If It's Too Loud...

The Thing in the Spring has been a southwest New Hampshire staple for quite a while now, sporting some of the most eclectic line ups around. This is especially impressive since Keene, NH (and Peterborough before it) isn't exactly the hippest or most metropolitan of areas. They certainly know what they're doing, especially since the 2024 festival is four days of amazing music. The whole thing kicks off on Thursday night with an eight band bill that includes Modern Fools, Paper Castles, Jake McElvie, and Rick Rude. Friday is a rager that boasts The Messthetics & James Brandon Lewis, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, and Prefuse 73. Saturday gets a little weird with Earth, J. Pavone String Ensemble, The Huntress & Holder of Hands, and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Sunday is my personal favorite and features Buck Meek, Jolie Holland, Mal Devisa, and Lily Seabird. Of course, there are many, many more artists playing that all deserve our attention. The Thing in the Spring will take ...

Nova Arts is a fairly new music venue in Keene, NH that seems to mostly be a coffee shop/cafe and arts space. At first they were booking smaller, more local artists, but recently they started booking larger bands from the area and some national artists. I've been trying to check it out for a while, and once I saw a double bill of J Mascis and Come, I knew it was finally time to make the trip to New Hampshire. This was the kind of double bill that could have gone either way for the headliner. J Mascis went on first. I was a little nervous as to how his set would go since Mascis can play quite loudly even as a solo artist. I've been to Dinosaur Jr shows at more established venues that couldn't handle the volume Mascis can dish out, but Nova Arts was more than up to the task. (Turns out it's a killer venue with a huge stage and lights and sound far better than I could have expected!) There were some sound issues, but those cleared up after Mascis' wife ran out to their...