For nearly a decade, Emily Burnham of the Bangor Daily News has been setting out to discover all that the Bangor area has to offer: food, fashion, and especially music. One of her passions seems to be the burgeoning indie rock scene that has attracted so many locals and non-locals alike, with bands from Portland, The County, and just about everywhere in-between. Its apotheosis may very well occur this Saturday, February 18 at 9:30pm at Paddy Murphy’s in Bangor. More on that shortly.
“2011 feels a little bit like a vindication of sorts, for me,” Burnham wrote last December. “I’ve spent the better part of a decade immersing myself in the Bangor area music scene.” Usually, she laments, “bands come and go, venues open and close, and nothing ever really sticks. Until now, that is. 2011 was the year that Bangor actually started to have a real, exciting music scene.” And while much of the action could be classified as indie rock, the numerous open mic nights at local bars, the many outside festivals across the state, and the fusion of eclectic musical styles into singular venues have sparked a revolution of sorts for the state, especially in Bangor.
Part of the glue that binds these bands with such extraordinary range — from rock to jazz to country to blues to punk and beyond — is When Particles Collide (WPC), a rock duo whose trajectory Burnham has so proficiently tracked since their 2010 inception. WPC’s efforts to bring together so many non-mainstream groups has not gone unnoticed.” Dispatch Magazine, a publication and website that covers the arts and cultures of Maine and New Hampshire, writes that “not only is the music captivating and full of energy, When Particles Collide brings a stage presence that will sink its hooks right into you. Trust me, you won’t be able to take your eyes off of them.” Building upon that buzz, WPC’s website reports that “the number of requests from artists to perform in the Bangor area in the coming months has been staggering to say the least.”
January, 2012 alone saw five songwriters convening at Nocturnem Drafthaus in Bangor, eight bands performing at the Bear Brew Pub in Orono, and the “funky” up-and-comers Frank and the Redhots rounding out the month at the Bear Brew. And vanity is certainly the last motivator on these bands’ minds. The communal experience of an intimate, live audience is more than many struggling bands come to attain; getting a mix of multiple audiences crisscrossing multiple performers is reward enough in and of itself. Redhots guitarist and co-founder Ben Menzie says “we’re not trying to get famous or get on MTV. We’re not trying to be serious. We’re just having fun.”
That aim — a purely anti-capitalist one that directly aligns with the political ideologies of many countercultures — may someday lead to record deals and chart-topping songs, and has already for some. But the primary aspiration for many of these artists is the energy and satisfaction that comes with playing offbeat, non-normative, experimental music for lively, engaged, and diverse audiences. This Saturday’s combination of two swiftly uprising bands — Boxes and Temperature of the Sun (TOTS) — is looking to be a high point of the Bangor indie phenomenon.
Boxes, a unique five-person band with two lead singers (one male, one female), Burnham describes, features “enmeshed, passionate vocals [that] give an urgency and complexity to Boxes’ sound.” Their “Running Out” is a post-Nirvana, post-emo soulful blend of non-traditional meter and crescendo, of which a live recording says much more than what I could put into words. TOTS is more indie-pop oriented, with a blazing female lead and a song called “Bitch” that puts the 1997 Meredith Brooks song of the same title to shame. TOTS co-founder and lead guitarist Josh Strange describes their sound with telltale hippie vernacular: “Our music almost has an alt country twang to it, combining a 60’s/50’s pop feel, and of course the indie rock flavor.”
It is certain that the combination of these fresh bands this Saturday is an event not to be missed, especially for the counterculturalist in all of us. Even the Beach Boys are coming to Bangor this June (tickets go on sale February 24th). And while they're not exactly indie, their presence is certainly welcome. As Burnham put it recently, “the future is bright, kids.”
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