Hair of the Pig That Bit Ya

Don’t look now, but some of the most adventurous live music shows in Portland have been happening on certain Sunday afternoons at a little thing called the Hair of the Pig down in Portland’s Old Port.

Ah, you know what? Fuck that. Go look. Right now. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

And while you’re there, check out the lineups for their upcoming shows, pick one and make sure you go check it out, because no matter who’s playing on any given Sunday, that show is gonna rule.

That’s because Joe Sweeney and Chad Walls, who conceived of and presented the Hair of the Pig shows, are absolutely dedicated to presenting a steady stream of talented local musicians they respect and admire, some of whom you might have heard of, but most of whom you probably haven’t.

You can check out some video from one of their shows here.

Sweeney and Walls met back in 2023 at an open mic at Jimmy the Greek’s in Old Orchard Beach, and the two kicked around the idea of launching a regular Sunday showcase for a while before actually taking the leap a few months later.

“My entire life since January 2023 had been open mics all over southern Maine and beyond,” Sweeney said, “and I kept seeing these amazing musicians at each one, and that was one of the reasons why I wanted to get involved with getting the Hair of the Pig up and running. It felt so great to be able to give these musicians, who I feel really deserve to be heard by a wider audience, an opportunity to do that.” 

At this point, the Hair of the Pig’s been a regular thing for about a year, which is a remarkable achievement in and of itself.

At the outset, Sweeney and Walls both just took care of whatever needed to be done whenever it needed to be done to keep the show going. But over time, they gravitated toward a more natural, comfortable division of labor.

Walls, the radio guy, does the live sound and stage manages the shows, while Sweeney does most of the booking and acts as the emcee, and together they produce a robust stream of social media content that takes viewers deeper into the pig and its inner workings.

Which is just fine with Walls.

“There’s a lot of work that goes into these shows, and no one can do everything. Joe likes to do the booking and he’s good at it, so he just started doing most of it and it got to the point where I didn’t even ask anymore who was playing because I knew he was finding all these great musicians.”

Music starts at 2pm, and the one constant is Sweeney himself, who opens each show with a brief set of selections from his burgeoning catalog of pithy, melodic pop songs. After that, it’s pretty much anything goes, depending on who Sweeney lined up, given his wide-ranging and eclectic taste. One week you might hear a hip-hop artist open for a jangle-pop act, while the next edition might feature a folksinger who plays the dulcimer taking the stage after a couple of  Prohibition-era jazzbos delivered a set of standards.

Beyond the twice-monthly shows, Sweeney and Walls have been kicking around a few ideas of what to do next to help the Pig grow. They’ve already launched a radio show that airs every other Wednesday on Salford City Radio in the UK on 94.4 FM, and they’ve got a few more things in the works, but for now the focus remains on producing the best damn live shows they can, two times each and every month.

Can’t argue with that; Long live the Pig!