TAUNTON, Mass. — An overbooked Saturday matinee show at the Taunton American Legion featuring over a dozen unknown bands is being rebranded as “Weapons of War Fest,” confirmed promoters who made sure their band plays during the best slot of the day.
“We wanted to keep the show pretty small so we only had eight bands playing, but then hype really started building and I was booking hardcore bands from here all the way to Franklin,” said Shane Muldowney, fest organizer and guitarist of Pain Principle. “Since there are so many bands we decided the best way to get everyone paid is to really push people towards the merch table, the only problem is only two of the bands on the show have shirts, and everyone else is still in the process of recording a demo. So some of the bands are going to sell some of their dad’s old records and hope that’s enough to cover gas.”
Bands playing the fest have been hard at work with promotion in order to get the biggest turnout possible.
“I told my parents, my girlfriend, and two of my neighbors who definitely said they might come. This will be our third show, and this time we are playing about eight minutes of our own material and then about six Cro-Mags covers,” said Owen Celia, lead singer of recently formed hardcore band Sanctity. “I’m not sure how many people we can draw that will actually pay, I already promised a few people I could get them in for free, they just need to come early and carry an amp or two. I heard one of the bands playing has a brother that dated a girl who lived with someone that knows a rep at Rise Records, so this will be good for networking.”
Local scene historian “Salty” Sam O’Leary says local shows often suffer from too many bands being added.
“I’ve seen this too many times. A young kid finally gets the guts to pony up $750 to rent out an event space and then he goes ham inviting every band on the eastern seaboard to play,” said O’Leary. “Most of these bands will break up in a few months, then they will start new bands with people they met at the shows and suddenly flyers will be saying things like ‘featuring ex-members of some bullshit nobody gives a dick about.’ Getting some of his deposit back is the best this kid can hope for, but someone will most likely break a window or set a curtain on fire.”
Update: During our reporting “Weapons of War Fest” added another 12 bands and a second day at a different location 45 minutes away.