In this episode of Scene Support, I sit down with Lara Hope — musician, community builder, and Director of Music Programming for the O+ Festival in Kingston, NY.

We dig into the origin story of O+: how a brewery owner, a dentist, and an artist-activist turned a simple idea — trading art for healthcare — into a nationally recognized nonprofit that’s rethinking what it means to truly support artists. Now in its 15th year, O+ has grown from a grassroots festival into a year-round ecosystem providing musicians and visual artists with access to dental care, primary care, acupuncture, chiropractic services, and more — all through a creative exchange model.

Lara breaks down:

• How the submission and curation process works

• Why healthcare need factors into booking decisions

• The challenges of booking headliners on a barter model

• The expansion into a year-round exchange clinic

• The launch of O+’s new 334 Wall Street space for all-ages shows, workshops, and community events

• What it really takes (staffing, volunteers, grants, donations) to sustain a mission-driven festival

We also talk about ego, community responsibility, DIY ethics, and how working in service of something bigger than yourself can reshape your perspective as an artist.

This isn’t just a conversation about a festival. It’s about infrastructure. It’s about care. It’s about how scenes survive when people build systems that support each other beyond the stage.

If you care about DIY music, artist sustainability, and community-driven models that actually work — this one’s for you.

O+ Festival

https://opositivefestival.org/

https://www.instagram.com/opositivefest/

https://linktr.ee/opositivefest

DCxPC Live

https://www.instagram.com/dcxpc_live

https://www.facebook.com/dcxpcbooking

https://dcxpclive.com

Intro Song & Outro Song By Joshua "Danger" Dobbs

Executive Producer: Trev Allen ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/struggling_artist_record_club/⁠⁠⁠

On this episode of DCxPC Live presents Scene Support, Scott Pasch sits down with Peter Aaron, arts editor at Chronogram and frontman of the legendary New York punk-blues band Chrome Cranks.

Peter has spent decades doing the work that keeps underground music alive—writing, booking shows, playing in bands, and documenting scenes that would otherwise be forgotten. His writing has appeared in The Village Voice, AllMusic, and All About Jazz, and his books dig deep into punk history, lineage, and influence. Long before bands like Nirvana, the Flaming Lips, and White Zombie became household names, Peter was booking their early shows in small rooms for small crowds.

The conversation moves through Peter’s path into punk, hardcore, and experimental music, his time booking shows in the Midwest and Northeast, the evolution of the Hudson Valley scene, and why cross-pollination between genres is what keeps music alive. Scott and Peter also dig into live music as documentation, the importance of physical media, all-ages spaces, and why scenes in smaller towns often matter just as much as major cities.

This is a wide-ranging, deeply personal conversation about punk as community, memory, and responsibility—how scenes survive because people show up, take care of each other, and do the work week after week.

Peter Aaron

https://www.instagram.com/peter_aaron_rocknwrite/

https://www.facebook.com/peter.aaron.353

https://www.facebook.com/p/Peter-Aaron-Musician-and-Author-100063018471273/

https://www.chronogram.com/author/peter-aaron/

DCxPC Live

https://www.instagram.com/dcxpc_live

https://www.facebook.com/dcxpcbooking

https://dcxpclive.com

Intro Song & Outro Song By Joshua "Danger" Dobbs

Executive Producer: Trev Allen ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/struggling_artist_record_club/⁠⁠⁠

DCxPC Live Presents: Scene Support spotlights the people who keep DIY and underground music alive—not just the bands on stage, but the artists, organizers, and builders behind the scenes.

In this episode, Scott sits down with David Gregg, a Baltimore-area artist, guitarist, father, and longtime small business owner whose visual work has quietly shaped the look of the regional punk and hardcore scene for years. Dave talks about designing flyers, album covers, logos, and merch for countless bands and venues, balancing creative work with family life, and why visual identity matters just as much as sound in DIY spaces.

The conversation digs into the realities of unpaid or underpaid creative labor, the relationship between punk ethics and design, how scenes evolve visually over time, and what it means to keep showing up week after week to support a community—not for recognition, but because it matters. Along the way, Scott and Dave swap stories about Baltimore shows, touring, recording live music, merch culture, and the unseen labor that holds scenes together.

An honest, wide-ranging conversation about art, community, sustainability, and doing the work that keeps underground music moving forward

David Gregg

https://www.instagram.com/crizdizzle_art/

https://www.instagram.com/sickmovemusic/

DCxPC Live

https://www.instagram.com/dcxpc_live

https://www.facebook.com/dcxpcbooking

https://dcxpclive.com

Intro Song & Outro Song By Joshua "Danger" Dobbs

Executive Producer: Trev Allen ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/struggling_artist_record_club/⁠⁠⁠