Last weekend while everyone in the Wenatchee Valley (or so it seemed that way to me) was out enjoying Apple Blossom, Applesauce spent part of its Apple Blossom weekend taking in some live music at Centennial Park.

No, that wasn’t a typo. Memorial Park wasn’t the only game in town when it came to hearing some amplified guitars outdoors. There was live music at Centennial Park during Apple Blossom too.

Last Saturday, an event called COMAfest 08 rocked Centennial Park. And while most Wenatcheeians (Wenatcheeites? Help me out here, I’m new.) were downing corndogs and listening to swing music over by the courthouse, a crowd of about 40 metalheads were rocking out to the likes of Ally Cole, Starcsream, Sarlaac, Addicted Miss, Two Stones Thrown and East Wenatchee’s own Wide Eyed Coma.

The music was mostly bland, generic, modern metal. Really nothing memorable at all in my book. But for me it wasn’t the music that made COMAfest 08 such a fun event. What made it fun was witnessing an event like COMAfest 08 taking place in Wenatchee.

You see, in the more than one year I have lived in NCW, and the nearly three years I have lived in Eastern Washington, one of my biggest complaints of the area has been what I perceive to be its complete lack of musical diversity.

Seeing COMAfest 08 gave me hope that there is some semblence of musical diversity out here in these parts. Who knows, maybe there is an entire underground metal scene here in Wenatchee that I don’t know about. I’d love to discover it if it exists btw, so if anyone wants to clue me in please do get in touch (hint, hint).

Anyway, like I said, the music at COMAfest was pretty mediocre. (However, I will say that the blasting of Pantera’s “Far Beyond Driven” during an intermission between bands was one of the musical highlights of my weekend.) But I didn’t care about the music. What made COMAfest 08 great was seeing the bands play in the park.

Seeing an effort being made to bring metal to the masses in Wenatchee was so awesome to me that the music didn’t have to be good. I just wanted to see something different being done here musically and I loved it. Wenatchee is a big enough town to facilitate more events like COMAfest 08, which would bring a selection of more diverse music to town for all to enjoy.

Hip hop at Rotary Park? Sure. Alt-country in Memorial Park? Why not. Punk rock at Pioneer Skate Park? Sounds like a terrific idea to me.

So thank you COMAfest 08 for showing me there is more to musical life out here in Wenatchee than meets the eye. And hopefully an event like COMAfest 08 will breed similar events and spread musical diversity throughout Wenatchee.