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Apparently, the free Outside The Box festival is returning to Boston Common this year. New booking involvement from Emerson College radio station WERS and a number of commercial Boston area stations bodes well for better bookings than the inaugural 2013 festival offered.
The annual Radio 92.9 EarthFest will be held as part of Outside The Box on Sat 7/18, since work on the Esplanade is disrupting their usual late May date. According to a list e-mail, the EarthFest acts will be announced in early June. I suspect that we'll get the entire OTB lineup at that time.
It looks like there's some activity indicating that we should be getting lineup information soon.
The website is up and running with a countdown clock at www.otbboston.com/
Today, their Twitter feed mentioned a few local acts which fall way outside the popular music box: a local group of Bhangra dancers, Divi Zheni ("Boston's own Balkan Women's Chorus & Orchestra"), and folk/children's singer Alastair Moock.
Certainly not the big national act announcements many have been waiting for, but strong indication that we could be getting the full lineup or close to it this week.
Well, they've announced the lineup, except for the headliners, and it seems to contain even less of what Inforoo board members might like than the 2013 lineup. The only rock acts, besides the Earthfest bands, announced are Gin Blossoms and local band Nemes. I don't see any of the area's notable rappers listed there, either.
Well, there's a pleasantly loud French rock band, La Jarry, performing:
This really seems like more of a world music/children's entertainment/dance fest than a popular music festival. It's Ted Cutler's dime, so I suppose he can spend it as he likes. Just wish he had the same musical tastes as the philanthropist who started Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in SF.
Hopefully, the announced headliners will be decent. As of right now, 2013's OTB shows with Los Lobos/Los Lonely Boys/Alejandro Escovedo and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones/Lemonheads/Buffalo Tom completely trump everything announced so far.
Given that our only signature festival is a rather small "one stage at a time" affair in a concrete wasteland, I had high hopes for this. Sadly, it looks like there's likely going to be more good music at the Cambridge River Festival or ArtBeat than here.
The lineup for the Friday 7/17 WKLB Country Showcase has been announced:
Kacey Musgraves Austin Webb Cam
Don't know anything about the undercard, but Musgraves is one of the few young, rising country stars with cred in both mainstream country and Americana circles. Really, the only other two acts who could have pleased both sides of the fence are Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton, and Simpson is already booked for Boston Calling (Going with a classic old school legend, like Merle Haggard, would be the other way to please all types of country fans).
This booking gives me hope that the as yet unannounced indie rock and classic rock nights will be decent, too. Two years ago, the country acts at OTB were 80's oldie circuit retreads like Lonestar or Little Texas, and some "Where have they been" all-star thingamabob with one guy from Alabama, one guy from the Gatlin Bros, etc. Musgraves is a critical and popular success who'd fit at the Grand Ole Opry AND Newport Folk Fest.
Knock commercial radio all you want, but bringing radio folks into the booking process means that OTB now has a clue as to whom people might want to see within each genre lineup. Works for me better than letting a couple of pretentious indie fops like Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon let their musical tastes run roughshod over an entire festival.
They tweeted yesterday that the entire schedule would be released later that day. That hasn't happened yet. They're probably waiting for a couple of acts to confirm at the last minute before announcing the complete line-up and schedule.
There's a big "to be announced" block of time at the mainstage on Sun 7/19, and given the extreme musical diversity here, it could be anyone who's not playing elsewhere that day. (Sadly, it won't be Wilco, since Tweedy is playing at Forecastle that day).
The odd thing about the weeknight line-ups is that the headliners are playing from 6:30 - 8 pm. I suspect that this is due to all of the residential buildings bordering the Commons on Tremont and Beacon.
One week from the start of the festival and still no word on what's filling the mainstage slot on Sun 7/19 between 3 pm and 9 pm. The only guarantee is that it's music, and not dance or theater, due to the color coding on the grid.
Not that anyone on Inforoo is likely to get excited about this, but if you know any fans of NBC singing comp, The Voice, the Wednesday night headliner is an assortment of former Voice contestants. The performers are James Massone, Noah Lis, Ria Eaton, Jermaine Paul, and Sawyer Fredericks.
The Sunday afternoon and evening lineup has been announced and it's all local talent.
No, not local as in their 2013 bill with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and The Lemonheads. Local as in Air Traffic Controller, Bad Rabbits, Ruby Rose Fox, Shae Rose, and Will Dailey...the usual suspects who show up at a lot of free shows around town.
Yeah, the price is right, but considering that the Saturday lineup is the EarthFest which was bumped from its usual May weekend at the Hatch Shell, the only "name" national acts we're getting in addition to EarthFest are Kacey Musgraves and Gin Blossoms. (Come to think of it, Guster is a local band, too.)
Last Edit: Jul 10, 2015 22:51:04 GMT -5 by tw12 - Back to Top
