The Music and Art in Wright Park festival, an annual event that carries on the torch of Tacoma's original Music in the Park festival, has a lot to do with history. A LOT.
But it's also about Tacoma's future, and specifically its musical future. The seeds that have grown into the Music and Art in Wright Park festival sprouted here, so to speak - young men and women in Tacoma's blue-collar, underdog music scene that over time have become old(er) men and women in Tacoma's blue-collar, underdog music scene. Their ethic, so quintessentially Tacoma, a mix of who-gives-a-fuck moxie and blind determination, permeates the yearly rock and art extravaganza - which this time around will go down Saturday, Aug. 21 at Wright Park.
In some ways (seeming subtleties that may be as important as the music itself) Music and Art in Wright Park is about passing on what makes Tacoma's music scene special. High schoolers with hair in their eyes plug in next to Girl Trouble and The Fucking Eagles. Tattooed moms and dads outfit their kids with gun range earmuffs and give them a rare, impression-forming glimpse into Tacoma's usually 21-plus sweaty rock club scene.
Generations mingle. Ideals are passed.
"One of the main reasons I do this, I don't know about everyone else, is for the kids," says Cody Foster, who along with Ken Johnson, Bennett Thurman, Roxanne Wolfe and Donna Herren, is responsible for this year's Music and Arts in Wright Park festival.
"Music shit kept me out of jail."
"Tacoma people are very, very hometown proud," says Reylan Fernandez, whose band the Dignitaries are on this year's Music and Art in Wright Park lineup along with names like Twink the Wonderkid, the aforementioned Girl Trouble and Fucking Eagles, Mico De Noche, Foster's C.F.A., Gold Teeth, Pioneers West, I Defy, Stone Axe and others. "This festival is so Tacoma. It's got a ‘Let's just do this' attitude."
Let's just do this
That "Let's just do this," attitude has been with the festival since the beginning, and it's been a necessity. Like most worthwhile endeavors in Tacoma, Music and Art in Wright Park, even back when it started as simply Music in the Park in 1993, required the hell or high water leadership of some of Grit City's finest - scrappy visionaries too stubborn to fail, or too hardheaded to give up. The very first Music in the Park bill, orchestrated mainly by Johnson and Thurman, who at the time was the man behind Wrecking Ball Records, featured Girl Trouble, Katie's Dimples, Portrait of Poverty and Spuj (among others). With Johnson running the Music in the Park ship from 1993 - '96, its notoriety slowly grew, and the festival ingrained itself as part of Tacoma's psyche. Even after Johnson moved on, letting the festival lay dormant for four years before Chris "Trashcan" Miller picked up the ball and produced three Music in the Park shows during the summer of 2001, there was something about this event that seemed different. It felt like an idea so pure it had legs beyond the endurance of its creators.
This was proven unequivocally by last year's successful Music and Arts in Wright Park festival, brought back by Johnson, Thurman, Foster, Wolfe and Herren after an eight-year layoff, to an amazing reception.
Music and Arts in Wright Park has become a part of Tacoma.
For good, it seems.
"The main reason I did it to begin with was to see if I could. I saw it as a challenge," Johnson told the Volcano prior to last year's event.
Apparently, Johnson and crew still enjoy a good challenge; this year's endeavor hasn't been without its hurdles. For one, putting on festivals in public parks- especially all-day rock fests with heavy doses of the hard stuff - is rarely easy, and always requires a lot of hoop jumping. Secondly, because it's a free event, the everyday locals making the festival go have had to scrap for sponsors in a bum economy, putting themselves financially on the line if things go horribly wrong.
Still, the "Let's just do this" attitude carries them. This is Tacoma, after all.
"My credit score is on the line with the community," jokes Foster. "Really, we should take a month and a half off after the festival and then start planning the next one. It sounds like I'm fucking with you, but I'm not. It takes a lot of time. My family pays the price."
One generation to the next
Speaking of family, and the overriding theme of Music and Art in Wright Park as a vehicle to pass on Tacoma's music scene ethos, it was Foster's teenage daughter, Alicia Kain, that helped get the youngest band on this year's Music and Art in Wright Park bill, Clearcut the City (a band fresh out of high school that has since renamed itself Cities Without Anchors). At Alicia's suggestion, Foster checked out a recent Clear Cut the City show in Seattle and decided the band has the energy, passion and blue-collar work ethic that epitomize what Music and Art in Wright Park is all about. A short time later, he asked them to play.
