Upland Music & Arts Festival
Fri-Sun, Nov. 6-8
By: George A. Paul
The first Upland Music & Arts Festival should be one of the most happening places in the IE. Soul Asylum headlines the second of three days. The scrappy alt-rock band emerged from the same fertile Minneapolis punk scene that spawned Hüsker Dü and The Replacements in the early 1980s, but toiled for nearly a decade on various labels before finally hitting pay dirt with 1992’s sleek Grave Dancer’s Union. The disc went double platinum on the strength of folk/pop-leaning single “Runaway Train” (No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100) and a popular MTV video spotlighting missing teens (you might recall a fourth season episode of The Office, where one character warbled the tune on a locomotive). Soul Asylum eventually snagged a Grammy for the tune, played the Bill Clinton inaugural ball, notched a dozen top 30 songs on the Modern Rock charts (“Somebody to Shove,” “Black Gold,” “Misery”) throughout the ’90s and contributed music to several Kevin Smith flicks. Raspy singer Dave Pirner briefly became a tabloid magnet while dating Winona Ryder (he made a cameo in Reality Bites). After a lengthy absence, the group reappeared with 2006’s solid The Silver Lining, featuring ex-’ments bassist Tommy Stinson filling in for Karl Mueller, who died of cancer during recording. Dozens of rock, blues, jazz acts will also perform on seven stages throughout the downtown area.
Upland Music & Arts Festival with Soul Asylum, hellogoodbye and others, downtown Upland, (909) 949-4499, www.uplandmusicandartsfestival.com; Fri-Sat, Nov. 6-8. Tickets $10 (Fri), $30 (Sat, Sun each), three-day pass $49.
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