by Mike Good
Come support local art and music at the 6th Annual Summer SLAM (Support Local Artists & Musicians) Festival, to be held Saturday, August 6th and Sunday, August 7th at Bogert Park in Bozeman. Admission to this family friendly festival is free! SLAM has something for everyone, offering family activities, live artist demonstrations and market booths, a Montana-made libations garden, and food trucks featuring local flavors. Entertainment off all varieties will grace the main stage at the park for this free festival that showcases the many talents of Montana residents. Performances throughout the weekend include dance, theater, athletics, and live music. On Saturday, kicking things off at 11am (then again at 11 on Sunday) is a Youth Showcase of young musicians from the Music Villa School of Music. Keep an eye on these rising stars among the music scene in Bozeman…they’ll knock your socks off!
Starting at 12pm, Dillinger Steele, Bozeman’s local “midnight troubadour,” will perform his unique style of rock, blues, and western soul. Steele has spent his entire life pursuing an artistic one, through his many roles as a Bozeman native, Navy sailor, actor, published poet, and writer (his first novel Wildcat was published last year), and musician with a catalog of six albums released so far. Come between 1pm and 1:30pm and check out all-star cheerleading and tumbling from Motion Athletics. From 1:30pm to 2:00pm, attendees can laugh to the hilarious antics of Improv comedy from independently operated theater The Verge, currently celebrating its 21st season in Bozeman. At 2pm, original independent Americana songstress Heather Lingle takes the stage. Lingle is a Butte, MT-based, Texas-born singer/songwriter who hit the independent music scene in 2012 with her critically acclaimed debut Coyote Beauty, which peaked at #19 on New Music Weekly’s national Indie Chart and appeared on Japan’s Real Country Top 200. Watch humans take flight at 2:55pm with dance trapeze, hoops, and fabrics from Aerial Arts of Bozeman. At 3pm you can shake your groove thang (and everything else) to the sounds of Solidarity Service, a Bozeman funky rock and reggae band featuring members of MOTH, Tomorrow’s Today, The Hawthorne Roots, Dr. Gravy, and One Leaf Clover. At 3:55 get a quick taste of Zumba with V, a dance workout so fun you don’t even feel like you’re working out. At 4pm, hear the eclectic mix of country, rock, and folk music best described as “Western Americana” from The Jason Wickens Band. The group is led by Jason Wickens, known by many music fans in the valley for producing/booking the locally recorded, nationally-recognized radio program Live from the Divide: A Celebration of the American Songwriter. Veronica’s Sizzlin’ Salsa comes out at 4:55pm, followed by the evening’s headliner, The Modern Sons, from 5pm until 7pm. Saturday night’s climax will be provided by this indie alternative post-rock band from Bozeman. One of three finalists in the indie-pop and rock category of the 2013 Zoo Music Awards Competition in Missoula, this crowd favorite recently released their second album Moon Racoon, which features a great mix of indie rock, drum and bass-driven grooves, not to mention atmospheric, ambient soundscapes.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!!!-Sunday Morning starts off at 10am with a free community yoga class from Your Yoga featuring a musical score by Jake Fleming. At 11am the Youth Showcase features more young talent from around the Gallatin Valley. At 11:30am, the park will explode with angsty punk/alternative rock from The Permians, comprised of students from Bozeman High. The Bridger Beat Cloggers will keep the intensity going and clogg themselves into your hearts at 11:55. At 12pm the vibe will be turned down just a notch with Sean Devine, a prolific singer/songwriter and charismatic performer from Livingston, MT. Devine has been compared to American songwriters Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, and Kris Kristofferson over his 15 year span playing and recording his own music. The Tapper Tantrums perform a rhythmic tap dance at 12:55. At 1pm the all-female acoustic trio Acony Belles take center stage. Named after the Gillian Welch tune “Acony Belle” about an Appalachian wildflower this trio dazzles with female vocal harmonies wound tightly in bluegrass, folk, and soulful Americana tunes with bass, guitar, and fiddle. Healing Spirals will perform belly-dancing at 1:55. At 2pm Brianna Moore & Sasquatch Funk will hit the stage playing funk, rock, and blues led by powerful female vocals. Bozeman-based, but with roots from all over the country, Brianna Moore & The Sasquatch Funk play songs that have a constant head-bobbing bass and drum groove punctuated by a tasteful “sexophone,” and lyrical guitar licks. Brianna Moore & Sasquatch Funk will be followed by an African Dance performance at 2:55. At 3pm, the musical grand-finale, The Bad Betty Organ Combo, five energetic, all-star seasoned musicians who display their prowess with a blend of groove, blues, and jazz will send you off to your work week with a song in your soul! The Bad Betty Organ Combo has been featured on the Montana PBS Television Series “11th and Grant w/ Eric Funk,”. It’s members are Buff Brown on harmonica, guitar, and lead vocals, Ryan Montana Matzinger on Alto and Baritone Sax, Chris Cundy on Hammond B3 organ, Milke Gillan on Drums, and John Sanders on Bass. A full schedule of performances, artist demonstrations, participating artists, culinary artisans, and information about SLAM are available on our website at www.slamfestivals.org.
Keep the arts alive and thriving in your community at the 2016 Summer SLAM festival, August 6th and 7th at Bogert Park in Bozeman, MT!