"We've always aimed for a mix of young and old," says Foster. "That's definitely part of it."
"Aaron (Heslip, the band's bassist) knew about it. (Our knowledge of the festival) mostly came from him," says Kieran Bronson-Doherty, one of Clear Cut the City's guitarists. "Now we're getting hyped for it."
With a sound hardcore enough to run with Music and Art in Wright Park stalwarts, Clear Cut the City (or whatever you call them) - whether they know it or not - is about to get a first-class introduction to the DIY drive that make this scene tick. So will anyone that shows up. This is one of the many beauties of the event.
If they plan on being a band in this town for long, these lessons - on display for all - are well worth learning.
"It's cool that it's still going, and it showcases a lot of bands in a place and during hours when people wouldn't normally be able to see them," says Fernandez, whose brother Lino, the Dignitaries drummer, will literally be only weeks removed from a scooter accident and multiple surgeries when the band plugs in at Wright Park. According to Fernandez, the Dignitaries went to great measures to ensure they were on this year's Music and Arts in Wright Park bill, resorting to "a little bit of begging," he tells me with a laugh.
When asked why, the answer came without hesitation.
"It's a Tacoma thing."
"It was really easy to get people excited about the show this year," says Thurman. "It's really interesting to see how many bands out there really wanted to come out and play for free."
While Clear Cut the City may not fully realize what they've gotten themselves into, or it's place in Tacoma's history, it really doesn't matter. What's important is that the festival's ideals, and the selfless acts of Tacoman-ism that went into making it happen, will have been communicated loud and clear, just by the band being a part of it all.
"We do what we want. We're just there to have fun," says Clear Cut the Cities' Ian Jury.
They should fit right in.
Music and Art in Wright Park 2010
with Twink the Wonderkid, Girl Trouble, Clear Cut the City, The Speans, C.F.A., Stone Axe, I Defy, The Dignitaries, Good Gravy, Si Si Si, Pioneers West, James Hunnicutt, Lozen, The Fucking Eagles, Gold Teeth
Saturday, Aug. 21, noon to 7:30 p.m., no cover
Wright Park, 501 S. I St., Tacoma
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Comments for "Music and Art in Wright Park 2010" (9)
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Shawna Reid said on Aug. 14, 2010 at 10:37am
WOOHOO!!! Music in the Park is the best summer event in Tacoma.and it's FREE!!! I just wanted to say thanks to all the people on and off stage who make this possible.
Keep Rockin' :):):)
Park Life said on Aug. 15, 2010 at 12:31am
Maybe if said bands would experiment a bit more, and play something other than blue collar underdog music, then more people could enjoy music and art in a park beside the Tacoma stereotypes. Just an idea. I mean, music that behaves exclusive and repetitive to only one subculture is sort of wrong in a way. It kind of becomes a self gratifying event I think, and it excludes those who perhaps like a bit more experimentation in rock music. To say that blue collar working people only like and should only get garage rock is a little close minded and uncreative.
non-Tacoman said on Aug. 19, 2010 at 12:02pm
well-said Park Life. Let's not exclude the non-Tacomans. Think of how fun a music fest in Wright Park would be if there were thousands of people, not just hundreds. Course then somebody might charge for it egads. Thanks to the organizers, don't want to sound ungrateful! I'll be there!
Park Life said on Aug. 20, 2010 at 10:37pm
I didn't say bring in non-Tacomans. I said play music that isn't the same all the time. I grew up working class, discovered garage rock when I was a teenager, and then moved on. I'm not stuck in a 90's timewarp, and I think it's too bad some bands obviously are if only to provide the venues in the area with enough help in sales of alcohol. I am sure the owners of the New Frontier wouldn't object to thousands coming to Tacoma.
You can't say as a city you have state bragging rights, have dreams of being on the national map, AND keep all non-Tacoman's out at the same time. Doesn't make sense. Besides, charging for things? Isn't that how local business's survive? I think you have to go back through your algorithm there non-Tacoma, because the little robot on the screen ain't moving right.
Tacoma Transplant said on Aug. 21, 2010 at 9:02am
Huh. With all due respect, have you listened to all of the bands that are playing this event? My husband and I were just commenting on how varied the bands are this year - as they were last year. It's only the second year - how about waiting until later today to see what the turnout will be?
chris johnson said on Aug. 21, 2010 at 10:58am
Way to go, Ken!
