The first two words in Rock On Fest are “rock” and “on,” which would imply a festival of either something geological or something musical. Thankfully – for most of us, anyway – this fest falls into the latter category. To all of the geology fans out there, sorry, this isn’t the moment you’ve been waiting your whole lives for.
Either way, the musical acts at Rock On Fest will be good enough for everyone to enjoy – even geologists!
One of the main purposes of the festival is to highlight and showcase some talented musicians who you may not have heard on the radio or seen on MTV (do people even still watch MTV?). And there’s a focus on indie, kind of underground music, the type that tends to get largely ignored by the mainstream.
That’s because Concord legends Luke and Matt Bonner have always been big fans of that type of music, and they love sharing that with their home city. Luke, who handles all the music arrangements, knows a lot of music that you and I have never heard of, so this is a chance to sort of spread the wealth around.
“The goal is to bring in a couple out-of-town bands who maybe never played here, but we think people will love,” Luke Bonner said. In this respect, it’s a win-win for everyone: the band gets to check out a cool city and the people of the city get to check out a cool band.
Bonner said he and his brother like to think of themselves as “ambassadors for the state,” and they really kind of are. By bringing all these acts to Concord from all over – this year features bands from Canada and Ohio, for example – the Bonners are really showing off the city they grew up in.
This year they’ll be showing off Concord to The Snaz, Skinny Bones, Dirty Bangs, Jason Anderson, Saintseneca and Born Ruffians.
Born Ruffians and Saintseneca are essentially dual headliners. These bands have been on tours around the world with acts like Franz Ferdinand, so they’re kind of a big deal to be coming to a free show in Concord.
Born Ruffians will be schlepping down from Ontario, and Saintseneca will make the trek from Columbus, Ohio. Jason Anderson lives in New Hampshire, so it’s not as much of a commute for him. Same goes for Dirty Bangs and The Snaz, who hail from Boston and Brattleboro, Vt., respectively. (The drummer for Dirty Bangs is the nephew of a San Antonio Spurs employee, and if you don’t know the connection between Concord and the Spurs by now, you don’t deserve to be told here.)
The lineup features different kinds of musicians from different parts of the world, so the result can only be diversity, which is never really a bad thing. And that’s part of why the festival exists in the first place.
“Building culture and kind of a soul for the state, I think that there’s not enough of that sort of thing going on,” Bonner said.
If you want to help build that culture and soul, make sure you get to White Park by about 1 p.m. Saturday, because the music starts about 20 minutes after and doesn’t really slow down until the end of the night. It’s all free, so there’s really no downside to this, unless you hate fun.
