Sakiphotography
Blossoms, dearie: Gin Blossoms Jesse Valenzuela, Bill Leen, Robin Wilson and Scott Johnson will perform at Celebrate Gaithersburg on Sunday.
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Usually listening to Robin Wilson is all about pain, lost love and betrayal – but tonight is different. Tonight it's all about doing laundry, clearing dishes and getting his 6-year-old to bed.
"It's a ‘Calgon-take-me-away' moment," Wilson laughs, in the same tender-gritty voice he uses to croon songs like "Allison Road," "Hey Jealousy" and "Until I Fall Away" as lead singer of the Gin Blossoms. "I'm dealing with domestic stuff."
"We do a lot of festivals, like the event in Gaithersburg," says Wilson. "We do a lot of that type of thing – Florida and Alaska, Washington and Oregon, pretty much the entire U.S., 80 shows this past summer.
"That's where we go; that's what we do."
"I'm a performer: I've never been much of a 'musician' – my technical knowledge is kind of limited – but I'm really musical. And not long after I started being a lead singer in the Gin Blossoms, someone said, ‘Robin, you really, really can sing.'"
Which is true. Wilson says he learned to sing in his car, belting along with Bono and Freddie Mercury, but it's his plaintive vocals (along with founding member Jesse Valenzuela's guitar) that give the band its unique sound.
Gin Blossoms – the name comes from a description of W.C. Fields' alcohol-mottled skin tone – have had their share of lineup shakeups. Bassist Bill Leen, like Valenzuela, has been there from the group's beginning as a trio in late 1987. Wilson joined as vocalist in the spring of 1988. Founder Doug Hopkins, who wrote some of the Gin Blossoms' biggest hits, left the band in 1991 and died tragically after the release of "New Miserable Experience" in 1992. Talk about bittersweet: The record exploded with six hit singles, including the lead singer's favorite "Allison Road."
"It's a really cool thing," sighs Wilson. "To at least once in my life – to have gotten it right, to have really nailed it.
"I'm really proud of it."
Taste level
Janet Limmer has a hit on her hands, too. The 1982 collaboration known as Celebrate Olde Towne is still going strong.
"We wanted to come up with an event that would put the city on the map," remembers Janet Limmer, Director of Special Events for the City of Gaithersburg. "It started with a small festival on the grounds of City Hall; the next year, it branched out."
And every year, from the beginning, Limmer has been there. Over the years, she observes, "We found that music and food are a great way to celebrate with families."
Limmer, who grew up in the Rockville area, has worked for the City of Gaithersburg for more than three decades. And even after 27 celebrations of the city, she's excited about Sunday's festivities.
"It's one of my favorite, favorite days," she says. "There's free admission. It's always been free, although there's a nominal fee for some of the carnival rides.
"There's free entertainment: a great headliner, the Gin Blossoms, and local favorites, too … We offer a wide variety because we a large audience and different tastes."
Catering to eclectic musical tastes is one thing. Celebrate Gaithersburg is also the place to be for foodies who want to see what the town – established in 1765 and originally known as "Log Town" – has to offer in the way of cuisine.
"Taste of Gaithersburg was started several years ago," says Limmer. "We wanted to highlight the restaurants in Gaithersburg: What is their specialty? What makes them shine?"
And while Limmer laughs that there's enough "variety to tempt any tastebud," she admits the fare is pretty much simple and satisfying. Simple to access, too: Tickets are $1.25 each, and food items like red crab soup, chicken satay and chocolate dipped strawberries can be "purchased" with tickets – at least three tickets per item, more for the fancy stuff. And traditional festival fare like funnel cakes and ice cream are available for purchase with old fashioned dollars and cents.
Green scene
A festival doesn't last 27 years without trying something new sometimes, and Celebrate Gaithersburg is no exception.
"We decided to have an area where we could educate the public and families about being green," says Elizabeth Poole, "and doing our part to take care of the environment."
Poole has been doing her part as a special events coordinator for the City of Gaithersburg for 25 years now – and she's particularly excited about bringing environmental awareness to the crowd.
"We have about 15 vendors," she says, "from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to talk about horseshoe crabs to REI with the ‘Leave no trace' campaign that talks about leaving parks clean.
"We have architects who use ‘green' principles, the Maryland Energy Administration's Home Performance with Energy Star program with tips on how to save energy in the home. There's a whole gamut of things."
From tying flys for catch-and-release fishing to catching rainwater in barrels for use washing cars and watering plants, practical ways to "go green" will be showcased.
"We have Stadler Nurseries coming to talk about growing native plants in gardens, and Whole Foods will have a display on composting; they turn it into a liquid you can use to feed your plants.
"We're very excited about this area," Poole says. "We really hope this will grow."
Also growing is the population of American citizens.
"We're going to have 50 candidates for citizenship to be naturalized in a ceremony at 12 o'clock," says Poole. "We've been doing that for awhile now, and we're glad to have our partnership with the Department of Homeland Security continue."
Three stages
What makes a festival festive, though? It's the mood and the music that matter the most. Carnival rides, face painting, circus performers, a petting zoo: check, check, check, check. Celebrate Gaithersburg really does have "something for everyone," Limmer promises. It also has scheduled some really great musical performances.
There's the "very popular" community stage, where homegrown acts get a chance to shine. Stage III, as it's known, is located on Summit Avenue, and this year's featured acts range from the Singing Seniors to the Sin Fronteras Mariachi Band and Sol y Rumba.
Stage II, located deep in the award-winning City World Market, features sounds from around the globe, like the Andean group Mystic Warriors and the Oasis Band, a Caribbean steel drum trio.
And then there's the Mainstage. Limmer says that even on the day of the show, she and her team are "evaluating the program" and thinking about next year.
"We do the selection of the headliner very early," she says. And this year, she has a great balance of the household names and the names you should know.
Like Derek James, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based performer who gives alt-rock a loose, bluesy feel.
"Derek James!" exclaims Poole. "He's an up-and-coming artist, and we're happy to have him here."
James kicks things off on Stage I the City Hall Concert Pavilion at 12:45 p.m., followed by The Rembrandts (best known for their "Friends" theme song hit "I'll Be There For You") at 2 p.m. And, finally, The Gin Blossoms perform at 3 p.m. They're re-formed, Wilson says, and re-energized, especially by the fan base they see at festivals like this one.
"We've got a lot of young fans," he notes. "We're older, we're veterans now, and we've kind of evolved into a classic rock band.
"At first, we were like the Little Rascals: ‘Guys! Let's get a band! Now we're in our 40s; we've been in every conceivable situation a band could find itself in."
And now it's time to just play – and celebrate.
The 27th annual "Celebrate Gaithersburg in Olde Towne" festival takes place Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., around the intersection of Summit and Diamond avenues in Olde Towne Gaithersburg. Admission is free. Call 301-258-6350 or visit www.gaithersburgmd.gov/celebrate.
