So it was Liberty University graduation today and thankfully Jon Gregoire was not graduating. The other people helping to build the cultural, artistic, musical aspects of Lynchburg are pretty much locals and/or not leaving us with a graduation. I do congratulate those who have graduated but I look forward to quieter town during the summer. However, I know that those who are working to change this town will not remain quiet during the summer.
So here I am writing about the cultural attractive growth of Lynchburg with a special emphasis on Lynchstock. I want to explain my old dreams from the Burning Bush era, how things are evolving for Lynchburg’s betterment, who is responsible for this and what effect Lynchstock had on me and the town in general.
I have lived in Lynchburg for a very very long time. I went to Liberty University and upon graduating I stayed here. I was from Iowa, a state with nothing besides corn, soybeans and pigs and most of my close friends from highschool had moved away. During my Liberty times I developed friendship with many people in the east coast with a good number still living here.
Ah Burning Bush. While I was in college one of my closest friends Daniel Whit,e along with myself and a few others (Jordan Kriner in particular), started a music booking company called Burning Bush. We had done very well with it, during which we had dreams to grow it more. Sadly the town was not ready yet. I also started a small *zine (American Propaganda) with my friend Josh Morris trying to group the different aspects of the hipster type community together. Daniel and I were the first people to learn the term hipster jokingly calling ourselves hipsters. We just were a little but before our time. Due to lack of growth in and with the community, Daniel moving to Richmond (owns Blood and Ink records and does so much more with music there now, check out his “little” festival http://2014.falllinefest.com/), and some other various issues Burning Bush ended. It was a sad day and it was the end of our time attempting to run the ship to a good dock in the tumultuous sea of Lynchburg.
During that time there was a large underground music scene. In included people such as Steven MacLauchlan of PA Records/Born With a Tail (BWAT), Dan Portnoy and Nathan McGlothlin of The Drop, along with many others such as Blythe Penn and Matt Bowman. We had house shows as well as organized events at places such as the Drowsy Poet, Percivals (now called the White Hart), Knights of Columbus, the Elks Lodge, CVCC, a few different churches and the Piedmont Center. We at Burning Bush prized ourselves in having a larger unison group of music from more than just Liberty kids. Yes, that was our largest fan base but we wanted the various musical styles of Lynchburg to be combined. We would have shows consisting of BWAT, The Late Virginia Summers would open for Norma Jean, Winter Solstice and Me Without You. Sadly that died when we stopped during shows (our last big shows were Engine Down at CVCC and Vrooms last show at the Drowsy). The scene then turned into a world of separation between the different styles and groups. It was only hardcore, or only folk, or only indie, nothing melting them together. I was bothered by that and still am today as musical scenes have not completely reunited.
Despite the death of Burning Bush I did notice small glimmers starting to arise. First was Sarah (Anderson) Boyce followed by Caleb Stone, Jon Rouleau, Chris Baker/Brandon Brunson, Room 180 and even the folk festival at the Whore House. It was slow but the town was beginning to itch for redevelopment. I hoped that the groundwork we had laid had started to develop some fruit. It took many hurdles but still deeper were some things that started to help our dreams appear. Things such as the opening of Rivermont Pizza (which struggled at first but under Nate Halls leadership has moved forward), the opening of Speakertree Records by Blair now owned by Tim Condan and Andy Schools (when Record Exchange closed), the White Hart reopening and doing shows again along with the Starlight Cafe (RIP). So things were progressing.
I think the deciding factor has been in moving this town towards what I dreamt of is the group at first based from the Jefferson Lofts and now The Keep Colony. Those guys and girls were often people I had known from the old days who had stayed after school or were old locals. It is not that they all live at the Keep, but that the Keep is becoming a center of attraction. So they stood up and said lets take things in our own hands and attempt bring about an evolution of the cultural aspects of Lynchburg. I think some of the aspects are thanks also to Ryan Carl and his meetings and desires expressed at the White Hart to help revolutionize Lynchburg.
