Live Shows: Oh the Humanity!, ONE FALL, Little Low, and SkyTigers, Faces Brewing, Malden, MA 3/15/25

I'm at the point in life that I have zero interest in going out St. Patrick's Day weekend, especially in Boston. It's typically far too much mandatory drinking and enforced fun which leads to stupid fights and dodging rivers of vomit. For me to go out on the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, it has to be something I really want to do. This year was one of those times with the release show for the latest album from Oh the Humanity! with ONE FALL, Little Low, and SkyTigers joining them.

First up for the night of punk was SkyTigers. This is one of those bands that's kind of hard to categorize us as punk since they're just as metal as they are punk. SkyTigers have an album recorded, and they chose to play as yet unreleased songs for their set. Judging by what they played, this new album is going to be epic. They played the heaviest set of the night, filled with instant classic songs with a heavy dose of politics. (They played the first of two songs about Luigi Mangione of the night...) This is a band that doesn't play out a ton these days, so it's easy to forget about them, but they're one of the secret weapons of the Boston punk/metal scene.

Up next was Little Low with something completely different. They play more of an emo meets alt-rock sound that's perfect for those of us whose heyday was in the 90's. The guitars are wonderfully crunchy, and the harmonies were glorious. Their emo sound is more in the vein of 90's Jade Tree Records meets alt-rock bands like Letters to Cleo and Veruca Salt. Theirs was an incredibly fun set that included their cover of Better Than Ezra's "Good," which is always a great choice for a cover song. Little Low was the band I was least familiar with going into Saturday night, but with their upcoming album due next month, be prepared to hear more about them sooner than later.

2023 Rock and Roll Rumble winners ONE FALL took the stage next. They're undoubtedly one of the best live bands in Boston, and Saturday night was no exception. Playing a mixture of familiar and unreleased songs, ONE FALL owned the Faces stage from the minute they started. Singer/guitarist Helen McWilliams is one of the most engaging musicians in the Boston scene, and it's impossible not to be completely captivated by what her band is doing on stage. After playing the second Luigi Mangione song of the evening, they snuck in a bit of Wilson Philips' "Hold On" into their song "Slingshot." It somehow worked perfectly, and was a highlight of the evening.

Oh the Humanity! closed out the night and celebrated the release of their excellent new album Ground to Dust. Their version of thrashy melodic punk is a complete joy live, and the crowd knew all of the words and yelled them out right along. One great thing about this show was that all of the bands are friends and fans of each other, so the front row was usually filled with members of the other bands. The entire night was a celebration of the Boston scene, and Oh the Humanity!'s set was the pinnacle of that.