If It's Too Loud...

Every year when The Town and the City announce their line-up, we say that it's their best ever, and every year we truly mean it. 2026 keeps their unbeaten streak alive with a line-up that's going to thrill all music fans in the Lowell area. This year, the festival once again takes over downtown Lowell April 30 through May 2. Individual shows haven't been announced yet, but you'll get to see John Doe of X and David Lowery of Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven performing together, as well as Tanya Donelly and Chris Brokaw with their "modern interpretations of medieval music." Also playing this year are folk rockers The Felice Brothers, along with local favorites GA-20, Future Teens, JVK, Megan From Work, The Wolff Sisters, Tysk Tysk Task, Dee Tension & The Secrets, Other Brother Darryl, Tell, Phantom Ocean, and many, many more. In an interesting move, two Lowell favorites will be performing cover sets this year, with The Ghouls performing Black Sabbath and Bur...

One of Lowell's finest have released their highly anticipated cover of Johnny Cash's classic "Folsom Prison Blues." When I heard Burp. were releasing a cover of one of the most iconic songs of one of the most iconic artists, I knew what to expect. It was obviously going to be a bratty and noisy pop punk cover of the country song. I was completely wrong. Burp.'s version of "Folsom Prison Blues" is a much more straightforward version than I thought possible. It's much more rock and punk based, and noisier, of course, but pretty much anyone who discovered Cash through his American Records series of albums is going to enjoy this cover. It reminds me of a more DIY version of Social Distortion's cover of Cash's classic. You can listen to Burp.'s version of "Folsom Prison Blues" below. For more on Burp., check out the band on Instagram and Twitter . They're playing a Lowell heavy showcase at Sonia on March 29 which also features T...

Doing Anything this Weekend? is a feature here at If It's Too Loud... where we feature some live shows in and on the far outskirts of the Boston area. Our main rules are that they have to be reasonably priced shows that you can attend last minute. They'll feature If It's Too Loud... approved bands, and we'll provide event links when possible. And since we're in outdoor music season, these events are weather permitting. If you're looking for last minute plans this weekend, we recommend: Friday May 10 The Forest Effect, Ruin the Night, and The Magic City at Warehouse XI, Somerville, MA Sarah Shook & The Disarmers and Nicolette and the Nobodies at The Cut, Gloucester, MA Fishbone's Angelo Moore, Threat Level Burgundy, and The Agonizers at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center, Greenfield, MA Margaret Glaspy and Ryan Lerman at The Stone Church, Brattleboro, VT BURP, WarGraves, The Downhauls, and GhostWaves at Thirsty First, Lowell, MA Saturday May 11 Walte...

Taking place in Somerville, NICE, a fest has been slowly growing and becoming one of the go-to festivals every year despite an increasingly stacked festival schedule. This will be their fourth year, and hyperbole aside, they've grown even bigger and more impressive for 2024. This year will see over eighty bands with ties to Boston playing over four days. They're back to Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theater and The Rockwell for 2024, but they've added a larger outdoor stage for Saturday at the Grove Street lot. The line-up is stacked and features many of our favorites. Vundabar, Palehound, Model/Actriz, Dutch Tulips, Hannah Mohan, House of Harm, Burp, Jake McKelvie, Sweet Petunia, Noble Dust, TIFFY, Vivid Bloom, Zip-Tie Handcuffs, and many, many more are playing. Every single time I look at the poster I notice a band I had previously missed and get even more excited for! And there are still two unannounced bands that are pretty high up on that poster, so let the speculatio...

This weekend marks the return of The Town and the City Festival on Friday and Saturday. The festival is spread throughout downtown Lowell, MA with many of the venues within a block or two of each other. The festival is always a well run great time with something for virtually every music fan. Here's a guide to what we consider to be the highlights, which include many of our favorite artists! Friday night features Sofia Talvik at Gallery Z. The singer-songwriter is on tour throughout the US all the way from Sweden, and has been a favorite of ours before we started If It's Too Loud... She'll be joined by Evan Goodrow and Frank Morey. Christ Church United features the legendary English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock. Any time he plays in the area is an official Big Deal. You can tell The Town and the City know what they're doing since this is a return to the festival for him. He'll be joined by Syd Straw, making this a legendary bill in the making. If you're loo...

Doing Anything this Weekend? is a feature here at If It's Too Loud... where we feature some live shows in and on the far outskirts of the Boston area. Our main rules are that they have to be reasonably priced shows that you can attend last minute. They'll feature If It's Too Loud... approved bands, and we'll provide event links when possible. If you're looking for last minute plans this weekend, we recommend: Friday March 15 GA-20, Muddy Ruckus, and Troy Mercy at starlite, Southbridge, MA Miracle Blood, The Freqs, Psychic Weight, and Billy at Deep Cuts, Medford, MA Viv & Riley at Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation, Waltham, MA Cloudbelly, Jake McKelvie, and TIFFY at O'Brien's, Allston, MA Burp., Tysk Tysk Task, Night Visions, and Cross Girls at Thirsty First, Lowell, MA The Shirts and Shoes, The Roscoes, and WLKRZ at Faces Brewing, Malden, MA Saturday March 16 Matt Charette and the Truer Sound, The Roland High Life, LoboHombre, and Christi...

