We’re pretty fascinated by Outside The Box Festival, a week-long, free music and arts celebration going down July 13 to 17 on Boston Common. On one hand, you have headliners like Smash Mouth, Vertical Horizon, and Daughtry, which will no doubt pull in the families and the bridge and tunnel crowd. For the local undercard, there’s a pretty solid representation of New England bands and artists, like Bearstronaut, Analog Heart (pictured up top at April’s Rumble), Ruby Rose Fox, Dutch ReBelle, Latrell James, Creaturos, Jenna Lotti, We Were Astronauts, and others. In the middle are somewhat interesting touring bands like the Record Company (no relation to the Boston music non-profit of the same name), Kaki King, and Wild Feathers.
It should be an interesting week, and regardless of how seriously you take music, there should be something for everyone.
If all you ever wanted was a Spotify playlist where bands like Bearstronaut rub elbows with Smash Mouth, then the Outside the Box producers have your Monday covered. Kill five hours (!!!) of your day with the playlist below, but be warned — it starts with five tracks apiece from Smash Mouth and Daughtry. Things get good once Kaki King and Analog Heart show up a few slots down.
We recommend starting off with Analog Heart’s epic rock anthem “Come Alive,” but we leave that song skippery up to you.
