August 12-18, 2004

music

The Outsiders

Luring Philly bands into the open.

by Patrick Rapa

Farm Team: Persona (pictured here) and Trouble Everyday (below) will make hay in Jersey on Saturday.

David Kain promises a good time at his annual summer shindigs, but you probably shouldn't expect the sort of fireworks everybody saw at Farmfest 3. That's when Kain's old band Bimonscificon broke up. On stage.

There was some arguing. Somebody mighta unplugged somebody else's guitar. "It probably looked a little staged from an audience perspective, but it wasn't," says Kain. "I dunno what it was over, honestly," he says. "It was just band drama and stress. It seemed important at the time." It took seven months for the band to starting talking again.

Anyway, that was a long time ago. Kain's new band, Trouble Everyday, though forebodingly named, seems to be getting along just fine. They just made a good first impression with the Y-100 crowd, opening up for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Penn's Landing a few weeks ago. They're one of 15 bands playing Farmfest 6 this weekend.

The festival takes place in the back yard of the Kain family house in rural Monroeville, N.J. -- about a half-hour's drive from Philadelphia. "In high school I had some friends in some South Jersey punk bands, and there was all this land in my back yard, so I got the idea to put the two together."

So Kain — with the help of his sister and a friend — built a stage. It's situated "in front of about six acres of open land. The back is surrounded by trees, which helps acoustics a lot." It played host to yearly shows for a while before petering out. The venue was reborn six years ago under its current moniker.

"The mood of Farmfest has drastically changed from years past," says Joe Melchiorre of Philly rockers Persona, also on the bill this year. "It used to be a few punk bands and a couple of cases of beer — the beer being more desirable than the bands."

"To me the chaos of Farmfest has always been dangerous and entertaining," he says, recalling the time a scuffle ended up destroying the original stage. "The mood now, though, has turned from ominous to relaxed and friendly. Exciting and lots of fun, and way more organized."

With its early rough-and-tumble days behind it, the wood-and-tarp stage has settled into its role as a reliable outlet for area bands usually only seen in small, smoky clubs. And activities are not limited to music. "During the day it's a barbecue with soccer games and Frisbee. It's usually split up between people playing games and people watching the bands," explains Kain. "At night it gets harder to see, so it becomes a bit of a spooky outside nightclub, and the focus turns to the bands."

This year's lineup pulls from many shelves in the Philly rock library: Dragon City, This Radiant Boy, Coyote, Hail Social. (The only band not from around here is pop-rock outfit Holiday from Providence, R.I.) Raucous funk powerhouse Phil Moore Brown finds itself on the same bill with blissful bedroom poppers The Snow Fairies. Serious punk ass-kickers Deadly will split a beer with smirking "ValuRockers" The Low Budgets.

The neighbors don't seem to mind the loud rock music. "It's only once a year, and everyone's pretty cool about it," says Kain. "I've tried going to get permits through legal channels before, a long time ago, but it's such a small town that they basically told me they didn't have permits, so go ahead and see what happens. And it's been pretty successful. Touch wood."

"We're playing Farmfest because it's the only event [where] you can get drunk, eat burgers, play soccer, find ticks in your socks and acquire heatstroke all before you even get on stage," says Melchiorre.

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Why Farmfest?

A few words with Dayve Hawk of Hail Social.

City Paper: Have you ever been to or played Farmfest before?

Dayve Hawk: Never been, never played.

CP: What made you want to play this one?

DH: Because if all my friends jumped off a bridge, I would too.

CP: Do you think your sound will play well in the great outdoors?

DH: I'm hoping that being in the great outdoors inspires the audience to do drugs. Then we'll sound nice.

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Farmfest 6
Bombs, Coyote, The Deadly, Dragon City, Persona, Plastic Little, Trouble Everyday, Menocu, The Low Budgets, The Snow Fairies, Phil Moore Brown, Welcome the Plague Year, Holiday, This Radiant Boy and Hail Social

Sat., Aug. 14, noon-10 p.m., $10 includes food and beer.

Directions: From the Ben Franklin Bridge, take Route 42 south to Route 55 south. Take exit 48, Glassboro/Ferrel. Bear right onto Route 641. Cross one light and make a left onto Route 609. Drive three to four miles, crossing one stop sign. Farmfest is on the left-hand side.

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