Do you miss your home mountain during the summertime?

Of course, you do. The beauty of modern times is that there are plenty of reasons to visit one’s home mountain during the summertime. For some, it’s mountain biking. For others, it’s hiking, There is also disc golf, scenic lift rides, and sand volleyball. These days, ski mountains have developed a ton of offseason activities and one that I really enjoy is when the mountain turns into a live music venue.

I was at my home mountain of Whaleback Mountain on the 2nd of July for a concert. One part as a fan of live music and one part as the unofficial photographer for the night. Seriously, if you go to Whaleback’s social media accounts, you can see Ski Rex Media credited as the photographer of some of the photos they shared.

Anyway, it has been a while since I had been to Whaleback and even longer since I have seen a live band, so I jumped all over the chance to see this concert. The bonus was that I had never seen the band that was playing. Actually, I had just recently heard of them. The funny thing about that is the more I tell people about the concert, the more I realize that I am the last person on Earth to have heard of this band. Isn’t that something? In any case, the band that I am speaking of is the Adam Ezra Group.

I’d love to tell you the genre the band falls into, but I can’t. It’s like Billy Joel once said, “It’s still Rock & Roll to me.” This band played a mix of rock music, blues music, bluegrass, pop, and maybe even a few other musical subgenres. There was something for everybody and they played it quite expertly.

Now, the beauty of using a ski mountain as a music venue is that it’s already set up to be one. They have the resources for food, drink, and a place to put the band. That’s all a place really needs to be a music venue, generally speaking. More specifically, however, there is an added bonus to using a mountain, especially one like Whaleback Mountain, as a music venue.

Think about some of the concerts that you have been to. What size venue did you prefer? Now, larger venues and big stadium shows and festivals are a lot of fun. We all know this. But, at least from the people I have talked to over the years, some of the best shows are at the smaller, more intimate venues. Places where it doesn’t take a lot to see or hear the band. Places where the chance of interacting with the band is much higher. The smaller venues are the ones people seem to love.

That’s what Whaleback is and it’s one of the things that people love about skiing there in the winter. It’s smaller, cozier, and more intimate. It has an old-school vibe inside and out, which translates well into the mountain being a summertime music venue.

As an example, though there were close to 300 people on hand for the show, just about everyone was close enough to the stage to see everything. Shoot, I was practically on the stage with the band for a lot of the show. One could ask, “Yes, but weren’t you the photographer?” I was just the unofficial photographer. Half of a photographer, maybe. I could have been kicked off the deck and onto the grass, but I still would’ve been pretty close.

But, there’s even more to that. As I said before, the smaller venues give the crowd more of a chance to interact with the band. It was no different here. Twice during the show, the band was down on the grass performing in the crowd. Once to kill time during a short power outage with an acapella performance and once to close the show with some acoustic tracks. It was amazing!

The other beauty of using a ski mountain as a music venue is that they aren’t always on main highways, so the noise is at a minimum. Now, if you know where Whaleback sits, you know that it is right on the interstate. The edge of the parking lot is like 20 or 30 feet from the guard rail on I-89 south. It didn’t matter, though. Once the music started playing, a person couldn’t hear the highway anymore. It was all about the music.

The mountain looked great, too. What do I mean? Well, it was a summer bluebird day with great temps and very few clouds. The grass and trees were a wicked bright green. It just looked amaz

ing.

Of course, to be a music venue, there has to be a band. As I said earlier, the band on this day was the Adam Ezra Group.

They just fit in so well with Whaleback. It was almost like there were meant to play there. They’re a New England band out of Boston that seems to have the same vibe that Whaleback puts out. I wish I could explain it better than that, I really do. Look…if you are in the Upper Valley and can make it the next time they play at Whaleback, head over and watch the show.

Now that I think about it, you can kind of experience the Whaleback show now. If you head to the Adam Ezra Group YouTube channel, you can find the Whaleback Mountain concert. It was live-streamed that night and that replay is available right now.

Anyway, the band is quite wonderful. I can say that they are probably one of the best live music experiences I have ever been to. To explain that a little further, you should know that my favorite band is Godsmack, who is also out of Boston, funny enough. I have seen them live a bunch and love that band. But, I would say that the Adam Ezra Group puts on just as fine of a show, though the music is much different.

Side note, but if anyone from the band reads this article, I have a question. During “The Devil Came Up To Boston” the Dropkick Murphys are referenced. Again, for others reading this article, another Boston band. Anyway, one of the characters in the song is named Sully. Is that a Godsmack reference? Boston love!!!

Just so you all know, I’m not a trained musician. I played drums in the marching band in elementary and middle school. I have also been working on learning how to play the harmonica, which is slow going. I have also never studied music theory or history. So, all I can tell you is what I like and what I don’t like.

I really, really liked the Adam Ezra Group. It was such a fun show, even though I saw a good portion of it through the viewfinder of a camera, it was more than awesome, in my opinion. I’m looking forward to the next time they come to Whaleback so I can see them again. In fact, I even picked up a flash drive of that night’s performance at their merch table. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to listen to it again as soon as possible.

So, the music was good, the band was good, and Ski Rex Media fans already know that I love Whaleback Mountain and I suggest that people should ski it when they have the chance. Now I’m saying that you should get over there to see and hear some music when they have it. It’s well worth it,

That also goes for those of you that aren’t in this area. Ski mountains all over the place have music all of the time during the off-season. I see it on their website and social media pages all of the time. Not just in the bars that are in those areas, either. The music is set up right on your home mountains. It’s worth checking out if you are a fan of live music. Plus, it gives you a chance to get back up to your home mountain, which you know you miss. Enjoy the summer!