If It's Too Loud...

Prescott Park Arts Festival is one of my all time favorite places to see a show. It's in a gorgeous public park on the waterfront in Portsmouth, NH, and it's a very reasonable suggested donation entry fee to get in. Unfortunately, I haven't been since pre-pandemic, as my schedule hasn't worked, or a show has gotten rained out when timing did work out. But, if I was going to make my return trip to the festival, I can't think of a better option than seeing two string supergroups: Mighty Poplar and New Dangerfield. Playing only their fifth show ever, New Dangerfield opened the show. The band is a black string group consisting of Kaia Kater, Jake Blount, Tray Wellington, and Nelson Williams. You would never know that this was a band that could count the number of total performances on one hand if they hadn't mentioned it. New Dangerfield had that perfect mix of playing tight and loose you get with folk/bluegrass/string bands, especially ones with a pedigree like the...

Photo by Ken Sears There's a lot of talk about guitar driven rock needing a new savior. That the genre is dying and we need a new rock star to bring the kids away from hip hop and EDM back into rock. There are countless articles out there proclaiming this band or that band to be the new heroes of rock, when we've had her staring us in the face all this time: Courtney Barnett. Based on her recorded material, Courtney Barnett is rock, sure. But she's not ROCK. Her live show is a completely different story. Her performance earlier this week at the Prescott Park Arts Festival in Portsmouth, NH was revelatory. Playing as just a three piece band, her songs were transformed from fun bouncy alt-rockers into full fledged early 90's style hard rock songs. "I'm Not Your Mother, I'm Not Your Bitch" became a straight up metal song. "Pedestrian At Best" could have easily been mistaken for a cover of Nirvana's "Breed," which I did at fir...

Photo via Facebook Two of my obsessions are J Mascis and seeing shows at Prescott Park in Portsmouth, NH. Something about seeing world class musical artists and legends playing in a waterfront park for an $8.00 suggested donation is just perfect for me. It's especially great when Prescott Park breaks from their normal Americana/roots fare for 90's fuzzed out noise. With temperatures still in the nineties at showtime, it was a very laid back crowd. There were definitely people there who most likely have season passes or just came down since it was a cheap Saturday of entertainment, the amount of Dinosaur Jr shirts in the crowd showed that the park was filled with fans for this night. And J Mascis did not disappoint. Opening with a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Every Mother's Son" (which is a J Mascis staple at this point), he quickly showed that this would not be a typical acoustic singer/songwriter show. Mascis brought the pedals and the distortion, if not ...

I've been praising Prescott Park Arts Festival since the very beginning of If It's Too Loud... They always book a bunch of artists we love, and there's just something great about watching a world class artist play for a $7.00 donation on the Portsmouth, NH waterfront in the summer. It's especially great since a lot of artists they book tend to normally charge more than I'm comfortable paying for a concert. In the past I've seen Carolina Chocolate Drops, Nikki Lane, Deer Tick, David Wax Museum, Shovels & Rope, Steve Earle, and Mavis Staples here, and every show is always a highlight of my summer. This year year they've only announced three shows so far, but all three could easily be the highlights of the entire season: Jenny Lewis: June 16 Drive-By Truckers: June 30 Conor Oberst: July 17 For more information on the Prescott Park Arts Festival, be sure to check out their website .

Photo by Ken Sears Despite considering myself a fairly big Steve Earle fan, I had only seen him once before: The 2008 Newport Folk Festival, where instead of a backing band he performed with a DJ. For ten years I've wanted to see an actual Steve Earle set, but it hasn't worked out. (Not to mention I'm insanely cheap with concert tickets, and Steve Earle isn't an inexpensive show.) When I found out he was closing out the 2018 Prescott Park Arts Festival for an $8.00 suggested donation, I obviously had to make the trip. I had previously heard Steve Earle & The Dukes were going to be performing Copperhead Road in its entirely to celebrate the album's 30th anniversary, but I hadn't realized the Prescott Park show was going to be one of those performances. It was a pleasant and welcome surprise, especially with "Snake Oil" and "The Devil's Right Hand" present on that album. The night even included the album's closing song, "...

Photo by Ken Sears Before last Friday I had technically seen Shovels & Rope three times. The first two were both at the Newport Folk Festival, but I only caught a handful of songs each time. The third was at the Green River Festival, but that is still a shortened festival performance. I had yet to see a full Shovels & Rope set, so when I saw they were playing at Prescott Park this year, I knew I had to make the trek up, even though it was the Friday of Labor Day weekend. Regardless of traffic, the trip was completely worth it. One of the great joys of Shovels & Rope live is watching the interplay between husband and wife Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst. The duo take turns switching between guitar, drums, keys, etc. I'm not sure if they ever have the same role in a song more than once in a row. This night the band dove deep into their catalog. Only two songs came from their most recent album (2016's Little Seeds ). The majority came from O' Be Joyful  and...

Mavis Staples at the 2014 Newport Folk Festival Photo by Ken Sears I've seen Mavis Staples twice so far, but each time was at the Newport Folk Festival. Until this past Thursday, I had yet to see her own show, mainly since I'm fairly cheap when it comes to concert tickets. This is the beauty of the Prescott Park Arts Festival: You can see a legendary artist like Mavis Staples for $8.00. The thing I noticed most about this particular Mavis Staples performance was that it was much more rockin' than I had expected. She chose to stick to much more upbeat and uplifting songs than previous times I had seen her. The quietest song she played was "You Are Not Alone," from her collaboration with Jeff Tweedy. A noteworthy song that was missing from the setlist was "The Weight," which I had assumed she always played. The evening of rock/soul/funk included three fantastic covers: Talking Head's "Slippery People," Funkadelic's "Can You Get...

