Millpond.Live is a free, all-ages music and art festival happening on the next six Saturdays at Millside Park in Easthampton.
Each of the six multi-act concerts will have a different theme, as well as showcase the work of artists in other mediums in the Little Boxes Exhibition (a series of shipping containers that will house pop-up art installations, plus interactive sound, video, and virtual-reality experiences). The art of local chefs will be available with farm-to-table food options, craft beverages from area breweries, and more.
It all begins this weekend with a show entitled “Sunset Boogaloo,” featuring a mix of New Orleans funk, hip hop, R&B and Latin boogaloo from the Khalif Neville Trio, Tang Sauce (hip hop from Hartford), Spanglish Fly, pictured, (boogaloo from Brooklyn) and New City Soul, a Valley band that brings together Mitch Chakour and Mandy Pachios. On Saturday at 6 p.m.
The August 26 concert is “Art and Activism,” a multimedia show presented by The Rosenberg Fund for Children that includes Sweet Honey in the Rock, Climbing PoeTree, The Love Experiment and visual artist Sophia Dawson. “The event will be both a conversation about social justice and a tribute in memoriam to Art Steele, a man who spent his life empowering performers locally, nationally, and abroad,” said Amber Black, the Rosenberg Fund’s communications director.
“Nashville to New City,” on September 2, features singer-songwriters Jamie Kent and Shawnee Kilgore, plus Upstate Rubdown (from the Hudson Valley) and Berkshire balladeer Izzy Heltai.
The final three weeks were still being finalized at press time, but September 9 will star Rebel Diaz and “social justice-tinged hip-hop in the tradition of Nueva Canción Chilena”; September 16 includes Hazmat Modine and Brown Rice Family, and the final week, September 23, is scheduled to be an Irish fest, featuring both traditional and modern Celtic acts.
For more information visit the festival’s website at Millpond.Live.
Simple Friend (the harmony-friendly pop duo of King Radio costars Frank Padellaro and Brandi Ediss) plays the Luthier’s Co-op in Easthampton on Friday at 7 p.m.
Critically acclaimed rapper Masta Ace — once described as “one of the great pure New York MCs,” and one of Eminem’s influences — hits the stage at the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield on Friday at 9 p.m. Sharing the bill are LS CAMP, P.O.E. (from Springfield) and Machakos Kyalo w/ Other Layers.
The all-day Benefit for the 1794 Meetinghouse features Sunburned Hand of the Man, Ryley Walker, New Parents, Willie Lane, Frozen Corn, K Salvatore, Mozzaleum, PGSix, Alexander Turnquist, Viewer, MA Turner, Jantar, Weeping Bong Band and others (plus a potluck picnic) at the 1794 Meetinghouse in New Salem on Saturday from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Exhibiting artist Nick Cave teams up with vocalist Nona Hendryx (known for her time in the trio Labelle and a solo career that included work with Prince, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads and others) at MASS MoCA in North Adams on Saturday at 7 p.m. The museum promises that the tickets will sell out fast, and limited preferred tickets include an exclusive gallery performance.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Marshall Crenshaw, whose self-titled debut was one of the best pop albums of the ’80s (and who once appeared on your TV screen as meter reader Mel Ratner on “The Adventures of Pete & Pete”) teams up with instrumental masked men Los Straitjackets for a fun show at The Iron Horse on Sunday at 7 p.m.
It’s King Crimson-related prog-rock heaven when bassist and Stick player Tony Levin, drummer Pat Mastelotto and guitarist Markus Reuter bring their “Stick Men Prog Noir Chapter 4” tour to The Iron Horse on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“Rock ’n’ Roll High School,” the 1979 movie musical comedy featuring The Ramones, is the latest film screening at this summer’s Sound and Vision film series at Amherst Cinema on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Old Crow Medicine Show recently appeared on The Grand Ole Opry, and now the internationally acclaimed Nashville string band plays the Pines Theater at Look Park in Florence on Thursday at 7 p.m. Joshua Hedley opens.
Mountain Movers (from New Haven, featuring Dan Greene of The Butterflies of Love), Bong Wish (from Boston) and local guitar man Trevor Healy team up for a triple bill at this week’s Reanimate the Bay State show at the Sierra Grille in Northampton on Thursday at 10 p.m.