Well here we are. At the end of another wild weekend in Peterborough. But don’t bail on us just yet; we’ve got two more events Sunday June 12, and I can promise you an early night. This is a casual morning, but don’t get too casual!
You are going to want to get to the Baxter Brewing Co. Kubb Classic, with music by DJ Disco Phantom and commentary by Ben Conant. Preliminary rounds may begin at 10 a.m., depending on how many teams register (by the way, if you want to play, just get in touch with a board member).
It’s happening on the green behind Town Hall, donated for our use during The Thing by the nice folks at RJ Finlay. The pitch will be chalked, and Ben Conant’s play-by-play will have you rolling, or at the very least, chuckling to yourself. Oh, and if you aren’t sure what Kubb is, then I’m betting you aren’t from Sweden or Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It’s a great lawn game mixing horseshoes and bocce, and there have been a few underground tournaments here in town over the last few years. Come and check it out; this year you may be a spectator, but next, who knows?
At 2 p.m., after the Kubb champion has been crowned, walk a few feet down Grove Street to Bass Hall, at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture, for the final show of this, the ninth annual Thing in the Spring. Rick Maguire, our host throughout the weekend, will be doing a solo set to kick things off outside. He takes the Pile oeuvre and twists it slightly, making it land on the tip of your nose like a fly, rather than the pummeling you experience with the full band.
He’ll then bring us inside to start the final show, introducing Bunny’s a Swine, who have basically become the house band of The Thing. They play indie rock in a way that has long been extinguished since the term has been rehashed to mean anyone that claims the 90s as inspiration. To paraphrase Chuck Close: inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work. This work, to me, is some of the most honest and authentic songwriting out there right now, and you’d do well to pay close attention.
Next up, we have the distinct honor to present Vapors of Morphine, comprised of the remaining members of THE Morphine, 90s Boston powerhouse of weird, dark, rock and roll. Baritone sax, drums, and two string slide bass is a wild instrumentation, and before I saw this new incarnation at Harlow’s last year, I did not think it would be possible to resurrect such an iconic sound without bassist / frontman Mark Sandman, who died on stage in 1999. I was blown out of my chair when I saw them though, and they not only played the old tunes, but presented them with a sweet and noble beauty.
In 1993, I got a ride to Strawberries in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, to look for a cassette copy of Morphine’s “Cure For Pain,” and I can say without a doubt, that it is one of the most important albums I have ever owned.
Headlining the afternoon is Washington, D.C.’s Beauty Pill. An uncategorizable band using such a deep vocabulary of sound and texture, they can decimate you with their subtlety and nuance. Chad Clark is the main songwriter, but each band member leads in their own way. They sound a little like Tortoise, but with thoughtful and well placed vocals.
Emerson Stevens, of Bunny’s a Swine, spent the first ten years of our friendship insisting that I would love them, and as things often do, my planned listening of them always seemed to fall by the wayside. Last year, I finally got my act together and I am so happy I did. I began correspondence with the band and got them involved in this year’s Thing. They are another of those rare groups whose heaviness doesn’t come from volume, but from the sheer magnitude of their output, and from the density of their ideas.
Throughout the weekend, the stage backdrops will be from Feeding Tube Records svengali Ted Lee, and as I mentioned, the shows will be hosted by the one and only Rick Maguire, who you might have seen in a preview video attached to films at the Peterborough Community Theater.
After this show, it’s a bowling alley cheeseburger and a couple of beers for this guy, and then time to start tending to all of my lists regarding 2017, our tenth Thing in the Spring, and I couldn’t be happier.
Eric Gagne is CEO of the Glass Museum and co-founder of The Thing in the Spring.