“There are a lot of new things we’re trying to do: one of the members of a band wants to do a solo set, we’re looking at a film screening…” Rudy Herndon gets excited talking about the Schellraiser Music Festival, which he has organized and coordinated in the small town location of McGill, Nevada.
McGill was once lively as a copper mining town prior to the mine closing. Today, the town which has a current population of less than 1200 people blossoms at the beginning of each summer when Schellraiser takes over a picturesque corner of the area and brings an eye-turning lineup of indie music heavy hitters.
This year, electro duo Ladytron will headline one of the three nights, with alt rock band Mercury Rev and indie rock flair duo We Are Scientists rounding out the weekend – an ironic note being that the typical audience size of any of these bands dwarfs the population of McGill. However the idyllic and historical setting is part of what makes Schellraiser such a unique event. The historic nature of the weathered buildings, the small strip of non-chain hotels, bars and coffee shops… scratch that… coffee shop in nearby Ely, all easily walkable in a four block stretch and which tend to fill up with band members and attendees each night after the concerts wrap up, the large natural hot springs pool adjacent to the concert grounds which will be open and swimmable for fest attendees this year for the first time, and the kickoff to summer at the high elevation -the Steptoe Valley sits at over 6000′ – keeping the skies clear and the nights cool all contribute to the weekend.
“I’ve come to see the upsides to an event like ours, which I call a micro festival. It really is a different experience for everyone involved,” Herndon goes on to say about Schellraiser. And his words perfectly encapsulate the feeling. The musical lineup reads like a mixtape from a cooler older sibling – The Paranoyds are a Los Angeles punk band who released albums on Jack White’s Third Man Records, Brooklyn’s Wild Pink captures warm toned indie rock blanketed in a nostalgic glow, Sonido Gallo Negro from Mexico City mix cumbia with psychedelia to create a darkly animated nocturnal sound, and the festival just announced the addition of Bully whose Sub Pop Records releases are sonically off kilter and reminiscent of 90’s alternative rock. Schellraiser is making it clear that it is an event for those who want to spend their weekend bathing themselves in a collective kaleidoscope of sounds of artists spanning different genres on the indie spectrum.
Herndon approaches organizing the fest as a fan. He himself has traveled extensively to out of the way locales to see bands. He mentions performances by Beach House in Cleveland, Ohio and My Bloody Valentine in Minnesota as a couple of the events that have left a lasting affect on him.
“The scale of this event is a real asset because it is so much more intimate,” Herndon says. And he’s not wrong. Looking around during the 2023 headlining set by Dinosaur Jr. gave the impression of seeing the alternative icons in essentially a large backyard party. Lights are minimal, the space is essentially two stages with alternating performers which cuts down on downtime in the size of one city park, dark skies and cottonwood trees encapsulate the setting, and those golden hour sunsets while bands take the daytime music into a nighttime show are absolutely stunning, all shared by strangers awash in a feeling of shared positivity.
Having taken place for the its initial event in 2022, Schellraiser has returned each year. Talking about his personal favorite memories of the event over the years, he talks about the year Death Valley Girls played and brought several young elementary school girls from the crowd – it’s not unusual to see families at the event – onto the stage to play their instruments. The act carried on as some of the bands who followed took moments from their set to invite the same children up to play instruments or sing into the mic.
“I just loved the fact that the same spirit carried through those sets,” he remembers.
“Something I was determined to do behind the scenes was just to ensure that the bands have everything they need and ensure that they’re comfortable and enjoying themselves. What I’ve heard anecdotally is that all of these bands have had a blast. Most have asked to come back.”
This sense of enjoyment is palpable. As the smaller environment has led to bands crossing paths far from home and inviting one another onto stage for impromptu jams. A couple moments that come to mind are Nikki Lane and JP Harris duetting or Joshua Ray Walker and 40 Acre Mule shaking the whole stage as they played together, all crowding around the mics. At night, one might stumble into a bar in Ely to see the bands karaoke-ing together or an art show of concert posters created by one of the fest’s participant artists.
Herndon has also worked to set up festival pre-listening parties in other corners of the desert leading up the festival – Boulder City in southern Nevada, Salt Lake City, pre-parties at the foot of Great Basin National Park and in Midtown Reno.
Taking place May 30th-June 1st, Herndon and his dedicated staff’s work have built out a third year event that looks like it will build even more upon the event’s previous years.
“I truly believe we have a great thing going here,” Herndon says in a moment of thought about this year’s event. “We’re going into our third year and I feel like we have an incredibly strong track record based on the last two.”
For complete info on the music, camping, hot springs and extracurriculars, visit Schellraiser.com
