Woodstock, Glastonbury, and…the Bean Green?
On the list of great outdoor music venues, the communal lawn at the heart of the University of Southern Maine’s Portland Campus is the scrappy newcomer. The inaugural McGoldROCKS concert was a big first step in building its reputation.
The concert took place on Saturday, September 7, after the first week of classes in the fall semester. For students experiencing college for the first time, it was a chance to cast off their jitters and forge bonds with new friends.
“I’m having a blast,” said Soleil Huang-Dale. “I didn’t really know what to expect when I came here. I didn’t do my research.”
Huang-Dale is a freshman majoring in Music Education. She and her friends arrived at the Bean Green to find a stacked lineup of five acts representing a diversity of styles. The music started at 3 p.m. when the group Plague Dad hit the stage with a sound it describes a lo-fi grunge folk.
The tone shifted sharply with the next band. Bondeko is a collective of musicians from different countries who combine their individual traditions into something new. Their set particularly impressed Dean Syed, a senior studying Environmental Planning and Policy.
The clump of grass where Syed sat to watch the concert used to be a parking lot. Construction work was constant for the first two years of his college career. The result was the McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success with the Bean Green stretching out in front of it. It opened last year and became a magnet for events like McGoldROCKS.
“There was nothing like this going on before at USM,” Syed said. “Everyone is converging, enjoying food, music, drink.”
Upper-level students could easily walk to the concert from their dorms in the Portland Commons complex next door. Freshman housing, however, is concentrated 10 miles away in Gorham. The Husky line of the Metro bus service makes regular runs between campuses at no charge to students. Money was also no barrier for concert admissions.
“It’s a free concert, and we rode a free bus to get here,” Huang-Dale said. “College kids love free stuff.”
With no turnstiles or gates to block access, the crowd fluctuated throughout the afternoon as visitors came and went, including residents of the surrounding neighborhood. The alternative rock band Vices Inc. drew in listeners with a mix of cover songs and original material from its new album.
Eleanor Langthorne is the lead singer of Vices Inc. She left the stage feeling good about the set. In addition to the receptive audience, she also appreciated the environment. The stage was positioned parallel to the front entrance of the McGoldrick Center, with the building’s distinctive support beams rising behind it.
“It’s absolutely gorgeous, the architecture and everything,” Langthorne said. “We don’t play outdoors that often, but it’s great when we have an outdoor space that has this great big area that’s comfortable for people to sit. Everywhere is a good view because it’s so flat and open.”
The positive feedback from performers and students validated the vision of the concert’s organizers at WMPG. Annella Linton is the development director of the campus radio station. She saw the Bean Green’s potential as a music venue almost as soon as the sod was laid down, and then she set out to make it happen.
Preparations for McGoldROCKS stretched out across several months. Linton and her team booked the talent, secured permits from the city, hired food trucks, coordinated with police on security, ordered portable toilets, and oversaw hundreds of other details. None of it was easy or cheap.
“It was a lot of work,” Linton said with a sigh. “I feel like my summer flew by because of this event. It’s worth it, but I’m going to take a nice break in the next couple of days.”
Even the most exhaustive planning couldn’t entirely eliminate a few technical hiccups. True to its punk roots, Euphemia likes to crank up the volume. But just as the lead singer unleashed the full fury of her voice, the microphone cut out. The on-site sound crew fixed the problem in a few minutes. The band picked up where it left off and didn’t look back.
The fifth and final act was the biggest name on the bill. Spose is the self-proclaimed King of Maine. His breakout hit “I’m Awesome” established his signature style of rapid-fire rap with a sense of humor.
The first thing Spose did when he opened his set was order the crowd to stop lounging around in the grass and gather around the edge of the stage. The press of bodies immediately raised the energy level. And as Spose ripped into his lyrics, they all started pumping their fists and bouncing along with the beat.
For Jim Rand, the scene was a return to form. He’s station manager at WMPG, having risen through the ranks since starting as a student in 1986. His knowledge of the University music scene goes back even further to the 1970s when USM was a regular tour stop for huge stars like Aerosmith and Tina Turner. Rand sees McGoldROCKS as part of that tradition.
“It will only grow,” Rand said. “I think we’ve established the model for how you can do a show like that on the lawn here. We’ll make sure, when we’re done, that it’s still in good shape, and just keep doing it.”
Good word of mouth among students will be important in the growth of McGoldROCKS as an annual event. Believing that the music is its own best advertisement, WMPG recorded the concert with plans to play selections over the air and distribute copies. Maybe the increased awareness will bring next year’s concert another step closer to Woodstock.