If you've seen Burp. possibly ever, you're familiar with their cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic." The Lowell punk band have released the kind of noisy and bratty style punk cover of one the singer's most iconic songs. As always with Burp., what could just be typical kinda crappy pop punk is elevated to this weirdly higher level through their sheer charm and surprisingly artsy style. It's a little obnoxious, but it's also far better than it should be. As with all covers in this vein that actually work, Burp. don't sound like they're mocking "Toxic," at least not completely. You can listen to Burp. covering "Toxic" below. For more on Burp., check out the band on Instagram .

The Town and the City Festival continues to be one of the best smaller festivals in the northeast, and this year's line up is stellar. Held throughout Lowell, MA, this year's festival will be held April 26 and 27. In 2024, Robyn Hitchcock returns and we'll also get long standing indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Americana artist Amythyst Kiah, Swedish singer-songwriter Sofia Talvik, and Boston indie pop sensations The Q-Tip Bandits. The festival also includes some of our absolute favorite local artists including Akrobatik, Burp, Colleen Green, Jen Kearney, Linnea's Garden, Muck & The Mires, One Fall, Orbit, Roger Miller, Sapling, Subpunch, The Chelsea Curve, The Shirt & Shoes, Tysk Tysk Task, and many, many more. And this is just the initial line up, with more to come in 2024! Two-day passes go on sale today at 10:00 am for the special low price of $45 until November 30. For more on The Town and the City Festival, check out the festival's website .

Halloween weekend is always one filled with more events than anyone could possibly attend, and this year was no exception. Seeing as Tysk Tysk Task was playing their hometown of Lowell, and they were playing The Overlook, a venue I really like but haven't made it out to in far too long, that made the decision easy. It worked out perfectly, as I discovered three more bands I ended up really enjoying. First up was I Love Cheeseburgers. A side project of Burp., they played a short set of heavier rock than you get with Burp. Burp. are already noisy pop punk, but I Love Cheeseburgers were an even noisier version of that. It was if you combined Warped Tour pop punk with grunge, and then just went wild with that. Their set was a little too short to truly judge, but I'm looking forward to getting to check them out again. Jiddo opened, and just... wow. They're a band from Worcester playing post-hardcore. Their set was filled with these ridiculously loud songs that are just shy of be...

Photo via Instagram I don't think I write so consistently about a band that makes me feel as old as Burp. does. The Lowell band just released a second single, "Monkey Man." I've compared Burp. to early Blink 182 goes art rock, and this new single actually leans more into the art rock side of things. It still has all the tune and brattiness of pop punk, but there's an odd and quite welcome Johnny Marr sound to the guitar. "Monkey Man" has this compelling The Smiths go 90's Warped Tour vibe, and we are here for it. For a band that promotes their goofy side as much as they do, Burp. are one of the most promising young bands in the Boston area today. You can listen to "Monkey Man" below. For more on Burp., check out the band's Instagram .

I can't say I'm a fan of basement shows. I like the DIY feel enough, but basement shows are usually a young crowd. Considering The Valley is in the UMASS Lowell neighborhood, it was going to be a very young crowd, and it was. (Pretty sure I was at least ten years older than the second oldest people there, and that's only counting the bands.) But when it's Tysk Tysk Task's album release show, I knew I needed to be the grandpa in the room and be there. Oahk came down from central New Hampshire to open the show. Oahk is Bryan Ziolkowski playing guitar and vocals with samples. It's a very drone heavy and noisy affair, but there is such beauty in it. I liked Oahk's album Husks when it was released back in July, but I loved the live performance. The music moved between simple beauty and just a wall of drone and samples without ever losing any of the beauty no matter how brutal the song may have sounded. This is an artist we'll be keeping a close eye on here in...

You know when you hear a song that you're just too old to listen to? Sure, you can still listen to dumb punk songs by bands like The Queers and Descendents because you can use the nostalgia factor, but when it's a new band in 2022 you can't get away with that. I almost didn't cover the latest from Burp. because of that, but "My Back Hurts" is much better than it wants to be. It's a song about accidentally going to a happy ending massage parlor with a chorus of "Please don't touch my balls," which is hardly what a middle aged adult with two children should be listening to... but that riff is just irresistible. It fits in that early Blink-182 meets noise rock sound I got sucked into back at their live show in June. This is one that you're definitely going to enjoy, even if it's in your car alone with the windows rolled up. You can listen to "My Back Hurts" below. For more on Burp., check out the band on Instagram .

By now you all know that two of my favorite local bands are Sapling and Tysk Tysk Task, although at this point I should just say that they are two of my favorite bands. The members are friends, and I've been hoping they'd play a show together for a while now. Finally, Friday night one of my dreams came true so I had to head out to The Worthen in Lowell for one of my most wished for double bills! When I first saw this bill, I checked out Red Ledger, the opening band. I really enjoyed their blend of mainstream alt-rock meets melodic hardcore. Friday night's set was a solo acoustic show by frontman James Dee. Dee went between acoustic guitar and ukulele for his set, mostly playing songs that he can't really play with a full, loud band. He also played at least one song off Red Ledger's upcoming album. It was hard to judge the new song based on a solo acoustic performance. This just gives me even more reason to get out to check out Red Ledger down the road! I didn't ...