A t-shirt story

Unless you were living under a large rock you would know that last week the Medford Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the Parkfest celebration.

Parkfest was started as an end-of-season party to highlight the city park system and bring the community together while having a good time. It has grown to become one of the premier events of summer. This year’s crowd was roughly the size of the total population of the city of Medford. Not too shabby for a community described by some as “Deadford” for its perceived lack of things to do.

Organizers brought in headliner singer/songwriter Jerrod Niemann. While Niemann’s performance met all expectations for a veteran of the concert stage, my personal interest and the focus of this particular story isn’t about him. Instead my story centers on The Driveway Thriftdwellers, the opening band at the concert.

Whatever the venue, being an opening band for a headliner show is a mixed bag. You go in knowing that many of the seats will be empty as people slowly stream in prior to the main show. You know many people are half-listening while they socialize with friends or stock up at the beer stand. Yet, you perform with the same energy as if every seat was filled solely to hear your music. Doing any less would be unthinkable for any self-respecting musician. The day a band simply goes through the motions, is the day they need to burn their guitar picks and put away their mic stands.

My awareness of The Driveway Thriftdwellers began shortly after event organizers announced they would be the opening act. I occasionally need to remind people that I am a transplant to Medford and did not grow up here. The same cannot be said of my friend Mike, who my children have grown up calling Uncle Mike. Mike says when he graduated from Medford Area Senior High School he had no intention of coming back, yet came back anyway and has built a successful career here.

It is perhaps too strong a word to say that Mike became obsessed with The Driveway Thriftdwellers coming to Parkfest, but only slightly so. Part of this is understandable since Mike attended high school with band member Ryan Knudson whose younger brother Jon Knudson is the lead vocalist in the band.

Mike began pressuring me to do a huge feature story on the band, including sending me a steady stream of video links and articles about them. To Mike, The Driveway Thriftdwellers were THE reason to attend Parkfest 2022 with that Niemann guy simply the clean-up act.

I note that Mike did not attend Parkfest, but instead went with a group to see a Brewers’ game. In his feeble defense, the baseball trip plans predated the announcement that The Driveway Thriftdwellers would be playing and Niemann’s music is well outside of his preferred listening range.

Being the great friend that I am, I made a point of taking many pictures of The Driveway Thriftdwellers along with some video clips that I sent him through the show. This included a clip of talking with chamber volunteer Sue Ackerman of AbbyBank about how great The Driveway Thriftdwellers are and how anyone who would intentionally miss out on hearing them play needed to rethink their priorities. I even made a point of introducing myself and sharing the whole Mike backstory and why he chose to skip town ahead of their show.

Like any good concert, Parkfest had merchandise for sale including a sweet t-shirt with the Parkfest and The Driveway Thriftdwellers logos. A Pabst-fueled plot was quickly hatched in my mind. I needed to get Mike a shirt.

As any concert-goer knows, getting a shirt is a fun keepsake, but getting it signed by the performers dials things up to 11.

After their set had ended and the band members were relaxing by the beer stand, I put my plan into action and asked them to sign my shirt with a personal message to Mike about his life choices. They did this with enthusiasm - or at least with the hope that I would stop bothering them. “Mike, Where were you, p####? Ryan Knudson” with Jon Knudson providing a similar message.

The capping moment for me was seeing Mike’s face when I stopped by his work on Friday to give him his shirt. It was a truly epic moment.

By the way, for anyone who missed them, The Driveway Thriftdwellers are really good and I will definitely be making a road trip in the future to see them perform.

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Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.