain. The sweet sounds were coming from the Mallet Brothers band who were warming up with a psychedelic jam, listening to their rhythmic and hypnotic guitar loops with pulsing drum beats while the sun kissed my cheeks reminded me of daylight dancing at my first music festival wakarusa. The only things missing were noodle dancers, clouds of ganja smoke, a maze of hula hoopers, wild totem poles and yeah people standing shoulder to shoulder. I closed my eyes to take in the vibes when you close your eyes at a concert. What do you see? This music had me writing a big slide, like the kind at a water park, but there was no water, rather air time and space. I was going in and out of bright pockets of nostalgia and dark nothingness, it was fun and it was enlightening. I love how music can create images behind your eyes. And it felt so good to feel the bass massaging my feet. When the jam came to a close, my ride was over and I reluctantly opened my eyes and it was then when it hit me that this was my first concert since February. It was now time to grab my recording gear and meet Luke, the lead singer of the band. I was a bit tongue tied after months of no socialising, but the band members personalities immediately put me at ease. I set up our interview in front of the massive screen, which is 28 by 64 feet, and I used my XLR cord as a way to maintain social distance between us. Luke and his amber colored beard were glowing, backlit by the setting sun.And we're rolling. Hot Mic, hot mic
Luke: Perfect.
Kyle Lamont: OK, so how are you feeling after sound check?
Luke: Really good. Really good after soundcheck. And this is night two. So we already kind of know what we're in for. But last night was definitely a little bit nerve racking. It took a minute to get in the groove, I guess. But after that was over with. This is easy today.
Kyle Lamont: What do you mean get into the groove?
Luke: Well, it's been a while. Since March we've played two private like outdoor gigs for very small groups of people. And other than that, we've been spending. We took about three months off, straight up, off. We didn't see each other. We didn't do anything. We all kind of just posted up at home. And then we started getting back in the studio around the beginning of June, I guess. And since then, we've been in the studio like three, four days a week. So that's been good. We've been doing a lot of that, but it's a very different thing than the live show, which we were kind of killing ourselves doing for ten years, you know, four or five nights a week every week. So last night, getting up here in front of a bunch of people doing a full rock show, you felt rusty for the first four or five songs. But it just kind of feels normal after that.
Kyle Lamont: Like riding a bicycle, as they say. Is it nice to hear humans?
Luke: Yes.
Kyle Lamont: Again?
Luke: Yes. Yes. It's kind of I think it's part of what we all fall in love with as musicians anyway. It's just one of the best parts of the job. So it's cool. And they get to honk their horns, too. And that's always fun to hear. It's a very different thing than we're used to, but it seems to be working for a lot of people right now. So I'm glad to see it happening here in Maine.
Kyle Lamont: Which is and thanks to John Moore, he's the owner who's been in the cinema industry since he was 17. He built the cinema in 1995 and has been renovating it one theater at a time. This is the fourth year as they drive in movie theater, but the first one as a concert venue. Did you ever think in your wildest dreams when you broke ground here to remodel that this would be happening?
John Moore: No, I mean, I threw so much at the wall and hoped something would stick. You know, a lot of I got a lot of rejections, but, you know, then, you know, kind of after a while, Ghost of said they do it. And then once that went pretty well, then Rusty came in and and the Mallet boys came in. People are so happy to be outside. I mean, it's just, you know, they were just happy. And it's great to work when people when, you know, there's no bitching, no carping. It's like you're out there. You just and and people are happy to see you.
Kyle Lamont: It's not hard to find Moore at the venue. He's diligently orbiting, talking with people whose pods are too close, checking in with the band, his security guard and the tech crew. So are you, like, super stressed?
John Moore: Nobody wants that to be come back on them, someone getting sick, you know, and I'm you know, I'm a little bit older than I used to be, so I don't want to get sick. I don't want my staff to get sick. But I also think we're outside. Maine has a very low rate. We're very diligent. Could something happen? Something can happen anywhere, right? I mean, we know that. But outside spread apart like this. Always a good breeze through here, you know? I mean, we can't completely stop living. You know, I think that's the bottom line.
