Next week, the notoriously laid-back college town of Missoula, Mont., will be besieged by all brands of punk, metal, garage and stoner-rock, not to mention some insurgent alt-country thrown in for good measure.
Hailing from Portland to Bellingham and San Francisco to the Brooklyn boroughs, these independent bands -- about 40 of 'em -- will be traversing I-90 on their way to Total Fest, the growing DIY music festival founded by Yakima native Josh Vanek.
Now in its seventh year, Total Fest runs next Thursday through Aug. 16 at Missoula's Badlander and Palace, two venues interconnected within the same building. Plus, there's a record swap, barbecues and, since it's Missoula, river floats.
"It has more of a community feel rather than the bands are inaccessible and locked away," explains Vanek, a 1992 Eisenhower High School graduate.
"It doesn't have the air of like a Sasquatchy thing," he says, referring to the Sasquatch! Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre. "It's fun and positive -- and legitimately that way."
The bill includes a number of regionally well-known bands such as Black Elk, the sneering, spitting, super loud group out of Portland; Seattle's PBR-fueled Akimbo; and Bellingham's Black Eyes and Neckties, who you may (unfortunately) remember -- they showed some serious skin when they played the Yakima Sports Center in December.
Also, there are The Pasties (Olympia); Pure Country Gold (Portland); The Trucks (Bellingham); Miss Lana Rebel (Portland); Triclops! (San Francisco); the one-time reunion of Disgruntled Nation (Kalispell, Mont.); and the only live show this year by Federation X, the Bellingham-Brooklyn band featuring local boy Bill Badgley.
Past Total Fest acts have included Old Time Relijun, the Fleshies, the Thrones, Yogoman Burning Band, Mountain High, Madraso, Volumen, Japanther and the Cherry Valence.
"It's bands whose music we think is exciting," says Vanek.
While the first fest in 2002 was simply a concert featuring a handful of Vanek's favorite bands, it's now grown into an event that, this year, drew submissions from more than 100 bands. A listening committee sifts through all that rock 'n' ruckus to select the lineup.
"Obviously, there are many more than 40 that we would have liked to have," says Vanek.
And although the Thursday night show is 18 and older, the rest of the festival is all-ages.
"Growing up in Yakima, the opportunity for shows being under 18 was few and far between," says the 34-year-old Vanek. "It might be way easier to do it 21-plus, but what's the point?"
Total Fest -- an ambitious name that comes from the concept of "total music," as dubbed by the San Francisco band The F***ing Champs -- was born out of Vanek's record label, Wäntage USA.
And the label was born, in part, out of a few of those few-and-far-between all-ages shows here in his hometown. Held in the parking lot of Yakima music store Off the Record in the mid-1990s, Vanek remembers seeing hard-hitting Northwest acts such as Karp and Zeke.
"Yakima gets skipped over a lot (by bands), so when it did happen, I remember it being super special," recalls Vanek.
"Those shows kind of blew a lot of our minds," he says. "They personally inspired me to get involved as a nonmusician."
Vanek founded Wäntage in 1993 after his freshman year of college at the University of Montana in Missoula (where he'd eventually make his permanent home after returning from the Peace Corps).
Back in Yakima for the summer and working for a local frozen food company, Vanek had a little cash in his pocket, so he started his own record label. (His brother Matt came up with the name, and brother Ian helped run the label for a long time.) The first release was a split cassette tape by Yakima bands Squelch and Clever.
Wäntage now has about 50 releases to its name, mostly from loud, fiercely independent bands, several of which -- Fed X, The Lights, The Narrows, Squalora, Volumen -- will be playing at next week's Total Fest.
"They're bands that are kind of do-it-yourself," says Vanek, "and whose music I think deserves more attention."
If you go
WHAT: Total Fest VII.
WHO: Federation X, Squalora, Volumen, Akimbo, Black Elk, Black Eyes & Neckties, Disgruntled Nation, JackTop Town, Lopez, The Pasties, Pure Country Gold, Saviours, Pierced Arrows, the Sherlocks, The Trucks and Triclops!, among others.
WHEN: Aug. 14-16.
WHERE: Downtown Missoula, Mont.
* Live music: 8 p.m. Aug. 14-16 at the Badlander/Palace, 208 Ryman St.
* Record swap: Noon-2 p.m. Aug. 16 at Big Dipper Ice Cream, 631 S. Higgins Ave.
HOW MUCH: $35 for a three-day pass and $25 for two-day pass (Aug. 15-16).
INFO: Tickets, band descriptions and the like are available at www.wantageusa.com and wantagetotalfest.blogspot.com.
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