Over the course of Saturday and Sunday, 34 musical acts are scheduled to grace three separate stages at the Main Street Museum in White River Junction.
That’s right, What Doth Rumble, which unites the offbeat museum with the musicians of the Windsor-based What Doth Life recording collective, returns for a second year, with 50% more stages and bands and a growing number of vendors.
There’s really no better way to sample the creativity of the Upper Valley’s music scene than to check out the Rumble. Admission is free (though donations are gratefully accepted), and the bands run the gamut from Alison “Ali T” Turner, who takes songwriting inspiration from jagged 1990s pop, to Western Terrestrials, a honky-tonk band from outer space, to the ska, punk and garage rock of the What Doth Life bands. It’s pretty much all here, and almost all of it is from Upper Valley natives.
“Really, what we’re trying to do is give an opportunity to as many people as possible,” both for bands and for listeners, Brendan Dangelo, a Windsor native who’s a cornerstone of What Doth Life and an organizer of the Rumble, said in a phone interview.
What Doth Life started a yearly showcase at the Windsor Exchange around a decade ago, and expanded it from four or five bands to an all-day affair with two stages. They joined forces last year with the Main Street Museum, which in 2023 held the River City Rumble, with Western Terrestrials and other bands.
Last year’s Rumble went “almost better than we expected,” Dangelo said. “We came away with such an excess of positive energy.”
In looking at the schedule on the museum’s website, a simple question comes to mind: “How?”
The museum isn’t particularly large, so where would there be room for, as the event’s poster describes, a “big stage,” a “solo stage” and an “inside stage?”
Turns out that two of those stages — “big” and “solo” — are outside under tents behind the museum, which inhabits the former firehouse at 58 Bridge St., in White River Junction. The third is the museum’s main stage at the front of the house.
The entire two-day festival is tightly organized, with bands playing short sets. Last year’s festival was tough enough to produce, with 22 bands on two stages, Dangelo said, but he expects this year’s will be smoother.
The sheer number of bands leads to some interesting possibilities. Ali T is slated to play the solo stage at 5:15 on Sunday, just after the 4:30 set on the big stage by Dutch Experts, the current project of Enfield native Hannah Hoffman, who’s now in southern Vermont. The contrast between Dutch Experts, which is inspired by the plush synths of 1980s New Wave, and Turner’s ’90s pop sounds like a must-listen.
Dangelo said about 1,000 people attended last year’s Rumble, but people often dropped in to check out a band or two, then left, or came back later. Both days start at 11 a.m. with a workshop for musicians, one on mixing music and another on making an animated music video. The music itself starts at 1 p.m. and runs late on Saturday. The festival wraps up a little earlier on Sunday, with Western Terrestrials taking the stage at 5:45.
For more information, go to mainstreetmuseum.org/wdr25.
Music at the World’s Fair
What Doth Rumble is scheduled opposite the annual World’s Fair, in Tunbridge, which has some entertainment options of its own.
The Conniption Fits, the Upper Valley’s, and maybe America’s, favorite cover band, plays Friday night at 9. Opening for them, at 7:30, is the Central Vermont band Native Tongue, which plays a mix of originals and covers.
Something Reckless, a Bethel-based band that plays a mix of classic rock, country and music from the 1990s, plays at 7:30 Saturday night, followed by Jamie Lee Thurston, a Vermont-born country singer, at 9.
The concerts are included in admission to the fair, which costs $15 for adults, except Saturday, which is $20. Kids under 12 get in free.
More music
Also this weekend, the Anonymous Coffeehouse starts its fall season of free performances on Friday night in Lebanon’s First Congregational Church with sets from Cabot, Vt., singer-songwriter Dana Robinson, at 7:30, the Halley Neal Trio, a Boston-based Americana act, at 8, and folk singer Rob Oxford at 9. As always, there’s no cover, though donations are accepted, and baked goods are free, too.
And if the What Doth Life scene feels too heavy, fiddler Jakob Breitbach leads a Bluegrass Brunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday at River Roost Brewery in White River Junction, a short walk from the Main Street Museum. Joining Breitbach in an ensemble called Ninja Wizard will be banjoist Steve Hennig and guitarist Kit Creeger. There will be breakfast burritos available from Boca Soca. This Sunday is the start of a weekly joint for Ninja Wizard, at least through October.
Farm to table
Sisters Jenna and Nora Rice will present “The Vermont Farm to Table Cookbook,” a collaboration that came out earlier this summer, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Woodstock’s Norman Williams Public Library. The Rices grew up at Cobb Hill, the intentional agrarian community in Hartland founded by environmentalist Donella Meadows. Jenna now homesteads in Weathersfield and Nora is a roaming culinary artist. The Yankee Bookshop co-hosts and will have copies of the book for sale, and there will be samples of some of the recipes in the book, which focuses on Vermont ingredients. The event is free and open to the public.
Also at the Norman Williams is “Moon Landing,” an exhibition of paintings by Woodstock artist Tara Wray, through Oct. 31. Go to normanwilliams.org for more information.