Park Life said on Aug. 22, 2010 at 6:29pm
With all due respect this is a business model give away concert just for the self gratification of the bands and to keep people coming the rest of the year to the bars and venues to see these acts. If this were a benefit concert for something the city drastically needed, I'd say awesome. But this is just to keep the locals coming to see bands they don't even know why they like other than that they are local and always around, so that must be a good thing for them to spend their time on while they waste away at their blue collar jobs, oh and hey lets introduce kids to this so they'll know they'll always have beer, bars, and underdog bands when they drop out of college. Thank god for Seattle bands who actually make interesting music, thus contributing to the NW music scene as a whole by means of their eclectic efforts, and make it out of that blue collar holding pattern till death. I can't believe the quality of music coming out of Portland and Seattle still, and I am wondering is their something in the water that makes these Tacoma bands all just creatively underachieve, and then have the pathetic nerve to be proud of it?? I think the music in the park is a good thing, I'd like to see more eclectic acts, but if all Tacoma has are these usual suspect bands year after year, then at least tap that for something like a benefit concert instead of just free advertising for the local venue sweetheart bands.
Music Listener said on Aug. 23, 2010 at 10:52pm
Sounds to me that you don't know much about the tacoma music scene (after that last comment). I agree the music in the park was definitely weighted heavily towards one genre, but i would not go as far to say that Tacoma is creatively underachieved. You must not get out very much to see what's really going on in this town. Maybe you stopped listening for new music after the 90s, i don't know. There are many fantastic bands making headway and they don't follow in Seattle or Portland's footsteps. Try seeing Blanco Bronco, Trip the light, the Wheelies, Gold Wing, Night gowns, and Pioneers West (Pioneers West played early on Saturday). All of these bands have created their own unique sound that hopefully might stand for something in this town. Would you like Tacoma to produce the same music as Seattle and Portland? That would be creative underachievement. Besides, Seattle/Portland have the same problem as every town, if you actually go to each town and listen to them. They have the usual stuff as well as the Eclectic/progressional music.
And on a side note, bars are the best support bands get in this town. There are very few venues a new band can play at that doesn't serve alcohol (maybe a house party or the viaduct). I think it is great that local bars have started to convert their establishments into mini venues that can now, not only serve alcohol, but promote new music. If their alcohol sales does better because of the live music they promote, then i'm all for it. I mean, what have you done to promote music? They are the only ones really putting in the time and money to get events going inside and outside of there establishments.
The mix of younger musicians and older musicians at Music in the Park let's everyone hear everyone's music by not limiting to a specific age group. For some of these bands, young and old, it really is the only connection to the world outside of their own. Music in the park is for people who love listening to music and for people who love playing music, no matter the style. I'm sorry that you have lost the real meaning and love for music. Go listen to your pop music and you can be proud of that. Maybe you can organize a benefit "eclectic pop in the park" concert next year.
Park Life said on Aug. 25, 2010 at 5:42pm
"Would you like Tacoma to produce the same music as Seattle and Portland?"
Did I say every band in the NW has to be a Seattle/Portland clone? No, what I am getting at though, is the music that comes out of those two places goes somewhere nationally and gets vetted on the blogs. It's not my fault that Tacoma bands can't pass a freaking sounds good vetting.
This isn't about eclectic pop. All those bands, Blanco Bronco, Trip the light, the Wheelies, Gold Wing, Night gowns, and Pioneers West. Heck lets even put Motopony in the mix, all have their myspaces and other crap thats funneling their tunes to the national stage but the national stage ain't having it. Why??
I pay pretty close attention to where the music is coming from, who's in the band, what their sound is and why it catches on. I also pay attention to what bands do when they don't catch on. Which is what I am examining here in this music in the park thing. Let me break it down to you this way then, if Tacoma was Disneyland, then the bands at music in the park are the people dressed up as Mickey, Pluto, Donald and the rest of them. At the end of the day, they're all about selling either Disney admission and junk or cover charges and beer at the New Frontier.
Now, if I were in a band, I would rather sell music on itunes than beer for a venue. But if my music isn't selling on itunes, then what else am I going to do to get the rent than hustle a local fair where the aging venue constituency bring the next generation in an attempt at making this thing look like something other than it is. It's almost like watching politicians holding babies at a convention.
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