FESTIVAL REVIEW: RPM Festival 2024 Part 1 Live at Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club

Ahhh, Labor Day weekend in New England. Cookouts, final vacation trips, getting ready to close up the pool until Memorial Day weekend, the leaves start changing color, and the family reunion you didn’t know you needed until you got here takes place. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, RPM Fest 2024 took over Millers Falls Rod and Gun Club in Montague, MA this past Labor Day weekend. Three days of music, food, camping, yard games, karaoke, and more extracurricular activities than you can shake a battle vest at. I’m here to tell y’all about it, so let’s stop the yapping and get into it… shall we?

Gates opened at noon on Friday. and immediately there was an electric feeling in the air. Not just because it’s the best party of the year kicking off, but this was also RPM Fest’s 10th anniversary. The festival has come a long way from happening in the backyard of festival founder Brian Westbrook’s house, bringing a tear to my eye to see how far we’ve come here.

Day 1:

Voices in Vain, Ninth Realm, Luxury Funeral, and Abominog kicked off the festivities to give everyone a taste of what was to come for the weekend. Progressive Metalcore, Crossover Thrash, and full-on Death Metal. There’s more here for everyone, but we’ll get to that in a few. Bonginator being, well… Bonginator over on the main stage was a sight to see. Three foot tall inflatable bongs, songs about being “Brined, Smoked, and Deep Fried,” and enough smoke machines to give Snoop Dogg a run for his money. Kontusion brought the death metal back for round 2 of the day over on the Wick & Ronin tent stage, bringing an evil aura to the stage that would only continue to be one-upped by itself throughout the weekend. Over on the Four Phantoms Brewing Company main stage, we have a returning act from Wisconsin, Rig Time! I’ve loved this band since the moment I heard them at RPM Fest 2022 when they played on the pavilion stage which is now the merch area for the festival grounds as well as the place for a lot of the extracurricular activities throughout the weekend (karaoke, drag show bingo, Magic: The Gathering tournaments, The THCC Lounge, etc.). But now Rig Time! is on the main stage and goddamn did they kick all kinds of ass. Punishing drums and melodic guitar playing from the 2-piece band but if you were to close your eyes you’d think there were 5 people on stage.

All Hell had some sound issues over on the tent stage but nothing that derailed the show for more than a few moments. Then… Belushi Speed Ball happened over on the main stage. Toy kitchen sets flying through the crowd, gallons upon gallons of drinks being launched from the stage, crowd-funded gang vocals about Dirty Dan and Pinhead Larry, and crowd surfing to the sounds of “My Favorite Color Is Pizza,” what more could you possibly want?! Death Metal makes one last appearance for the night with legends Deceased closing out the tent stage with a ferocious set that shook my chest.

Now on to the headliner of the night, Jamey Jasta’s solo band Jasta. For anyone who doesn’t know me personally, I’m a massive fan of Hatebreed. So when Jasta was announced as the Friday night headliner I damn near shed a tear and pissed myself in excitement. Touring in support of his latest record …And Jasta For All (Perseverance Media Group) Jamey Jasta flew onto the stage with his band of titans and ran through an insane set of songs from all albums under the Jasta moniker, including “They See Us As Prey” featuring Massachusetts’ own Nick Petrino from My Missing Half and Dee Snider. Closing out the night with Hatebreed classic “I Will Be Heard,” I screamed my lungs out, I banged my head until I couldn’t feel my neck, and we still got two more days to go.

Day 2

Music starting right at noon, Maidenhead opened up the main stage with a powerful set of a combo of thrash metal and power metal. Like really loud chocolate and peanut butter, sounds weird but damn is it good. Street Trash, Goblin Hovel, Necralant, and Adamantis were all up back-to-back-to-back-to-back giving the longest day of the festival an insane mix of balls to the walls punk, Goblin-core (is that a genre? I’m making it one of it’s not), black metal, and more power metal. Phenomenal sets by everyone. If I can touch Goblin Hovel for a moment. Take Protest The Hero, goblin aesthetics, an electric lute, and a song about a teapot… and you’ve got Goblin Hovel, go listen, just trust me. SEA, Extinction A.D., Persekutor, and Ironflame were on the docket next and they all put on amazing sets. I missed Extinction A.D. last time they played RPM Fest so I was super excited to be able to finally get a chance to see them this year. The rest of the night was such an insane mix of things to see and hear, it really was a perfect example of what RPM Fest is all about.

Blackened sludge metal quintet Witching were up first and they catapulted the tent stage into a frenzy of sound that made me question what circle of hell this band would be the house band for, well done y’all. Thy Will Be Done, a band that hasn’t made any noise for a hot minute, came out of the woodwork this year put on an insane performance in junction with the announcement that they were releasing their first album in 12 years a few weeks after RPM Fest, Pillar Of Fire – (Eye.On Lion Recordings). Over on the tent stage, we have Mother Iron Horse, who we’ve covered previously when they played Ripple Fest Boston back in May of this year. Needless to say, everyone and their mother should be listening to this band. If you disagree, that’s fine, you can have your wrong opinion and I’ll be over here jamming out. RPM favorite Tower returned this year on the main stage. Amazing, as always.

After Tower performed was a band that was the standout band for many people this year, Castle Rat. Let me tell you something, interdimensional scythe wielding rat kings and plague doctor bass players were definitely not on my 2024 bingo card but it just goes to show you that you should always expect the unexpected here at RPM Fest. Leather Lung were on after and they did what they do best, level the crowd with sound and bounce that only they can. I’ve said before and I’ll say it time and time again, Leather Lung is sludgy thrash metal with the bounce of Wu-Tang Clan, if that doesn’t pique your interest… you might just be beyond help. Go listen to Leather Lung, please!

Closing out the tent stage for Day 2 was Bongzilla. Piercing vocals, thunderous bass and fuzzy AF guitar work shook the tent. To the point that they blew a fuse and music was halted for a few minutes but again, nothing the stage crew couldn’t handle in record time. The headliner for Day 2 was a band I never thought I’d get a chance to see live, much less at RPM Fest, New York’s own Prong. Running through a wild setlist of everything but the kitchen sink, Tommy Victor and company put on a hell of a show, despite the rain that started 10 minutes before they got on stage. I’m pretty sure I can confidently say that almost everyone in attendance A) Didn’t give a shit about the rain and B) Now want Prong to play every year. Myself included. Closing out the night with a cover of Rush classic Working Man, Prong kicked ass. On to Day 3…