In this time frame Lynchburg downtown has been developing and growing. The town has become more and more accepting of the younger cultural aspects (younger means anything less the 50). The town has also been excited to see the downtown be reborn and has watch as people started to buy properties. In particular are Tony West and Chopper with their willingness to buy property and remodel it. This is causing the Lynchburgers, not just the college kids, to begin to appreciate the downtown with its development and cultural growth. Lynchburg has also started doing more things downtown getting the attention of music, art and life downtown such as Get Downtown! (which I feel should be twice a year).
The city’s government itself is developing plans to increase the life of the downtown Lynchburg separate from the corporate Ward Road area. I can thank Marcelo Quarantotto and Matt Addington for their willingness to meet with people in the city to help develop this growth in the cultural side. Of all of the city council members I would like to acknowledge Joan Foster the most.
So Lynchburg is slowly developing a downtown, 5th street, Rivermont Ave and helping to develop the appreciation of the arts, the culture, the historical renovations, and the joy of Lynchburg. Buildings Daniel and I had looked at in the past are now being used and occupied. Daniel and I had always dreamed of a musical venue and while I would still love for someone to rebuild the Tunkel building partially for use to provide a venue downtown the Keep Colony is slowly becoming a well respected location for show thanks to the leadership of Ryan Zimont and Stetson Jenkins. Jon Gregoire who is friends with this development and people had done a little house festival last year but wanted to expand and bringing in more of the Lynchburg musical groups for a larger festival. The Keep was perfect for it.
And it was a perfect 2nd annual Lynchstock. The weather was a nice 70 degrees with very little humidity and a wonderful sun shining. I was hoping for at least 300 people, but God said no and close to three times that many visited throughout the day.I had the privilege, as I usually do, to take care of the money issues for events at the Keep and watching the door. It was none stop for people kept coming and coming it did not stop till right before the Glass Oaks played. I was able to take breaks thanks to the hard work of the guys who live at or are associated with the Keep, such as Ryan, Stetson, Matt Guiliti, Webb Sledge, Mark Mullett, etc. They at the Keep and associated with both Lynchstock gave up their all to see things move smoothly. I also loved the energy of the two guys working the table in the front to verify prepays, tell people where to go for wristband and give the rules for the festival. They had a nonstop joyous energy. So counting attendees, giving out wristbands, guarding the money, and showing I hope signs of good service to the attendees I was pleased. (I did write an app to help track guests, will work on it some more to handle financial transactions as well as counting attendees to a database.)
As stated I did have periods of free time when someone else watched the continuous door. When I did I would go, support my addiction of clove cigarettes, watch a little bit of the bands, but mostly to observe the people in the audience. People seemed to be enjoying themselves and the music. Some may have had one band in particular that they came to see, others were there for the joy of it all and some just for the social aspect. Nonetheless it seemed that people loved it, we happy about it, and glad they came.
It may have been predominantly bands associated with Liberty University kids, but their were some exceptions including some local area talent. (I hope next year more of that with bands such as Steal the Prize, David Sickman and the Hackensaw Boys, Merciato, Big Foot County, Jenny and the B-Side Rockers, some of the older solo musicians like David Sharrett, maybe some of the hardcore/metal band and hopefully even being blessed by Tom from Modest Mouse.) The bands playing were really good and performed their best no matter what time they played. Some of my favorites were Fitzgerald with the inclusions of a ska trumpet, the Glass Oaks, Dogwood and Holly, Jane M, Bombardier, playing on the roof, Matt Steinbach and that grand final combination as Glass Oaks ended the stage aspect of the festival with others. It brought people like Matt Steinbach, Ola from Fitzgerald, the guys from Native Blood, Jane, etc to all join the stage along with the festival founder Jon and singing and performing one last grand finally.
