September 12 2024 Camp Kee Wanee Greenfield, MA
“Welcome Home” greetings rang through the air as we approached the site of our bi-annual pilgrimmage to Greenfield. It’d been months since the end of the Strangecreek festival, but it seemed in a way that summer passed by too quickly. Wormtown serves as a festival season bookend, and with its bittersweet message of Fall and Winter approaching, it also bring us to a blissful state, one of celebration and togetherness.
The Thursday early-worms were out and ready to rage. The cabin sets would be our main source of musical entertainment on THU night, while the main stage was gearing up for the weekend’s festivities. Whalom Park, from Athol, Mass would set up first in the Wormtown cabin and were ready to show us what central Massachusetts has to offer. Their music is a potent blend of prog, alternative, metal, avant garde jams. There’s a bit of snark, a bit of shredding, and an overall sense of warmth hidden underneath their music. They rocked out for hours despite readying themselves to play again to open the main stage the next day.
Our spot is one that not many Worms can enjoy, nestled into a tiny area of RVs and tents in the thick of things, near the bonfire and between both late night cabins. We are no longer vending, but we’re still close to those vendors and we might occasionally keep an eye on a booth, or just loung and socialize with all of our long standing friends who reside in that spot for the weekend.
So I found myself casually walking into the cabin after Whalom Park’s set, to greet my three friends who comprise the band to take the cabin stage next. Bill Carbone I’ve known since I was running around with Uncle Sammy and ulu and others in the early 2000s as he was in Miracle Orchestra and I’ve been a huge fan of his drumming in Max Creek since he took that throne I’m guessing about ten years ago. Tim Palmieri and I go back to that same time frame from when he was in the Breakfast (originally Psychedelic Breakfast) and as he became the guitar slinging king of jam in everything from Kung Fu to now touring nationally with Lotus. Beau Sasser, B3 master- has been a friend since those very same days when he was in Uncle Sammy and through stints in Kung Fu, Sparkplug and numerous other bands including his own named Beau Sasser’s Escape Plan and more. So it was with delight that I awaited the set with Z3.
We ended up chatting about classic rock songs for some strange reason and went from talking about Grand Funk Railroad’s “We’re an American Band” to the Bachman Turner Overdrive’s seminal classic “Taking Care of Business” with Palmieri declaring his love for both songs. This was foreshadowing of course for a band filled with such adept musicians as these.
Their set lived up to their band description, Funky Takes on Frank. They opened with the classic instrumental “Peaches en Regalia” and progressed through some ninety minutes of.. well, funky takes on Frank Zappa! They moved deftly into “Moving to Montana Soon” and into a medley that included “Dirty Love” and “Stink Foot” and other material that someone more into Zappa than I am could liekly identify. The band is tight and shreddy with each member being a total master on their instrument. The vocal duties are shared between Sasser and Palmieri.
Tim exhibited an ability, a term that I came up with later in the weekend. He is Trambi-Dexterous. He exhibits incredible precision with both his left and right hand on his intrument, able to shred out amazing solos. And he can do something that not every guitaist can do, which is to lay out great vocals at the same time as shredding, Trimbi-Dexterous. The set continued and meandered in a way that was both casual and incredibly thoughtful. The ending medley included “Willy the Pimp” and then went into some crazy territory.
Most of these medleys included commentary from Palmieri, egging on the Worm crowd and daring them to get more and more into the music, oftentimes punctuated with the same from Sasser. The banter continued and the words started to sound familiar and the next thing I knew we were “Taking Care of Business.” Seemingly without practice or any formal discussion aside from our casual conversation during their setup the band fired through multiple verses of the BTO classic, including altering the lyrics to be more Worm oriented. This is the level of astuteness that these cats have, the ability to take a classic rock song at mere mention, convert it into Zappa language, and to casually but purposefully insert it into their set’s climax on a moment’s notice. Wow, just amazing.
That alone would have been enough of a ngiht for any early Worm. But the festival hosts had more up their sleeves, even for this appetizer of an opening night. I mean honestly- the early entry is useful enough to justify the expense simply to get in early and secure your camping spot. But having hours and hours of amazing music is simply the icing on the cake.
Up next and last for the night at the Wormtown cabin was Future Joy. I think I heard that they have played Worm events before but this was the first I heard or saw of them. They hit the stage with volume and energy. The band is live EDM jams including looping, live sax, live vocals, and tons of energy. At one point Force from the Alchemystics turned up to spit some bars and Wormtown festival had officially begun.
It’s a marathon, Worms- not a sprint. We raged til the end of Future Joy anyway, and tried to get a few hours of sleep before the sun came up on the first official day of Wormtown.
Keep your eyes here, we’ll have a full report of the entire weekend with hours and hours of recordings coming your way.
Wanna continue the vibe? Check out the schedule of the vintage Shea Theater located just six miles from the Wormtown festival in beautiful downtown Turners Falls, MA.
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