Centerville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket hosted its first live music event in August. It started big with the Island Roads Fest, featuring popular reggae/ rock bands including Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, Iration, Action Bronson, DENM, Bumpin Uglies, Beach Fly, Grateful Dub, Rebelution, The Roots, SOJA, The Original Wailers featuring Al Anderson, HIRIE, The Expendables, Joe Samba, and Crooked Coast.
The line at the stadium beamed with excited smiling faces, and sea-themed vibrant fabrics and patterns, and throngs of festival friends greeting each other with warm hugs. Younger people were excited to hear their songs they listened to on their parents’ radio in the back seat of the car growing up. Similarly, the late Bradley Nowell’s son stepped up to his family legacy as Sublime’s frontman. Families gather to spend the day in the sun dancing and playing.
The audience members from young to old all contributed to a positive, anticipatory vibe, in this brand new stadium right in Pawtucket. The joy was felt deeply and robustly as the fans started filling in the stadium, which holds 10,500 spectators, and boasted a sold-out two-day festival. Keeping the family vibes together, father-son duo Beach Fly opened up the festival, but Grateful Dub: Roots of Creation, really started the party off, bringing that New England energy to beloved songs from the Grateful Dead with fun reggae melodies creating a wave of happiness!!!!
It wouldn’t be a live concert without a few spicy mishaps. DENM, Bumpin Uglies and Action Bronson all faced different sound challenges and gaps in their sets, and the crew had to take time to fix things! But the show must go on. And the bands were super professional and patient as the crew worked together to problem solve and correct sound issues in the fastest manner possible. Learning what it really takes to house such a hardy/ robust bill, with sixteen different bands on one stage, was quite the feat. They quickly worked together to resolve a clipping out blown amp. Because that’s really how hard we were jamming! With echoes from the stadium seats themselves, a field of dancing and sound waves traveled over the Seekonk River behind the stadium, and a rotating stage added new levels of unseen challenges!
Attendees put their troubles behind them and got back on their dancing feet as the venue filled and the sunlight faded! Clouds of smoke plumed from this modern-day, legal, cannabis shakedown street lined with cultivators offering games, information and trade markets! Smiles and laughter were seen and heard. A level of community and safety formed as friends found each other and the audience began to illuminate themselves! Firefighters stopped to flow with concertgoers, showing off their juggling skills! People cuddling on blankets, friends painting, photographs being taken – sacks were hacked, hula hoops were looped, veils were waved in awe, and the organic festival feeling was there. Strangers bonded over stories of their favorite times they’ve seen their favorite bands! The crowd roared and applauded and everyone started to groove. As the energy built, both anticipation and the crowd grew larger and larger. The energy was felt from the amazing performances. Slightly Stoopid entertained audiences with an awesome large-scale laser light show. Sublime’s Jakob Nowell brought resounding energy as he sang his father’s songs, performing skateboard tricks on stage next to pillars of giant inflatables from the famous Lou Dog.
Day two had a much similar vibe, with all the sound issues resolved from the previous day. HIRIE, the only female on the bill, glimmered in the setting sunlight. Her energy was just as bright as any act, smiling, dancing, and engaging fans with songs of love and heartbreak and cannabis! You can hear echoes of the audience singing along with beloved songs of peace, love and happiness! The Roots brought the most exuberant stage performance! And I could not sit idle during SOJA’s performance, grooving and dancing with a beautiful community of photographers that worked so hard capturing this event! Revolution ended the festival with a marvel of lights and tunes, lasers and projected images, bird soaring over the band to a hyper-immersive vibe. Everything was smooth. Overall, this was an amazing experience – Centreville Bank Stadium can say they triumphantly threw their first festival.