Night Beats: Steampunk survives at Rivertown Revival

Steampunk Paradise Revived

With the new SMART train almost up and running in Santa Rosa, I've found myself reminiscing about the days when I saw custom-made handcars race down the tracks the very same railroad. Like most people, I've made peace with saying goodbye to the Handcar Regatta, a truly unique steampunk inspired music festival which took up all of the Historic Rail Road Square District.

Even though the Railroad Square Music Festival took its place and I saw a number of music lovers braving a hail storm to party at this year's fest, memories of the regatta filled my head as I saw people boarding the SMART train last week.

I found myself thinking of one of the slowest cars I saw during the festival's last years. It was a caterpillar handcar with a giant monocle and top hat that started and stopped to mimicked the creature it was built after.

It was by far the slowest on the tracks that day, but it got the loudest cheers because the races weren't about who came in first, but about the effort of local people creating something with their hands while bands rocked out around them.

Though the days of racing handcars in Santa Rosa are long gone, the good news is that steampunk-inspired festivals aren't dead in Sonoma County. Vintage clothing and rustic Midwestern themes are alive and well at the Rivertown Revival in Petaluma.

Aside from revisiting the unique aesthetic that the Handcar Regatta once had, you can spot art boats race down the Petaluma River, watch aerial acts and circus numbers unfold before your very eyes, or catch couples get married for five dollars a pop - all while local bands perform on four different stages.

The eighth annual Rivertown Revival boasts a number of musical genres including country, Latin, jazz, Vaudeville, marching bands and bluegrass. The full 2017 line-up includes The Easy Leaves, Buck-Thrifty, Barrio Manouche, Mississippi Mike, The Crux, Ismay Eight Dice Cloth, Spark and Whisper, Rainbow Girls, Hubbub Club, Traveling Spectacular, Ashley Allred, Oddjob Ensemble, Los Ritmicos, Intuitive Compass, Cahoots, The Butterdishes, The Butterfly Ship and One Grass, Two Grass.

The Rivertown Revival is a fundraiser for Friends of the Petaluma River, a nonprofit in Petaluma dedicated to conserving and celebrating the Petaluma River and surrounding watershed.

Coopchella rides again - After the end of Millapalooza, a yearly Monday block party featuring local music and took up all of Mill Street near Down town Santa Rosa, Coopchella was born and took place at Cooperage Brewing Company. The first event left a lot of questions before opening day. Mostly, how was a street wide party going to fit into one brewery and would the outdoor shindig survive an indoor transplant?

Things got a little cozy at Cooperage but the tight space didn't matter because last year's daytime festival went off without a hitch, and how could it not when you mix tasty beer, cool music and delicious food trucks?

It went so well that the second annual Coopchella returns to Cooperage on July 31. This year's line-up includes the event's host, local punk band The Mud Blood and the Beer, whom you might recognize as your friendly neighborhood Russian River Brewing Company staff members and four other bands.

Local Release - Mare Island, an Oakland-based band which includes Santa Rosa's (Josh Staples whom you might recognize from the Velvet Teen and the New Trust) released a rad self-titled EP. The five-song indie record features catchy tunes full of dreamy guitars and is reminiscent of old school emo vibes - the good kind: early Death Cab For Cutie, Dashboard Confessional and American Football. If you missed the band's EP release party at The Last Record Store, fear not You can still pick up a copy of the vinyl there, or give it a listen and snag a digital copy on Mare Island's Bandcamp. https://mareislandofficial.bandcamp.com

Feeling the beats? Got a music tip? Email Estefany Gonzalez at nightbeats@pressdemocrat.com