Music on Main Street

You won’t find an underground death metal hall or a thousand-person arena in town, but the sleeping beauty of music on Main Street, in Keene, is easily awoken with the tip of an ear in the right direction.

Live music, and all the raw energy it brings about, is alive and well in the Keene area, specifically on Main Street for many months of the year.

From the mega-popular annual Pumpkin Festival and the famous Colonial Theatre to Armadillo’s Burritos and The Starving Artist, Keene is far from Lollapalooza but definitely rocking to the rhythm of the beat.

Suzanne Woodward, executive director of Center Stage, the group that plans and hosts the annual Pumpkin Festival gathering, said she believes music and the annual mid-October event go hand-in-hand.

“People love live music as it adds such a nice flavor to any event,” Woodward said.

The Pumpkin Festival draws thousands upon thousands of pumpkin and music enthusiasts every year, even during 2008’s rain-soaked affair, and selecting appropriate acts is a main concern for Woodward.

“We try and keep the entertainers family friendly. We avoid heavy metal and rap. We have folk, country/western, pop, rock and roll, dancers, kids and adults,” Woodward said. “I receive so many requests from area entertainers, many of which I do not know.”

Everything considered, Woodward said she feels the city of Keene is a strong area for live music, given the city’s adeptness for the live music scene, possibly buffed by the seasonal ballooning of population due to KSC student presence six months out of the year.

“I think the live music scene in Keene is the envy of many communities,” Woodward said. “We are fortunate to have Keene State College in town, who relish the live scene… Our locals are very in-tune with the arts in the Monadnock Region and support the arts very well.”

Armadillo’s Burritos, a Mexican food destination on Main Street does more for its consumers than fill their bellies with hefty burritos, quesadillas, tacos and $2 drafts. The small restaurant doubles as a live music hot spot.

According to the establishment’s Web site, Armadillo’s hosts live music nearly every weekend.

Acts that play the venue range from smooth and soft acoustic musicians, performing mellow renditions of popular tunes, to Jatoba, a folksy-bluegrass four-piece ensemble and even the occasional rock show.

Another popular destination to see live music on Main Street is at the storied Colonial Theatre. This establishment, which plays host to live events ranging from comedy groups, orchestras and Warren Miller ski films, also treats attendees to nationally-known and admired musical acts.

In the past year alone, the theater has hosted “Get The Led Out,” a nationally-known Led Zeppelin cover band, and “Roots of Creation,” a respected group in the reggae/rock genre for a special Halloween evening engagement. What’s more, the theater kicked off the 2010 schedule with Brandi Carlile on Jan. 30. Carlile grew in appreciation and renown through her musical appearances on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” And, according to the biographical paragraph on the Colonial’s Web site, Carlile’s “revelatory imagery, stark emotive vocals and finely-detailed songs provide the keys to who she is, where she’s been, and where’s she’s going.”

But if the passivenesses of theater shows resonate disharmoniously with you, EF Lane, the high-end hotel in Keene’s center, affords a much more intimate and engaging experience with live music.

Every Thursday evening (sometimes Wednesdays) at 9 p.m., in the Chase Tavern, attached to the hotel, music-lovers are encouraged to attend what the establishment calls, open jam nights.

During these evenings, anyone with musical ability (though it’s not a requirement), can add their sound to the group which contributes to what the establishment calls “highly energized plugged in jams.” There’s never a cover for these jam evenings and, according to EF Lane, drinks flow freely and “It’s guaranteed that you will find some of the best musicians in New England.”

Additionally, on Fridays and Saturdays, the business holds evening events, featuring bands that play what EF Lane’s Web site, calls an eclectic mix of folk, roots music, rock, blues, funk, R&B and soul.

The cover-charge for these weekend events range from $7-8 and for anyone who can’t make it home after a show, EF Lane offers discounted room rates, in the form of a discount labeled “take the elevator home.”

And in the late summer month of September, when the air is still warm and KSC students return to the area, Keene plays host to a weekend-long live music engagement on Main Street.

The Keene Music Festival, a musical tradition first held in 2001, put on by the Keene Downtown Group, treats attendees to five stages and a weekend full of live tunes. The event is free, all thanks to area businesses, merchants, civic and municipal organizations, residents and volunteers, according to the event’s Web site.

Both solo artists and fully-assembled bands take to the stages and delight listeners to the effect of what the event’s Web site calls fulfilling its mission “to lend support and inspiration to local musicians through the creation and production of an annual outdoor performance event.”

Director of the Keene Music Festival Kevin Dremel has been actively involved in hosting the annual event and sees the musical endeavor as a beneficial one for the Keene area.
“We’re now going into the tenth year of the festival and it has grown in some great ways over the last couple of years…. We’ve seemed to reach a nice balance between having a significant number of performers and still maintaining an open community feel.

Along with that, we work to feature local and regional performers in all our events. Last year we had, I believe, over 80 acts performing in a single day,” he said.

Tracy Keating, former chair of the Keene Downtown Group and owner of the Life is Sweet candy emporium on Main Street, sees importance in the event for the area.

“Downtown is the heart of this area, and seeing the community down here roaming from stage to stage is amazing,” Keating said.

Dremel said the best way to describe the inspiration for the Keene Music Festival was likening it to a vacation he embarked upon to Paris with his wife. Where he stayed, in the Montmarte district, he said every day from noon until late evening the area hosted musical acts.

He said these events altogether comprised a “wonderfully relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere that spread out into the community.”

Dremel later learned this scene was no accident and actually the result of thorough planning. So when he joined the Keene Downtown Group his head was full of ideas.

“When I came onboard to help with the event, one of the goals was to work towards creating a vibrant music community in our area,” Dremel said.

Outside of the annual late-summer Music Festival, Dremel and the Keene Downtown Group aim to extend the reach of music even further.

“We’re currently working with Keene Parks and Recreation Department to develop a series of fundraising concerts at the Sumner Knight Chapel in Westlawn Cemetery,” Dremel said. “It’s an amazing acoustic venue and we hope to be able to raise money to help renovate and maintain the chapel.”

Whether it’s picking up a guitar and rocking out at the weekly jam-sessions at EF Lane, plopping into a seat and enjoying the sonorous bliss of a world-class act at The Colonial, or walking the streets in the open air at the annual Music and Pumpkin Festivals, Keene’s Main Street has your eyes and ears covered.

Eddie Makuch can be contacted at emakuch@ksc.mailcruiser.com