Preview: The Way Life Should Be Camping and Music Festival! June 3rd-5th

There have been many attempts to bring the festival aspect of the music industry to Maine, and it’s been shown to be quite difficult. However, on the weekend of June 3rd-5th about 2000 people (2500 max) will be gathering in Brooks, ME for a weekend of music, camping, and other typical festival fun.



Artwork by Isaac Wright


The small to moderate size of the festival, grassroots style of organizing, variety of music in attendance, and the very reasonable ticket prices have set up The Way Life Should Be Festival for great success.




The site is a large open field surrounded by forest, and is called Roaring Acres Farm. Great for camping and dancing! Also...picture thirteen different incredible acts on this stage and without a doubt, we're ready for a festival:




This mobile stage, from Image Production Services, is 33 feet long and covered! The sound is also being provided from Image Production Services state of the art sound equipment.

There will be some great music performed on this stage throughout the weekend with genres ranging from bluegrass to reggae to dubstep:

SCHEDULE:

Friday:
1pm- Heads in the Clouds

3pm- Chaos Sauce

5pm- Jammin' Toast

7pm- Herd of Watts

9pm- Roots of Creation

11pm- Cyborg Trio

Saturday:

11am- Free Advice

1pm- Fiddle Head

3pm- The Running Gags

5pm- Skyfoot

7pm- Sophistaphunk

9pm- Stream Reggae

11pm- DJ Dradis (DJ Les)


Many of the bands playing at The Way Life Should Be Festival originate in Maine, an aspect of the festival we highly respect. We believe that Maine festivals supporting Maine musicians is another important factor in the success of the festival scene in this great state!

One of these is the band Chaos Sauce, originally from Rockland and Portland, and well-known in the Orono area.

Chaos Sauce’s music can be pretty hardcore, but it’s also way, way more than that. They are playful, talented, and their stage presence and interaction with the crowd makes for an incredibly good time. They have many great originals of their own (look out for Computer Malfunction...), and also do excellent covers by bands like Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Biggie Smalls.

Check out a show review/interview we did when we first met the Sauce: http://thewayliveshouldbe.blogspot.com/2010/04/read-this-review-chaos-sauce.html



Another band hailing from southern Maine is a Portland favorite called The Running Gags. These guys are awesome and include a diverse range of influences. They seem to have been writing more than ever lately, and we can expect a CD out soon! They also do a large variety of covers by bands like The Beatles, Queens of the Stone Age, and Harvey Danger. The most important emphasis is their straight up talent, and their playfulness and interaction with the crowd.

Check out what we wrote about The Running Gags in the past: http://thewayliveshouldbe.blogspot.com/2010/03/running-gags-at-dime-friday-march-26.html

Sophistafunk is another band we are very excited to see on this festival line up, and they’re comin’ atchya from Syracuse, NY. This trio is said to have ‘invented its own style of cross-genre music by combining hip-hop & spoken word with the sounds of live funk, soul, and dance music.’



We recently released an interview with Sophistifunk’s Adam Gold ( keyboardist and occasional vocalist of the group) in regards to their last visit to Maine, and it is apparent that they are quite excited to come back for this festival! Adam left us with these inspiring words about their show at the Way Life Should Be festival, “ MAN are we glad that we're a part of this festival. Now that Nateva is cancelled, The Way Life Should Be will be the biggest most banging festival in Maine all summer! You can expect some crazy tricks up our sleeves. I've been preparing and saving up for some crazy new instruments that I plan on going crazy with this summer, and the way we absorb energy from the audience will only be magnified with an
outdoor festival.”
Check out the rest of the interview here: http://thewayliveshouldbe.blogspot.com/2011/04/some-words-with-adam-gold-of.html


Jammin' Toast, Fiddle Head, and Skyfoot are all coming out from Massachusetts and adding some more great music to the lineup for the weekend. Also, Free Advice is coming over from NY and Herd of Watts bringin' the heat from Florida!

DJ Dradis (DJ Les) is coming from the Orono, ME area, and is known for his late night sets and keeping people moving! His first time really layin' down what he had to offer was actually at a festival style party that contributes largely to how TWLSB festival formed. Festival coordinator, Dave Pike, seemed determined after experiencing some lower key festivals in Maine, to try to create something that would appeal to higher numbers of people. Pike has utilized his public relations degree for the overall coordination the festival, working with Peter Courand to find a prime festival location, and booking bands.
The gatherings leading up to Pike's goal had been organized and thrown initially as large birthday parties for a friend on Islesboro. As they grew, live music was added and last year was the first time they had a cover, which was 10 bucks. The parties developed into a yearly event, and was given the name 'Irieboro'. Stream Reggae is Maine's premier reggae band, and has played at the Irieboro fests for the past two years, offering music from the heart and soul of the Caribbean.

Roots of Creation, a band out of New England as well, and Cyborg Trio (from Portland, ME!)will be playing back to back on Friday night. Roots of Creation will be bringing some great reggae/rock/dub to the table at 9pm on Friday.
Cyborg Trio will be hittin' the stage around 11pm with some 'dynamic, psychedelic improvisation and carefully crafted beats.' They've created quite a name for themselves in Maine!


We're stoked to see such a wide array of styles at this festival, and at such a low price as well! It'll be without a doubt a killer weekend, and we hope to see everyone there!

Community Radio 89.9 WERU is sponsoring The Way Life Should Be Festival!

For more information, check out the TWLSB facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=160291940693442

Buy your tickets here!: http://thewaylifeshouldbe.ticketleap.com/