Dynamic duo: Music & motorcycles

WEIRS BEACH — When the weather turned sour Tuesday night, that didn’t stop the Lakes Region’s hottest new band from riling up a healthy crowd at The Big House. 

The four members of Soul Circuit hail from around the area, and they rocked the house up and down Lakeside Avenue. It’s their first time performing at Laconia Motorcycle Week — they’ve got three dates on the books at the rally — and they’ve got their sights set on lasting success. 

Roughly 40 patrons sat and stood inside The Big House, where Soul Circuit were wailing out a rendition of "Rock’n Me" by the Steve Miller Band. James Mitchell, adorned in a sort of Crocodile Dundee hat, smoked a cigarette outside not five minutes after leaving the stage. 

Mitchell, joined by fellow band members Kevin Culliname, Zack Whelan and Alex Parenteau, told The Laconia Daily Sun it was their group's first time performing at the Weirs during Laconia Motorcycle Week. 

“It’s going great, I love it here, man,” Parenteau said.

“We actually just played just before Bike Week, not too long ago, the other week, and we had tons of people here, so they invited us back,” Culliname said. “We’re playing [Tuesday], we’re playing [Wednesday] and Saturday.”

At 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 21, the band will perform on the Sucker Punch Saloon stage, at the Weirs Drive-In property.

“We’re all kind of out of — except for Zach, he’s out in Milford — the other three of us, it’s the Franklin-Newbury area,” Culliname said, noting he’s the most familiar with Laconia, having previously worked in the service industry here. 

They’ve been playing together for about a year, Whelan said.

“We’ve all known each other for years. James and I worked together for, almost, going on eight or nine years now, and we had a previous band. We split up, but James and I kept on trucking,” Whelan said. “We wanted to bring it back to the full band situation instead of just duo shows.”

Playing the Weirs during Motorcycle Week is one thing, Mitchell said, and experiencing the crowds is another. 

“There’s a lot of nice things to look at,” Mitchell said.

They’re proud to etch their name into the century-long history of Laconia Motorcycle Week, believed to be the oldest bike rally in the United States. 

“Look, it’s Bike Week. As long as the kids aren’t around, late-night it’s a different story — the adults come out to play,” Culliname said. “It’s Bike Week, it’s Laconia. Everybody knows. If they’ve been here, they know what’s going on.”

While it’s a great first step for them, the band is looking forward to future success.

“On bigger stages, hopefully,” Mitchell said when asked where he hopes the band is five years down the line. 

They’ve finished one album and will work on a second release over the next year, practicing five to six times each week as their "full-time job."

“We sacrificed everything for this band, we dropped everything we had in our lives,” Culliname said. “This is what we want to do, we’re dedicated, and we want to do it solely with us. Just go for it, go for the gusto. And we’ve been putting in a ton of work, booking as many shows as we can.”

Readers can find their music on social media by searching “Soul Circuit.”

While the dreary weather didn’t stop crowds from gathering at the various Lakeside Avenue music venues Tuesday night, artist Sharon Seals said foot traffic to vendor booths was down on Wednesday morning. The morning was cloudy and maintained a slight drizzle until around noon.

Seals was working out of the Texan Knives USA tent, across Endicott Street from Lakeside Avenue. There, she sells American-forged steel knives and artwork she creates as part of her business, Cutthroat Art Studios. She’s been traveling the rally circuit for years.

“We actually melt our own steel,” Seals said, displaying the more than 200 available designs.

Hanging up in the corner of the tent were a pair of leather vests complete with her artwork, which typically centers around animals and the natural environment. She grew up the daughter of a wildlife photographer, and said there was a constant presence of elk and deer on their property in the Rocky Mountain west.

“I’m a Montana weirdo,” she said. 

But this year, the weather seems to have placed a damper on their sales. 

“We’ve been here all week,” Seals said. “This rain definitely sucks.”

Seals remembers a similar rally in Whitefish, Montana, drawing scores of Canadian tourists across the border to take part in the festivities, and assumed Laconia would experience something to the same effect. Usually, she’s right, but this year they seemed to be missing. Seals said it was the same in Whitefish earlier this year. 

“It’s extremely slow,” she said.

But for what it’s worth, a Vermont rider named Gary said he’s attended the rally for 60 years, and the environment changes with the times.