I went out to North Haven to see my friends Neal and Monica for the local music festival, Lung Fest. Neal and I went to high school together, and he married Monica who is from North Haven and was in his class at Bowdoin. They are both great friends, and I always try to get out to see them when they are visiting the Island. They live in Hope, near Camden, so they aren’t far, and make it back to North Haven a few times a summer.
Lung Fest is the perfect occasion since my friendship with Neal always revolved around music. We have a lot in common with sailing, boating, etc, but music has always been our bond. We played guitars at Belmont Hill together, and even formed a band and were the first students at the school to get an exemption from sports to ‘pursue the arts’. Belmont Hill did not have much of an arts program. When I got there, the arts building was half of a cinder block shed down by the maintenance building. The other half WAS the maintenance building! Since then, Belmont Hill built an incredible arts center, including a separate music building named after Mr. Prenatt, our advisor on our ‘independent study’. Neal and I always had a lot in common, and not a lot in common with Belmont Hill, but we really did make the most of it.
Added to the benefit of seeing music with Neal, to me Lung Fest represented the best of North Haven: artists, fisherman and bluebloods coexisting on a small island in Maine while all enjoying it as a community.
There were 4 bands, all with some ties to North Haven, but all incredibly talented. The show opened with a group of middle school students from Vinal Haven playing mostly AC/DC covers and similar music. They were great. And not just for their age. They had the perfect material for the crowd, and got the day going right.
After that was the Toughcats who are a local favorite. The Toughcats sounded great. Better than I’ve ever heard them. I had seen them many times over the years, first at Neal and Monica’s wedding, then in the early days of Calderwood Hall (they don’t have concerts anymore). I even saw them with Neal several summers in a row at Watermans, the community center on North Haven, first with Ketch Secor, of Old Crow Medicine Show fame, and then opening for Deerhoof, who were a bit hard to listen to despite their fame. Shows on North Haven were never predictable, but always fun.
Next up was the Tom Petty cover band. I had no idea what to expect on this, but it was amazing. Most of the band were college friends of Jake Greenklaw, drummer for the Toughcats, and the mastermind/inspiration behind Lung Fest. You could tell then had played together, and loved playing together, and that they had put significant effort into preparing for the show. They went through the hits with the crowd (and Monica) dancing wildly. It reminded me why I love North Haven. There is a great community and interesting group of people. I never know what I’m going to see when I’m out there, but there is always something interesting going on, and usually something fun.
The last act was the official headliner, and I assume the only band that got paid for their efforts. It was a sort of synth/pop I certainly respect and enjoy when I see it played live, but not the kind of music I would choose on my own. It started to rain so we piled 9 adults into a volvo station wagon and headed for home. Neal and Monica dropped me off at the town dock in Pulpit Harbor well after 10PM, and way past my bedtime. They offered me a place to stay as they always do, but I told them I wanted to stay on the boat and really enjoyed it, like I always do. They told me they would stay until I got out there, but I told them to go, no worries. Huge mistake since I’d been having engine troubles on the Gary. The engine wouldn’t start, but luckily it was uncooperative from the beginning so I wasn’t halfway to the boat in the downpour with the one paddle I keep in case of emergency. I finally got back to the dock after paddling the dinghy like a canoe for several hundred feet that seemed like yards. I weighed my options, and decided that paddling far out to the boat in the dark and rain was a bad idea and that I should walk to Monica’s to take them up on the warm place to sleep. It was only a mile or so away, so even though it was raining, I felt lucky.
As I started walking, a car came past and stopped to see if I needed a ride. I accepted, and as I got in I realized it was Tom Petty of the Tom Petty tribute band. A small island community indeed! I told him I enjoyed the show, thanked him for the ride, and spend the night on the day bed in Monica’s mom’s home office. Definitely a successful first Lung Fest, and I’ll definitely be back next year. Unless they take another 8 year hiatus between them.