If It's Too Loud...

Towards the end of Modest Mouse's headlining set on Saturday night, Isaac Brock commented that he can normally ignore about half of the bands during a festival, but In Between Days just kept making him want to watch every band from the very start of the day. I ended up having the same experience. When I looked at the schedule, there were some bands I wasn't that familiar with or hadn't been able to get into previously, so I figured I'd have some downtime to casually eat some food from the food trucks, or play some free classic arcade games at the pop-up arcade, but instead for ten hours (ok, at one point I did stop to shove a quesadilla in my face for five minutes) I was just blown away watching band after band after band! I got there a couple of minutes late, and Quincy's own Gypsy Moths were already rocking the Arbella Insurance stage. Their classic Boston garage rock set the stage for the festival perfectly without sounding anything like any of the other bands on...

Mint Green can be a lot more pop than I typically get into, but there is something about the band I can't seem to resist. Even the snobbiest of us love a great melody and a catchy song, and even at their most pop Mint Green still have just enough edge to their guitars to keep it from going too pop for me (personally). Since we first discovered them back in 2018, they just keep releasing amazing single after amazing single. Plus, singer/guitarist Ronnica just has that little something special to her voice, especially when she really goes for it. Not many bands can pull off covering artists as diverse as Katy Perry, Phoebe Bridgers, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but most bands aren't Mint Green.  You can watch the video for "Body Language" below. For more on Mint Green, check out the band's website , and be sure to catch them at In Between Days on Sunday the 20th on the Arbella Insurance Stage at 1:00. For more information and tickets, head over to the festival's website...

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!

If you've been reading If It's Too Loud... for a while now, you'll know that we love Carissa Johnson. We definitely aren't the only ones as she's one of the most buzzed about artists to come out of Boston in the past ten years. Every local music blog seems to explode every time she releases new music, and with good reason. Johnson has this perfect sound that mixes indie rock, garage rock, and pop in a way that can appeal to basically any music fan. At times it's a very mainstream sound, but even as mainstream or pop as Johnson's music sometimes gets, it always has just enough of an edge to it to keep even the snobbiest of us happy. Plus, Johnson can write a song like no other. As great as it has been watching her play in various small clubs in and around Boston, it's going to be fabulous to see her rock a large festival stage. You can watch the video for "Merry Go Round" below. For more on Carissa Johnson, check out the artist's website , a...

The first band playing the main stage at this year's In Between Days is Paper Tigers. They're an Allston based band that formed in 2019 through a Craigslist ad. In the four years they've been a band, Paper Tigers have received a ton of accolades, and I'm actually quite shocked they only formed such a short time ago. Last year they played Boston Calling, and once you hear them, you'll understand why they're such a beloved band in the Boston music scene. They play an ultra-catchy version of mainstream alt-rock. Mainstream can be used as a derogatory term, but for Paper Tigers it's a compliment. This is the kind of band that would be blowing up all over the airwaves if there was still modern rock radio in Boston, and still are just one song from a national explosion. If there are any rock bands in Boston that could be poised to be The Next Big Thing, it's Paper Tigers. (Plus, their drummer, Cutty, has been filling in for Tysk Tysk Task for the past few mont...

If you take our recommendation and see The Gypsy Moths at noon on Saturday, you potentially saw ten hours of music and probably want a rest for a bit on Sunday. You'll need some extra energy to stay fresh for Trampled By Turtles and Lord Huron, so I'm sure you'll want to sleep in at least a little that day. But, you're going to need to get to In Between Days before noon to make sure you catch Sweet Petunia. I can't remember when I first discovered Sweet Petunia, but they have been high on my list of must see Boston bands for a while. (It just hasn't worked out, unfortunately.) Their bio lists them as a "queer freak-folk band," but I personally think they sound a bit more traditional folk than freak-folk implies. Madison Simpson and Mairead Guy have some of the finest vocal harmonies in all of folk. Their music is absolutely lovely and completely captivating, and will be the perfect way to ease you back into festival mode. It's also the perfect way ...

If you're going to In Between Days, you're already planning on seeing Modest Mouse, Sunny Day Real Estate, Lord Huron, and Trampled By Turtles. But, this year's festival features some amazing local bands playing earlier that are well worth your time. Today we explore why you should get there before noon on Saturday for The Gypsy Moths. Boston has a long history of fantastic garage rock. Our latest discovery are The Gypsy Moths, who have been kicking around since 2014. They're on Rum Bar Records, which is a great way of telling that they are legitimately great. Their Bandcamp profile refers to them as "Garage soul shakers," and that pretty much nails it. Their music is rollicking garage rock with killer soul horns and vocals. They have a vintage yet modern sound. It sounds like it could have been released pretty much any time between the late 70's and now, but in a way that only a Boston garage band could. They stick out a bit from the rest of the line up, ...

In the past few weeks, there have been some happenings over at the In Between Days Festival headquarters that have us even more thrilled about the upcoming event of the summer. First off, the schedules have been announced. The best part of the schedules is that there are no overlapping performances! I haven't seen a festival do this in years, and it's such a refreshing change. At every festival I've been to in the last ten plus years, I have to make a decision between two bands I was there to see, or at the very least having to leave one stage early to get over to catch another artist. That won't happen with In Between Days! Weakened Friends end at 5:45 pm, Sunny Day Real Estate starts at 5:45 pm. Perfection! The next is the release of the festival map. In other festivals, a second or third stage can be tucked away from the main action and is easily forgotten about, or fans can have to choose between staying in a killer spot by a stage and missing out on what's goin...

This is exactly the type of news we need while I watch snow fall in my New England neighborhood. Last year was the inaugural In Between Days festival. It was a one day festival with a great line up. For the festival's second year, they're expanding to two days and releasing one of the best line ups we've seen in years. The headliners for the festival are Modest Mouse and Lord Huron, with other If It's Too Loud... approved artists including Metric, Trampled By Turtles, Sunny Day Real Estate, Blitzen Trapper, Slothrust, and more! Plus, it includes an absolutely bonkers mix of local artists including Weakened Friends, Paper Tigers, Dutch Tulips, Carissa Johnson, Mint Green, Sweet Petunia, and more! Plus, there will be a vintage vendors market, a retro arcade, a vinyl record pop-up shop, and more. Taking place at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy August 19 and 20, In Between Days is shaping up to be the New England summer festival of 2023. The gauntlet has definitely been...