If It's Too Loud...

The Town and The City Festival is becoming an annual musical highlight for us. Taking over downtown Lowell for the weekend, this year's festival expanded to a third night, which was a festival kickoff with Lady Lamb, Ezra Furman, and Class President. I personally try to see Ezra Furman and Lady Lamb as much as possible, so heading out to Taffeta Music Hall was a no-brainer for me. Opening up the show was Lowell's own Class President. It had been about a year and a half since I last saw them at The Overlook (RIP Mill No. 5), and I was excited to see them again. Their version of pop focused indie rock has only improved since 2023, and I'm now officially on the bandwagon as a fan. Their songs are undeniably catchy with just enough of an edge to keep it from being pure pop, and they put on a ridiculously fun show. I might be tempted to call them pop punk, but they just barely fit into that genre and are a little too alt-rock for that. Regardless, they're a band you need to ...

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...