This past weekend marked the sixth annual YOOP! Fest, a 23-band concert featuring acts from across the UP and areas like Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Duluth. The event was started six years ago by Chris Joutras, as a way to “integrate myself in the music scene… [and] meet local bands…I think are interesting.” While many of the bands took the five hours to drive up to Hancock, others, like Full Strength, call the area home.
Anders Jones-Gundersen, the vocalist for Full Strength, says his “songs are meant to inspire thought.” He explained that the songs are not necessarily meant to be negative, but rather, musicians try to take a look at the world and make songs based on what they see. Many of his songs are inspired by “liv[ing] under this capitalist rule… you don’t have a choice, you have to work… punk is a promise to be free to live life on your own terms.” To Jones-Gundersen, punk is about the sense of community it provides. Meeting people around him who have different views but still believe you should “be who you want to be.”
Later, in his set, Jones-Gundersen announced: “God Eaters is next… I’m geeking out over it.” Jones-Gundersen says he got a sense of acceptance from punk; he “grew up in a religious household… but it wasn’t from religion or anything else that [he] found acceptance; it was from punk.” This principle of acceptance can be seen all throughout the concert, from Chris the organizer inviting his friends to help take part, to people in the audience helping each other up after someone fell. While they are all there for the music, they stay for the sense of community.
Other songs are inspired by local events. Though Daniel John of TOM GRRRL isn’t from the UP, he found the story of the Italian Hall disaster in Calumet, where 73 people, including 59 children were killed in a stampede, to be harrowing. “It’s actually a real tragic experience that happened up here…as someone who has kids, I related to it in a way that it just really tugs at my heartstrings.” TOM GRRRL opened their set with a cover of “1913 Massacre” by Woody Guthrie, telling the story of how the stampede was started when someone called a false fire alarm. Speaking to the crowd after playing the song, John drew parallels from the Guthrie song to current events. Later, the lead singer of the Dead Familiars said during his set that the performance was “the most powerful thing I’ve seen on stage.”