Now that we're past Memorial Day, it's time to start looking at what's out there for summer music festivals. We're going to skip the major national ones, because you already know about them, and their line ups keep getting less and less interesting every year. Plus, you'll be roughly 1/4 mile from the main stage, anyway. Instead, here are some of the more interesting, smaller music festivals in the Northeast (since that's where we're located)! The Thing in the Spring June 6-10, Peterborough, NH Peterborough, NH may not seem like the hippest town out there, but somehow they get some of the best indie bands together for a music/film/arts fest every year. This year, they include virtually all genres: noisy indie rock, folk, hip hop, etc. Some of our highlights are Sammus, The Huntress & Holder of Hands, Giraffes? Giraffes!, Wooden Dinosaur, and, closing out the festival, the double bill of Iris Dement and Bonnie Prince Billy. They somehow keep weekend...

Photo by Ken Sears Nikki Lane has been one of the artists I've always appreciated and liked, but was never completely into her. When I saw that she was playing the Prescott Parks Arts Festival this year, I decided that would be one of the shows I made it to. It ended up being one of the better musical decisions I've made in years. Playing with her backing band the Tennessee Dirtbags, Nikki Lane played two fantastic sets of her fairly poppy style of outlaw country. Only a small handful of the crowd seemed familiar with Lane's work, with most of the audience more there out of curiosity and something to do on a beautiful August night. (I'm sure the $8 suggested donation brings in a lot more people than an ordinary show, too.) That and the public park setting caused a fairly subdued crowd, spending the entire show sitting on blankets. That didn't faze Lane at all, as she played amazing versions of new songs like "700,000 Rednecks" and "Highway Queen...

Photo by Ken Sears Deer Tick have always had a bar band feel to them. Maybe it's the fact that a ton of their songs are about booze. Maybe it's the fact that the first time I saw them they bought everyone in the club a beer. Maybe it's the copious amount of beer I've seen them drink onstage. Because of all that, a family friendly arts festival in a public park with a 7:00 start time was an odd venue for them, but last Friday it seemed to work. Playing on a stage still set up for a family production of Mary Poppins , Deer Tick opened the show with one of their already released songs from their upcoming two albums. Unfortunately, the sound was a bit off so I couldn't tell which one. (The show started about 30 minutes late while they ironed out some issues due to the heavy rains that had just ended two hours before the show started.) Luckily, the issues were fixed by the second song, and the rest of the show sounded great. Photo by Ken Sears One great thing...

I've been a huge fan of Prescott Park's live music line up for a few years now. It's live music from insanely great nationally touring bands in a beautiful waterfront park for next to nothing. Seriously, since it's a public park they technically can't charge an entrance fee, so instead they charge a $8-$10 "suggested donation." Trust me, though. You're going to be more than happy paying the suggested donation since it's usually a fraction of the band's normal ticket price and you'll want them to keep putting these on. I make the extra long trip whenever I can since I enjoy the venue more than some Boston theaters, and I've seen a few artists that tend to charge more than I like paying here for $10. Usually there are a handful of If It's Too Loud... approved bands every year, with the majority of the artists being more suited to our parents. This year though... wow. Here is a small selection of bands I think our readers will be exc...

Let's face it. Nobody you know got into the Newport Folk Festival. Putting tickets on sale just before Christmas pretty much guarantees anyone with kids or over the age of 30 got shut out. Plus, while there are some fantastic artists playing this year, some of the announced bands seem kinda questionable. Unfortunately, some other festivals are out this year: Tweed River called it quits, Gathering of the Vibes is taking the year off, Solid Sound only runs on odd years. So what else can you do with your festival going time this summer? One Providence Experience Where: Providence, RI Dates: June 4 Tickets: Free! Why you should go: First of all, it's free, and we all love free! It takes place in the "shadows of the ruins of the Providence National Bank," which is about the most Providence way you can describe a venue. For a free show the line up is ridiculous, with Screaming Females, What Cheer? Brigade, Rough Francis, Last Good Tooth, The Low Anthem, Death Vesse...

Photo by Ken Sears David Wax Museum are one of my current favorite live bands, and seeing as I hadn't seen them play live for over a year, I had to head up to Portsmouth to check them out. The combination of a Saturday night show, perfect weather for an outdoor show, and the absurdly low $8 suggested donation ticket price were too much of a draw to miss it. Prescott Park Arts Festival is one of the more unique venues to see a show. They get absolute top level acts (Steve Earle, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, and Josh Ritter have all played this year), but they also put on family friendly plays on the same stage. This year was Peter Pan, and the stage was still decorated for the play. The park is right on the Piscataqua River, which creates a beautiful backdrop, especially as the sun slowly sets during the show. Suz and David came out and started off the show as a duo with a completely retooled version of "Lavender Street" that was heavy on the low end and almo...

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down (Photo by Ken Sears) Located in Portsmouth, NH, Prescott Park is this absolutely beautiful and scenic public park right on the river. While just about every public park in America will have weekly music, it's usually the local marching band or jazz ensemble, mostly for senior citizens and families with small children. Prescott Park Arts Festival put on amazing shows every year with a TON of If It's Too Loud... approved artists.  I've only made it up there once for a Carolina Chocolate Drops show in 2013, but it hasn't worked out. This year I'm planning to make the trek a bunch. One of the best parts is the cost. They get a lot of acts that I'd normally be priced out of (you know, the $50+ range), but they only ask for a suggested donation around $10. Sure, you can cruise right in without paying anything, but you really should to keep this alive. You can see their full schedule here , with more to be added. This is a list of ...