EXCLUSIVE: The Menzingers headline Good Things Are Happening Fest in Scranton on Sept. 6
Following the initial lineup announcement in April, Good Things Are Happening Fest is announcing today exclusively on NEPA Scene that Scranton punk band The Menzingers will return to their hometown to headline the independent music festival’s fourth year.
Currently based in Philadelphia, this also marks the group’s first full Scranton show in nearly four years. Featuring 10 other bands from Northeastern Pennsylvania and the tri-state area, Good Things Fest will be held at the Scranton Iron Furnaces (159 Cedar Ave., Scranton) on Saturday, Sept. 6. Tickets, which are $35, are on sale now via TicketLeap.
“Since year one, they have been at the top of our list [of bands to book]. They’ve always been the best case scenario for this event and a dream to have. I still can’t believe it,” festival founder and organizer James Barrett said.
“They were always my idols growing up. The first time I saw them play was in The Vintage Theater on Wyoming Avenue – now the bottom floor of The Ritz – in 2009 when I was 11 or 12. They immediately became one of my favorite bands and easily the most influential band I’ve ever had. They always were proof that making it in music is not easy but it can be done. It always left me inspired, and I am grateful I got to grow up watching them play.”
Since forming in 2006, The Menzingers have released seven full-length albums, including five after signing with Epitaph Records in 2011. Living the dream of many local bands, vocalists/guitarists Greg Barnett and Tom May, bassist Eric Keen, and drummer Joe Godino have played sold-out concerts at countless venues and traveled the United States and the world, most recently returning from a series of shows in Europe for a headlining tour with Lucero and Queen of Jeans. Earlier this year, they supported Dropkick Murphys on their annual St. Patrick’s Day Tour, which stopped at Mohegan Arena in Wilkes-Barre on March 11. The Menzingers’ latest album, “Some of It Was True,” was released in 2023.
While Wilkes-Barre is pretty close, their last true hometown show was Black Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 at the Scranton Cultural Center, which featured James Barrett’s band and The Dirty Nil as opening acts. Barrett also opened for The Menzingers at their annual NEPA Holiday Show – a charity event they hosted for eight years with other local breakout bands like Tigers Jaw; Captain, We’re Sinking; Three Man Cannon; and Petal, among many others – so being able to book them for Good Things Are Happening Fest felt like a full circle moment for him.
“Growing up, all I ever wanted to do was open the NEPA Holiday Show. At the time, it felt like if you could play that show, you made it. I spent years of my life waiting for that moment to come, and it finally did in 2017. We were lucky to play it a few more times as the years went on and, each time, it just felt like a dream come true. To think that this time I was the one asking them to play my event feels so insane. I went from constantly bugging Tom to let me play the Holiday Show to constantly bugging them and their agents to play mine. It is a crazy feeling. After months of talking to their team, I finally got a ‘LFG’ text from Tom while I was finishing a run at Lake Scranton. That was the coolest moment I’ve had in a long time,” he recalled.
In addition to Barrett’s band, the lineup includes Rosary Guild (Wilkes-Barre indie/alternative rock), a reunion of Alma Mater (Wilkes-Barre alternative rock), Sarah Gross & The Killjoys (Long Island, New York Americana pop), Bobby Mahoney (New Jersey alternative hard rock), Pretty Rude (New York City indie rock/power pop), Hit Like a Girl (Philadelphia indie/pop punk), South Side Five (Scranton psychedelic cowboy jazz), Sweetnest (Scranton indie folk), and Cortez (New York dream/surf rock).
Like many local fans who have followed The Menzingers from the very beginning, Barrett believes this headlining set is “long overdue.”
“I think all of us here in NEPA are itching for the familiar feeling of a hometown Menzingers show. I can’t think of any better place for them to play their homecoming show. I have sent Tom and Greg a few deep cut requests, so we will see what happens.”
Learn more about the 2025 Good Things Are Happening Fest here and more about the history of the festival in an interview with Barrett and two of last year’s performers, Joey Nardone of If Kansas Had Trees and Ed Cuozzo of University Drive, in Episode 199 of the NEPA Scene Podcast:
Photo by Rich Howells/NEPA Scene
