In the Spring of 2001, I initiated the First Annual Coaxial Music Festival in Northampton. I had officially been living in the area for about a year. I had moved here from my previous home, Portland, Maine. I wanted to bring bands together from both locations. I had a lot of help organizing and coordinating the five-day event. We incorporated about six different venues: The Swing Cat (now The Elevens), the Baystate, upstairs at Bar 19, Fire & Water, the WWII Club, and the American Legion in Haydenville. As bookends, we had a live piano karaoke welcome on Wednesday, and on Sunday morning, we had an MMMM… Brunch! event, where only performers with M (Mark Mulcahy, Miranda Brown and Mike Flood) performed while I made pancakes for everyone. We wrapped things up with Zeke Fiddler hosting an opening mic. All the shows were well attended and we set up two stages at the Baystate, so as soon as one band ended, the next one would begin. Out-of-town bands were hosted by local musicians, and the money that was collected from each of the events was enough to cover travel expenses for non-local bands plus $11 for each band/artist thereafter. It was part social experiment, part musical exchange program. It was a great success, and one of my proudest achievements.
