The grand poobah of Porchfests, Somerville Porchfest, will land on May 9. With more than 500 music acts participating, it’s easy to get lost. But that’s part of the point. Open your ears and start wandering.
The Saturday follows the typical organizational scheme of previous years, with performances slotted into three zones: west (noon to 2 p.m.), central (2 to 4 p.m.) and east (4 to 6 p.m.). The music will roll like a wave across Somerville.
Want to volunteer? The application window for Porchfest ambassadors is open until Wednesday. Help direct people to the newly expanded collection of port-a-potties. Get free Porchfest schwag. Be the change you want to see in the ’Ville.
Here’s a selected list of Porchfest acts that we can confirm know how to write music, plug in their instruments and perform live. Use the map to build your own Porchfest adventure. Due to space considerations, we’re not including Wario Speedwagon, Join the IRS!, Sounds Like Chicken, fudoublehockeysticks or Not Ready for Therapy, but we absolutely respect their band name game.
Highlights
West Zone (noon to 2 p.m.)
Start with the Bs: Baby Bowler, Big Rav and Bus Crush. Their sets are within a five-minute walk of each other. Just cross Broadway and don’t get stuck in the Teele Square Liquor traffic as the thirsty hordes load up on hard seltzers. Condition Baker was a valiant competitor in the 2024 Rock N Roll Rumble – are we ever having a Rumble again?
Jill McCracken is one of the few musicians performing in the “soul” category. Is Somerville soul-less? I wouldn’t go that far, but the Boston area has one of the highest concentrations of the religiously unaffiliated. You won’t regret catching On Regret. The Femmes have a residency at Midway Cafe on the other side of the Charles River, but I guess the ’Ville is their true home.
Central Zone (2 to 4 p.m.)
Back to the Bs: Baabes and Boston Liberation Center Band. Some bands remove all the vowels from their name, other bands add extra. The BLC Band is a cultural organ of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Crushdepth, Good June and Scrivener deliver pop with their punk. The Coe Street Co-Op sounds like your favorite 1970s rock radio station.
The Collect Pond is probably not a reference to Collect Pond in Lower Manhattan. But if it was, would you be surprised? Tiffy has a new song out, “Scam Likely.” Curiously enough, there’s another band playing at Porchfest by the name of Scam Likely. I sense some sort of scam. Likely identity theft. Your Friends In Hell mix goth, folk and punk, and it’s not clear whether they’re allowed out in sunlight.
If I had attended cheer camps as a child, I’d probably be offended that musicians such as Cheer Camp are deploying it ironically as a gag band name. But I didn’t and I’m not. Literally/Nobody recently released its “Candle” EP. State Parque have played State Park in Kendall Square, and everywhere else. Honk! brings exotic punk marching bands to town every year, but Magnificent Danger are our hometown heroes.
East Zone (4 to 6 p.m.)
Adja the Turkish Queen sends you all those #ARTSTAYSHERE emails. There’s a renewed sense of purpose with Baker Thomas Band after the site of its longstanding residency, Toad, rejoined the living. Check out Buck Lonesome & The Table for One for some New England-style honky-tonk. Copilot and Couch are two feel-good acts that have played big stages, including Boston Calling. Can they fest a porch too?
Crow Follow and Dayes serve up Americana, the former soaked in psych and the latter syruped in joy. Drug Deal Gone Rad has an awesome band name. I’m less enamored with the moniker Happy Little Clouds, but always impressed by the rock ’n’ roll chutzpah of their songwriting. Pop rocker Layzi makes for another impressive Boston Calling alum.
Otis Shanty pulled a good crowd last year. Rong is an explosive, posthardcore bombshell. If you’re scared of the deep end, try The Shallows. The Spackles have designed its visual brand around Tide laundry detergent. And to Why Try?, I say, why not?
Whyte Lipstick is Coco A-Go-Go’s new thing post-Electric Street Queens. Bird Language is my love language. NP is (The Blob) manufactures arthouse electronic noise. Puke Pisstols are punk. What else would they be? And Regal Seagull are already pining for sweaty weather with their latest single “Some Summer.”
Ruby Grove had its porch outlawed when the new Porchfest rules shut down their street. The funky, dream poppers must have found another stage to strum on. Ruin The Nite won’t ruin your day. Besides one single titled “Spooky Bitch,” Skaleton Crew don’t put much effort into connecting supernatural themes with ska. Prove me wrong. Not many Porchfest bands with international dates, but Viruette is playing Nottingham, U.K., in July. And punkers Hammered Saint are a revelation in a dank rock ’n’ roll dive – how will they fare in the fresh air?
What else do you need to know?
For the second year in a row (following the Guster Affair in 2024) the city will render some porches null and void by forbidding live performances on certain thoroughfares. Correlatively, certain streets will be blocked off to vehicles as pedestrian-only areas.
In theory, this gives car traffic easier lanes of passage through the madding crowds. Ambulances too, though emergency vehicles have a lot harder time navigating a logjam of cars than pedestrians, based on observing local traffic.
In practice, the traffic scheme shrinks the available footprint for Porchfest performances while cars drive around the pedestrian-only barricades at will.
If you want to make a complaint, you’ll have to take it to someone besides Greg Jenkins, the longtime leader of the Somerville Arts Council, whom new mayor Jake Wilson showed the door as soon as he took office. If anyone knows the story behind that, I’m all ears. This year will be the first Porchfest without Jenkins at the helm since … forever?
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