Kyle Lamont: The Drive-In has hosted Maine's biggest names, the Ghost of Paul Revere broke in the stage. And even Bob Marley, A Maine comedian has performed here. But Luke and his band were waiting a bit, playing it safe.
Luke: When all this came down, we were very quick to be like, we're not going to be the first kids in the pool for any of it. You know, we kind of wanted to just we weren't really in a rush to get back at it. We're still not. We're doing a few things where, you know, they're very scattered, they're all outdoor. Anything we're saying yes to is kind of outdoor gigs with not a lot of people.
Kyle Lamont: For Moore safety and social distance is the key to making this work. There is a fifty five car max capacity with four people to a car, but it's only natural for people to want to get close and talk and dance.
John Moore: So for social distancing, you know, you see how the everybody's poded up into nice groups and then you've got this little bit of pod where there's two or three cars that are coming together. So that's what we're going to change at the break. We'll ask them to go to their individual cars and keep that separation. And then what we'll ultimately Do I get up on the roof and I'll take a picture down from above so that I can actually see how it's separated from above an aerial shot and that's that's how I do it. I'm OCD this way on on this issue. So that's served us well so far. So we're going to keep doing it.
Announcer: Up next, Luke talks about his song Lighter, and then we'll hang out with the guys in the green room before they take the stage.
Kyle Lamont: Joe and his dad on Shakedown Street at Bonnaroo. The Tennessee sun is blazing and Joe is beaming.
Joe: Eyes wide open and there's vendors just overwhelmed with just so much potential. Here for me to explore that first impression was, wow, this is going to be something. And they're thirsty, you know, very ready to have an ice cold beer. I've got a tie dye on, as does my dad. I'm just starting to grow my hair out. And I got some hemp necklaces that I probably made that smell of mud and hay straw that's, you know, permeating the air. And my dad just spotted it. The top handle on a kegerator was like, look, but they got fat tire. And I was like, OK, it's a beer. I'm not familiar. And he's, you know, he's familiar with it. He's like, no, we got to stop and drink one of these. That's what fathers and sons that's what they want, right. Where it's like, all right, son, now the training wheels come off. Here's the good stuff.
Kyle Lamont: They walk up to the keg. And in true friendly festival form, they're offered two cold ones, particularly excited that it was like it was on tap. They marvel at the perfect core when you're watching it fill, especially when you're thirsty. And in the sun, it's like kind of lick in your lips, a little in anticipation. And then I just distinctly remember taking the first sip. It's got like the right amount of carbonation. And it was cold. It was crisp and it was, you know, fresh. It just really struck me that flavor, the Malti ness of it, hearty, comforting taste. And it was like a biscuit.
Kyle Lamont: It was love at first, Fat Tire.
Joe: And it was like, I love it. I'm in on it now. Now I get it. I think every time I've had a fat tire, I recall that first moment. And there's, I guess, a reverence.
Announcer: Relive your first fat tire with a cold one from Drizzly or from a local retailer near you.
Kyle Lamont: Well, I love your new single lighter,
Luke: Thank you.
Kyle Lamont: What's that all about?
Luke: It has this whole burn everything down and start over kind of vibe to it. So I think we just kind of took that and ran it seemed topical all of a sudden.
Kyle Lamont: It's becoming sadly clear that this the concert industry is like a Phoenix, you know, things are burning down and we have to just stay busy to rebuild.
Luke: The people I'm most worried about are are the venues even more than the musicians? Because we can all we're all used to living on nothing anyway. And generally our overhead is kind of low. Like we've got a fan payment and we've got to pay rent at our space and and we've got to try and pay each other ourselves sometimes. But these venues, you know, the independent venues are just it's terrifying what's happening to them. And we've already seen our favorite, you know, one of our favorite rooms, Port City Music Hall, has gone under the buildings up, at least right now. We've been telling everybody I'm a big advocate of the NIVA. The National Independent Venue Association is doing a bunch of stuff as far as lobbying goes. They've got their website set up so that you can you can just click a button and sign a letter and they'll send it to all the important people. And that's really, I think, what they need. I think they just need some support from from on high right now.
