If It's Too Loud...

Year after year, Moon Over Salem is an incredible showcase of local artists in Salem every September. They're scaling back this year due to Moon Base One losing their all ages space earlier this year, but they're still putting on a great all day festival! Instead of multiple locations throughout downtown Salem, this year's festival takes place at Cinema Salem on September 12, and will include performances from Bad Idea USA, Belly Porba, Big Time, Cape Crush, Catnap, Couch Sex (playing a reunion set), Earthlore, In/Shreds, Jude Ivy, Pintail, and more to be announced. Digital Awareness will also be providing live analog visuals. The whole thing benefits The Moon Rising Artist Scholarship, which is a great bonus besides the fantastic day of music. Tickets for Moon Over Salem are on sale now, and are $25 in advance and $30 day of show. You can find tickets here .

As I've stated here far too many times, I'll use any excuse to get up to Salem, MA to hang out. Moon Base One, a new all-ages sober space, keeps giving me plenty of reasons to make the trip up, and Thursday night was one of those. As soon as I saw that Little Low and Megan from Work were playing together, I knew I couldn't miss the show. Later, Cape Crush was announced, which just sweetened the deal. I had never heard The Dreaded Laramie before, but they quickly became a favorite during their set. Opening the show Thursday night was Little Low. I discovered the Boston pop punk/emo band back in March playing with Oh the Humanity, SkyTigers, and ONE FALL, which was perfect timing to not miss their excellent album Sunshine Guilt , which was released in May. They play an upbeat version of emo that lands somewhere between the more mainstream, TRL friendly version and the harder edged late 90's style. It's just all catchy songs with a punk edge, and "Dark Beer Archiv...

I'm the type of person that tries to get up to Salem, MA as much as possible, and I'll find any excuse to make the long trek up to the historical city I can. Friday night I had many reasons to go. Gut Health and Tysk Tysk Task were playing a show together, and I could check out Moon Base One, a new venue that opened in Salem earlier this month. (And then of course wander around an empty downtown Salem at night and grab a post-show snack from Goodnight Fatty.) Fat Randy opened the show Friday night. According to their Bandcamp profile, they are "Boston's worst noise rock band" and/or "Connecticut's best Hoobastank tribute band." I can't verify on the latter, but I can assure you Boston has much worse noise rock bands than Fat Randy. They play an intense and scream filled version of noise rock that incorporates sludgy metal riffs and pounding drums. It was loud, it was obnoxious at times, and they were impossible to ignore. Not that you'd want ...