Music festivals are a great place to discover new bands. They draw you in with acts like Foo Fighters, Outkast and Imagine Dragons,
but a lot of the bands that keep the music and vibe going all day and into the
night are the up-and-comers.
WASHINGTON — AER. Vance Joy. Ghost Beach. Boy&Bear. New Politics.
At first glance, many would say, “Who are these bands?”
But if you were at the Firefly Music Festival over the weekend, chances are you already know. That’s because music festivals are a great place to discover new bands. They draw you in with acts like Foo Fighters, Outkast and Imagine Dragons, but a lot of the bands that keep the music and vibe going all day and into the night are the up-and-comers.
Consider Vance Joy. The Australian singer-songwriter had the unenviable position of kicking things off on the last day of the festival. For those not in the know, the last day of a festival is usually the day people are tired from all the partying that they show up late.
But at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, a good size crowd turned out to see him play songs from his EP, “God Loves You When You’re Dancing,” plus a few new ones thrown in from his upcoming major label debut.
“Riptide” is the song that most of the crowd knew and when he finally got to that one, a large dust cloud arose from a group of happy festival-goers dancing like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Don’t ask AER what kind of music they play because even they aren’t too sure. They have been described as everything from hip hop to reggae to rock.
When asked about their sound, Boston natives David Von Mering and Carter Schultz said, “We have trouble answering this question. We