Kyle Lamont: Their fans are helping the band sustain a living.
Luke: They've been crazy supportive, not just in the live streams, which is what we have done for live streaming. Everything has been by donation or tip jar kind of stuff. You know, we're not charging people to watch that stuff online. So we're grateful that people are willing to throw down for that. You know, they've been more than happy to tip us online and pay for all the new t shirts. And that's huge. That's huge for us.
Kyle Lamont: Ok, so I'm with Fran and Bob, you guys are super fans. And how does it feel to be at Mallet Brothers Show for the first time and how many months?
Fran & Bob: Well, when's the last show we saw? In February at the Moose Alley in Rangeley. And it's so it's kind of surreal. It is surreal. Yeah, surreal that we haven't seen the boys, which they're family. And so it's really good to see everybody and see them. It's such good energy music and it just renews my soul so much. And to finally be able to see this like, oh, I'm pumped, I'm pumped,
Kyle Lamont: And you don't even care if it's in this situation with a car, in a car and distant?
Fran & Bob: Well, we wouldn't go we wouldn't go to a bar to see them. Yeah, I wouldn't go inside. Yeah. Because she's been battling cancer and thank God she's cancer free and it's just she's a miracle. So we're going to celebrate that tonight.
Kyle Lamont: So if you were to tell someone who's never heard of Mallett Brothers before, what would you say about their music and about their live show?
Fran & Bob: Well, see it live. There's nothing like the live performance, and it's so unbelievably energizing. And the camaraderie, the friendship, it goes back to the Grateful Dead days. The people, the friends that all these people these are people we just know from The Mallet brothers. And these are friends for life. From going to Mallet Brothers Shows.
Kyle Lamont: Love that.
Fran & Bob: Thank you very much. You want to go party?
Kyle Lamont: On the venue side of things, there hasn't been a profit, but rather an investment.
John Moore: You know, we're new to this, so I don't have a playbook of how to do this. And we just kind of do what we think is right and hopefully make it a make it a of players. This is in this for just a second.
Kyle Lamont: We pause to listen to the band, announce a message from their sponsor.
John Moore: Yeah. From my standpoint, we really won't hit the stride until we can sell a couple beers at night.
Kyle Lamont: For now, John will take the gamble and trust fans and fans will keep coming back for more. And when the beer starts to flow, his $75,000 stage will earn its keep.
Luke: So this is basically like a normal weekend for us. It's probably the first normal business weekend that we've had since March. So you've got to find other ways. And so far it's a really good alternative.
Kyle Lamont: Luke heads off to get ready for the show and I walk around the lot to take in the atmosphere. It feels a lot like a musical version of a football tailgate. Cars and trucks are decked out screaming personality. I even notice someone has brought their kitchen table and chairs. Fans are definitely embracing the situation. So technically speaking, Drive-Ins pump in the audio through the car speakers. Was that in play? Originally?
John Moore: It was. That's a good question because originally that's the way we thought. Oh, we'll just, you know, we'll we won't have to do a big P.A. system. We'll just listen to it. Not the way to do it. I mean, if you want to have live music, it's got to be live and it's got to be you know, and as we go down, the night goes on. This is going to get a little louder. You know, they're going to crank it up. Jack brought his, you know, his A-game. So we'll have him turn it off even more as the night goes on. We have a hard deadline of 10:00, but there's nothing like live music, right? It needs to be live. I don't think it needs to be coming to, you know, someone who, you know, is a safety secure. They can be in their car, rolled down their windows, be still isolated, enjoy the concert, but still be in their vehicle more.
Kyle Lamont: Did not intend for his cinema to be a drive-in concert venue. But he thinks that once Covid passes, it could be a legitimate Mid-level venue.
