If It's Too Loud...

Sunday was the fourth and final day of this year's Boston Bitdown. It was originally scheduled to take place at Moon Base One, but was moved fairly last minute to Bit Bar after Moon Base One's licensing issues. As much as I love the original venue, a video game music festival taking place in an arcade just makes sense. Also, it gave everyone something to do between bands, as much of the stage area cleared out so attendees could play arcade games and pinball. Here's what I saw Sunday afternoon! Opening the day was +LET'S DISINFECT+. Out of Philadelphia, this is a one man band horror punk meets chiptune artist. It was a set of kick ass punk songs about Predator , Night of the Living Dead , and the Saw series... just with video game sounds within the songs. Horror and video games have always gone hand in hand, and this was a perfect pairing that helped set the tone for the day. Plus, songs about horror movies are always going to be a hit in Salem, especially considering we...

With many of Boston's smaller venues closing down during and since COVID, locations in the distant suburbs of the city have started hosting shows. I've wanted to check out a show at Bit Bar in Salem ever since I heard they started having shows. It's a barcade, which are always fun, and I'll take any excuse to wander around Salem for a few hours. Tysk Tysk Task and The Freqs playing a show together finally gave me a chance. Bit Bar is an interesting place to see a show. The stage is set up over on the side of an area with tables between people playing Mortal Kombat II and Crazy Taxi. There's a TV screen behind the stage that played a selection of vintage commercials, cartoons, and TV shows. (The 1-900 Call Freddy and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! with Elvira were personal favorites.) Despite that or because of it, it turned out to be a fun venue to see a show. Some of the audience was there to see the bands, and others were just there for the games which created ...