Throughout the day there were various providers of food; Megan Jenkins with her amazing baking skills, my roommate Casey Murrey and friend Pete Faust running Smokie Ring BBQ, and of course the return to the public of the Taco Shark (run by Nate Hall, Drew Fontaine, and Katie Elliot all from Rivermont Pizza). Also there were people showing off artwears such as Benaiah Clothes (my other roommate Ashley a co-owner of Benaiah ran their table). Benaiah founded by the Chads were also responsible for creating and printing the Lynchstock t-shirts which many people purchased. Also Benaiah along with the White Hart Cafe were two of the sponsors of the festival. (I actually got one of the t-shirts and while I was running the door I paid for it in support of the event. Also not to sound proud I bought four tickets for some good friends; CM, M1 and LW the fourth was meant for someone else who did not need it.)
The event was alcohol free which no one seemed bothered by as they were just there to enjoy the event and did not need the influences of beer to make it any better. There were really no problems the entire day, despite it being a long one. People behaved with respect for each other and caused no chaos. It may have been as hot as hell in Gym as the event wound down, but I think the audience packing it out could have cared less about their sweat pouring because they were just loving it all with no regards other than joy.
I have to thank Taylor Thompson for his organizing and overseeing the musical EQ. He and his minions ran it perfectly well. The times between sets were perfect, not rushed or too long. I also have to acknowledge all the photos taken by both fans and people working under the guidance and leadership of Matt Addington. I do remember one of Matts minions was the Hungarian Lindsay Patkos (have to acknowledge her due to the Hungarian connection we have). I really enjoyed all of the photos I saw on Facebook and/or Instagram and would naturally click like.
The event was a sign of unison among different people of all ages. There were families, people who just heard about it from News and Advance, college kids, high school kids, and so on. Even Joan Foster stopped by even if only for but a few minutes. The city knew about it and were pleased that it was run well. I hope that the city government remembers and thus starts to show more support for the growing diverse cultural, artistic, musical of more than just the hipsters. I also hope the entire city can remembers this event giving more support financially (beyond the government), appreciation, and recognition.
Jon you and your team did an amazing job of organizing and overseeing this fantastic exceptionally run musical event. I am not the only looking forward to next year and so long as I am still here (which I should be) the joy of helping and seeing it grow even more. Everyone should thank all of those who were involved in the event. You see Jon had a dream and people listened. It was those little listening people who gathered together in support helping to make it happen. Thus with more support and the help of our community Jon and Lynchstock can see growth gaining more positive attention.
So Lynchstock at the Keep Colony with the help of all of us together even if all you did was attend helped to develop and bring forth Lynchburg’s cultural, artistic, musical world. It, with all of our support, gathered attention from the city and people outside of our own little cliques. It is starting now people, this Lynchburg is moving in the direction that Daniel and I had dreamed of. I am proud to still be here seeing and helping it move forward. Let us not sit around and do nothing guys, let us go out there, let us work together and gain more and more attention from the city that things can only get better. Let us get all of the colleges together to help, let us get the older and younger locals excited, let us get the people in the outside counties interested, let us get all the different musical groups to support each other, let us not be off Standish and pretend to be better than each other but together we as community of college kids, older and younger locals, leaders and followers can make a difference in this community helping grow Lynchburg to rival that of our neighbors in the north and south.
So it is still a process and will not happen immediately but Lynchburg is changing and moving in a good direction, a place I have envisioned for years. These people behind things like Lynchstock and the Keep are helping. I want to see more unison of the other colleges and people groups and some aspects will never be in perfect union. Imagine the Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg against the Hipsters. I think people will be proud of the development in the next few years and we can all thank those who are working hard, both young and old, currently to see it happen.
Thanks for a dream slowly coming to a reality.
One final thing please go support places like the City Farmers Market for local food, local restaurants (such as Barbs) and artistic things, the White Hart Cafe for good food, great coffee and local music, Rivermont Pizza for pizza, beer and shows, Mangia, shows at the Keep, Speaktertree Records for all you vinyl lovers, Apocalypse Ale Works for amazing beer, and many the local things specially in the Downtown, Rivermont, 5th street areas. If we go and support those places they will continue to flourish and only grow more.