John Moore: Yeah, once this is all over, we'll be able to have 500 people in here and it'll be fun and then we'll be able to live stream it.
Kyle Lamont: I catch up with the band backstage, a.k.a. the Woods, where their vintage conversion van is doubling as their dressing room. I have to stop myself from poking my head in to check out the retro interior because well covid has you questioning people's personal space at all times now, but the boys are hanging out, smoking doobies, making jokes and genuinely enjoying the moment. These are the kind of guys you could hang out with all freakin night. How are you feeling?
Will: Oh, so excited. So happy to be gigging again.
Kyle Lamont: That's Will, Mallet, Luke's younger brother who plays the electric. Is this like the coolest green room ever? We're out in the woods!
Will: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we prefer it.
Kyle Lamont: This is your happy place?
Will: Just playing a show outside in general, too. Usually in the summer. We're doing it all the time. And so we kind of get used to it. And this year we haven't been doing as much, obviously. So just. Yeah, being outside, turning the amps up.
Luke: Yeah. I mean, it's a big thing putting something on right now. It's a tall order. You know, I think he's doing a really good job though. I'm stoked to see it going so smooth.
Kyle Lamont: What's the first song out of the gate boys.
Luke: The Iren our Fishing Song. We're playing a fishing song in the mountains.
Kyle Lamont: I joined them down the hill towards the screen. There's no opening band tonight unless you count the summer crickets. The band does a final check in with each other. I can sense the giddiness. They take that energy and walk out onto the stage
Luke: Hello Farmington! How we doing tonight? We're the Mallet brother's band, and it's good to be here tonight. So get Ready to party.
Kyle Lamont: Ocean sound and lighting, the tech crew for this venue has nailed it. The sound is booming and they've rigged up multiple cameras to project different angles of the band onto the huge screen behind them. I can immediately tell that the band and fans are back in cruise control, finding their lane again dancing and happy. Since the Ghost of Paul Revere first took the stage here, Moore has removed a row of cars in the front to maximize the sightlines and to have a small patch of grass for friends and family of the band to dance on. I see two girls twirling around and overhear one of them say how they're out of shape. And I must admit I'm having a hard time striking up conversation with them like I normally would at a concert rather than just walking up to them. I throw on my mask wave to get their attention and hand them a separate microphone to get their feelings on everything going down. I just heard you're out of dancing shape.
Dancing Girls: Yeah it's been a long covid summer.
Kyle Lamont: How does it feel to be dancing right now?
Dancing Girls: Oh, it feels so good. Live music outside August night. It can get much better than this.
Kyle Lamont: How many times have you seen these guys?
Dancing Girls: A lot I don't even know. We live up in Carrabassett Valley, and they used to play up there all the time before Covid. So we're missing them.
Kyle Lamont: So this will be a memorable one, huh?
Dancing Girls: Oh, yeah, this is awesome. And, you know, it's almost like you have your own little space and nobody can infiltrate your bubble. It's kind of like the perfect scenario. So I love drive-in concerts!
Kyle Lamont: Their energy inspires me to dance, too. I take off my shoes to feel the grass between my toes, to feel the sonic vibrations, to feel the impermanence. Being removed from people was an adjustment. But for the most part, the music does its job. It allows me to temporarily be in the moment, remove the covid stress and what this experience reflects. I opened my eyes and remind myself that this is just a detour and a pleasant one at.
Announcer: Little things that go along with Donate to NIVA, the National Independent Venue Association, to save our stages and buy some merchant music at MallettBrothersBand.com. Special thanks to New Belgium Brewing Company, Victoria Schnauder, Oliver Burkat, Joe Biglin and to our resident mastermind Mark Tekushan. Editor and engineer is Peter McGill. Supervising producers are Heidi Stanton-Drew Alex Halky and Exenia Rocco. Special thanks to Luke Mallet, John Moore, Pepper Little, Amy Charley, Cara Romano, Eddie Contento, Jesse Couto. And thank you for listening.