Music for what ales you
Rusty Truck Brewing presents a pitcher perfect holiday weekend
By Eliot Sekuler
For the TODAY
With the tempting offer of first-rate music, exceptional craft beer and outstanding food in a festive, outdoor setting, Rusty Truck Brewing Company’s upcoming Holiday Weekend fest — the first of two planned for this summer — aims to be a prime family-friendly holiday event in Lincoln City.
For the Independence Day weekend event, Saturday, July 2 through Monday, July 4, the sounds of three Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bands will ring out as award-winning tribute groups take the stage to perform the music of Journey, AC/DC and Tom Petty.
“We’re going to have an atmosphere where everybody is having a good time, listening to great music and enjoying the experience of being out at the beach on a summer night,” said Alex Trevino, operations manager for the restaurant and brewery. Rusty Truck will be offering a special menu of easy-to-handle food treats as well as its popular summer craft beers at a site they call the Rusty Truck Commons, an outdoor area set between the restaurant and adjacent brewery.
The shows are billed as “all ages welcome,” but wrist-banded guests will have ample opportunity to sample Rusty Truck’s craft brews. Four pouring stations will service the venue, including a “deck-top bar” overlooking the stage. An additional station will open at the rear of the restaurant with a full bar. And, guests will have plenty of food options.
“We’ll serve our signature hamburgers, clam chowder, fish and chips and famous barbecue pork sandwiches,” Trevino said. “We’ll also have miniature brick oven pizzas to make it really easy for folks to walk around with their food and beers.”
The events are based on the success of the first Labor Day festival Rusty Truck held last year.
“We had our fair share of locals and a lot of tourists, too,” Trevino said. “Everybody had a very good time.”
Trevino, who is coordinating the festivals with promoter Jason Fellman’s J. Fell Productions, has a background that blends concert promotion with restaurant and bar management. For 10 years, he produced the River’s Edge Summer Concert Series in Independence.
“When we started working in Independence, they were drawing just one or two hundred people to their Friday night concerts in the park. Our concerts really caught on and before COVID hit, we were drawing about 4,000.”
Key to the success, he noted, was the booking of tribute bands, which differ from “cover bands” in their singular focus on faithfully duplicating the music of a well-known artist, often emulating the look and on-stage approach of the tributee. The best tribute bands provide audiences with the opportunity to enjoy legendary music that might otherwise be inaccessible.
Frank Murray, who fronts the Tom Petty tribute band Petty Fever, sports the long golden mane that was a Petty trademark and has carefully studied and reproduced his every vocal nuance. His stage movements, costumes and fretwork on a Rickenbacker six-string guitar are all note-perfect. The Portland-based band’s efforts have won considerable acclaim, being named Outstanding International Tribute Band at the 2017 and 2018 Las Vegas Fame Awards and winning Tribute Band of the Year at the Los Angeles Music Awards.
AC/DC tribute group Shoot to Thrill and Journey tribute band Stone in Love take similarly meticulous approaches to their soundalike renditions — both have been prominently featured at such festivals as tribute band extravaganza Harefest in Canby, and at county fairs throughout the Northwest.
Tickets are also already available for a two-day Labor Day event on Saturday, Sept. 3, with Red Light Romeos whose “Super Sounds of the 70s” repertoire includes album rock and yacht rock classics and on Sunday, Sept. 4, with the popular party band, Radical Revolution, performing hits made popular during the MTV era.
Rusty Truck Commons will be open from noon to 3 pm each festival day with live music, games, tastings and food. Admission for the daytime events is free.
Tickets for Rusty Truck’s July Holiday Weekend Fest are $25 for adults, $15 for kids aged seven through 17 and free for those six and younger. Weekend passes for all three nights are also available for $60 for adults, $35 for kids aged seven through 17 and free for those six and younger.
Rusty Truck Brewery is located at 4649 SW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City. For more information, go to rustytruckbrewing.com or call 541-994-7729.