Dance can resonate through history and inspire.
Stephan Sams of the hardcore band The Scalps carries a bloody tattoo on his knee. For the lead guitar player who is part Apache, it’s a reminder of the Ghost Dance – a period in the late 1800s when Native Americans in the West sought to invoke ancestors to prevent massacres and restore old ways in the face of white settlement.
Sams, along with Amanda Ausonio, started what they call a DIY music festival last year called Ghostland. The second Ghostland Music Festival – Día De Los Muertos will be held at the Brookdale Lodge in Santa Cruz County, thought to be a haunted hotel, Nov. 1-2. The duo’s mission is to uplift local artists in Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties, and the event features nearly 40 performances by local bands across three stages.
The name Ghostland has a multi-faceted meaning for Sams, just like the blood tattooed on his knee. Like Native Americans who continued to perform the Ghost Dance after the massacre at Wounded Knee, defiance against paradigms imposed by outsiders is necessary.
“I wanted to find a way to communicate that wasn’t just telling people,” he says. “The most rebellious thing we can do is perform our songs on this hilltop.”
Their first year was a success, evidenced by community support.
“After the calamity” – his term for the Covid pandemic – “we had a togetherness in music around here that I hadn’t seen in 20 years.” Both Sams and Ausonio observed something trigger the hardcore scene in Salinas, the indie music scene in Monterey and DIY shows. “No one’s competing. Everyone is trying to help each other out. And I thought, ‘Man, someone should take a snapshot of this time in music somehow.’”
“We don’t need to look at the past for Monterey’s artistic integrity,” Ausonio adds.
That integrity showed up in 2023 when Sams and Ausonio simply asked bands if they wanted to play. Not only did it feature 35 local acts, sound and tech practitioners went out of their way to make the production happen. “It makes me proud of this scene where everyone wants to work together,” Sams says.
THE GHOSTLAND MUSIC FESTIVAL-DÍA de LOS MUERTOS happens 5pm-1am Friday-Saturday, Nov. 1-2. Historic Brookdale Lodge, 11570 Highway 9, Brookdale. $32.50-$43. brookdale-lodge.ticketleap.com
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