If It's Too Loud...

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...

Image by Daykamp Creative Buffalo Tom are one of those bands I try to go see every time they play locally. They're a legendary local band and their Boston area shows always have an intimate feel no matter how large of a venue they play. I also love exploring former mental hospitals, so since they played an early evening show at Bellforge Arts Center at the site of the former Medfield State Hospital, I couldn't resist. The band opened up their set with "Summer," which despite being one of my favorites of theirs, was the perfect song to get the crowd that was mostly sitting back in lawn chairs up on their feet and towards the stage. Plus, it's the perfect song for the summer that refuses to end here in New England. Despite not playing out a ton these days, Buffalo Tom always nail that perfect mixture of loose and tight that you can only get from playing together for over three decades. It's also easy to forger just how many great songs Buffalo Tom have. "Ta...

Boston's Dutch Tulips are set to play In Between Days this Saturday, and what better way to get us all excited for their performance than with a new single? "Gold Chain" combines some of the most iconic sounds in rock into a familiar and unique way. The song has the delivery and some of the anthemic qualities of Bruce Springsteen's classics, the New Wave keyboards of The Cars, and the playful indie sounds of Jonathan Richman. It's a fun song that sounds like it was specifically written to be blasted out at a large festival. It has that summertime feel to it, but a late summer feeling as melancholy begins to set in as we prepare for the end of the season. You can listen to "Gold Chain" below. For more on Dutch Tulips, check out the band's website . If you're going to In Between Days this weekend, be sure to check them out at 2:15 on the Arbella Insurance Stage on Saturday the 19th!