The Bollard Bulletin for May 16-18, 2025
Wandering small Maine cities in a fog of music and art
Friday
It’s All Roads Music Festival weekend up in Belfast, with many past festival favorites taking stages around town — including The World Famous Grassholes, Bait Bag and Lean Meats tonight; Rigometrics, Alice Limoges and Viqueen on Saturday — plus standout Maine rock, rap, roots, funk and metal acts like Manuel, Clay Camero, Greasy Grass, and Jason Ward and the West End Mules. Here’s the link to our road trip Festival playlist from last year to whet your appetite on the drive up. Tix: $35 (Fri.), $45 (Sat.), $75 (weekend pass; all ages).
The fantastic funk act Moon Hooch have been known to swipe orange traffic cones and add them to their horns to deepen the bass, but who knew the former subway buskers have a hidden environmental agenda? Well, maybe not hidden hidden, but they’re big proponents of permaculture and other sustainable practices, so expect some words of eco-wisdom between the jams at Portland House of Music (25 Temple St.) after Saxsquatch opens at 8 p.m. Tix: $37 (21+).
Looking for another little Maine city to wander this weekend in search of interesting things? Try ArtWalk Gardiner, now in its 20th year, a street festival of visual art, music and food in that riverside town that tonight includes a photo-booth public art project, Community Faces, from 5-8 p.m. Free.
The reviews of Vulcanizadora, the “darkly funny heavy metal comedy” by actor and director Joel Potrykus and collaborator Joshua Burge, jump off the charts with praise. “There is no film you’ll ever see like it,” wrote a critic for Collider, “as it patiently builds to a terrifying explosion and then keeps going from where most would stop, leaving us to pick up the pieces that are forever shattered.” It screens at SPACE (538 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m. Tix: $10.
Maine-raised country music star Perly Curtis returns from Nashville to home turf at Lenny’s Pub (1274 Bridgton Rd., Westbrook) for a show with the Denny Breau Trio and guest Fred Lantz at 6:30 p.m. Tix: $20 (all ages). LQH, the funky jazz trio of Chas Lester, Tyler Quist and Evan Haines, plays Portland Lobster Co.’s waterfront deck (180 Commercial St.) at 6 p.m. Free (all ages). And touring music production The Magic of Motown celebrates soul hits of the ’60s and ’70s at Merrill Auditorium (20 Myrtle St., Portland) at 7:30 p.m. Tix: $32-$82.
Saturday
The West End Portland dance studio Hustle and Flow presents Dancetravaganza, a showcase of adult student pieces in a variety of styles, including burlesque and pole dancing, at The Hill Arts (76 Congress St., Portland) at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tix: $25-$30 (18+).
The Maine Wild Wine Fest will probably not live up to its name, in that it’s unlikely to descend into a hedonistic bacchanal. But if you mean wild as in natural and unadulterated, then yes, it’ll have lots of exhibitors offerings tastes of vinos made without bad additives or growing practices, plus a workshop, food and more. There are two sessions inside Mallet Barn at the Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport (184 Burnett Rd.) at 10 a.m. (hoo-boy!) and 2 p.m. Tix: $55.
As Portlanders head up the coast to invade Belfast this weekend, we’re leavin’ our flank wide open to an invasion of wild women from the Blue Hill Peninsula! The Hancock County country music act Damn, Girls! combines forces with The Comedy Collective for a night of honky tonkin’ and guffawin’ at Blue Portland Maine (650 Congress St.) at 8 p.m. Tix: $15-$20 (21+).
Luckily, we have an escape plan: flee to The Dance Hall in Kittery (7 Walker St.) for Panamanian singing sensation Rafa Moreno and Vibra Tropical and salsa our faces off at 7:30 p.m. Tix: $17-$22 ($10 students).
Cantrip doses traditional Scottish music with hits of funk, metal, bluegrass, swing and klezmer at One Longfellow Square (181 State St., Portland) at 8 p.m. Tix: $28 (all ages).
You can go full klezmer down the street at SPACE (538 Congress St.), where The Casco Bay Tummlers play a show in celebration of their first album in 20 years, Dreams of Yesterday and Tomorrow, which features jazz pianist Jamie Saft and is absolutely delightful, at 8 p.m. Tix: $20-$25 (benefits Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance). Or if you dug that acid reference, check out Grateful Dead cover band DeadBeat at Bayside Bowl (58 Alder St., Portland), joined by slide guitar maestro Robert Randolph at 8 p.m. Tix: $30-$35 (benefits the Robert Randolph Foundation).
The Portland Hearts of Pine play another soggy home soccer match at Fitzpatrick Stadium (Deering Ave.) against FC Naples at 5:30 p.m. Tix: $30-$55. And Maine Roller Derby presents The Final Frontier, a space-themed bout against Aroostook Roller Derby’s team, at Happy Wheels Skate Center (3 Chabot St., Westbrook) at 5 p.m. Tix: $10 (kids under 12 free).
Described as a “rollercoaster documentary with a razor-sharp wit,” Bad Press follows what happens when a tribal government in the U.S. tries to muzzle a crusading journalist (spoiler alert: this damning film, for one thing). A discussion of press freedom with co-director Joe Peeler and Midcoast Villager publisher Aaron Britt follows the 7:30 p.m. screening at the Strand Theatre (345 Main St. Rockland). Tix: $10 ($8 seniors).
Sunday
Well, now I feel like a schmuck. I started this post linking to a Spotify playlist and end it with a note about Liz Pelly, whose compelling new book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, exposes the platform’s nefarious manipulations of the music industry. Podcaster Damon Krukowski (a founding member of Galaxie 500) interviews Pelly at SPACE (538 Congress St., Portland) at 7 p.m. Tix: $10.
Here’s a nice way to wrap up your weekend ramblings around the Midcoast: a screening of the silent film Lime City, about the history of Rockland, accompanied by Haylcon, a group playing folk and classical compositions to the local scenes flickering before your eyes. It’s at the Strand Theatre (345 Main St., Rockland) at 4 p.m. Tix: $20-$25.
The Wabanaki Film Festival takes place at the Portland Museum of Art (7 Congress Square), featuring screenings of two documentaries, Kahnasetake: 270 Years of Resistance and Harvest of Empire, Wabanaki film shorts, plus panel discussions and Q&A sessions with activists and filmmakers, beginning at 11 a.m. Free.
Soulful singer Gina Alibrio & Friends get funky at Portland Lobster Co. (180 Commercial St.) at 12:30 p.m. Free (all ages). And Classical Uprising presents Growing Up Maine, a concert by 200 students, who speak a total of 29 languages, at Reiche Community School, joined by the Oratorio Chorale, at the State Theatre (609 Congress St., Portland) at 3 p.m. Tix: $40 ($15 kids).