If It's Too Loud...

There are some bands that I don't think I'll ever get to see live. They tend to be smaller bands from other countries that I doubt will ever fully tour the states. Maybe one of those quickie tours around a massive festival where they only play New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but those always skip Boston. You can imagine my delight when I saw that Panic Shack were coming all the way from Wales and playing the tiny The Rockwell. I obviously couldn't miss it. I was wondering what Panic Shack's draw would be. I am a terrible judge of how popular artists are, so I had no idea if it would be ten people at the show or a packed house. Turns out, The Rockwell was packed tighter than I've ever seen it, with anticipation bubbling from the crowd. Panic Shack took the stage and met the energy from the crowd in an endless loop of excitement. It turns out that Panic Shack put on what might have been the best show of the year in Boston.  The energy Wednesday night was insane. P...

2026 is a rough year for festivals with many of our favorites either taking the year off or calling it a day after 2025. Nice, a Fest took 2025 off, which had us a little worried, but they are back for 2026 and returning to Davis Square! This year's edition will run from July 24-26 and take place at The Rockwell, Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theater, and Dragons Lair. Of course, the important thing is the music, and Nice, a Fest once again have an amazing all local line up with many, many of our favorites. It will feature Battlemode, Class President, Coral Moons, Downtown Boys, Evan Greer, Gymshorts, JVK, Landowner, Mal Devisa, Meg Elsier, Perennial, Pinklids, Rick Rude, and a ton more! This is always one of my favorite musical weekends of the year, and attending is strongly recommended! Nice, a Fest takes place in Davis Square, Somerville from July 24-26. You can get more information and tickets here .

Last year's Boston Bitdown was one of my unexpected musical highlights of 2025. I was only able to make it one night last year, but I was blown away by how diverse a festival of chiptune bands could be, and how much fun I had. I wanted to make it to more dates in 2026, but life and family obligations prevented me from taking in as much of the festival as I wanted. I made it on Saturday to bounce between Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theater and The Rockwell. I wasn't able to take everything in, but what I saw was fun and great. The first artist I saw wasn't chiptune at all, but still fit in with the vibe of the festival. Boston Typewriter Orchestra are one of those artists I've been meaning to check out, and Saturday night was my chance. They're a band that consists of all members playing typewriters. Yes, virtually every sound coming from the stage is coming from an old fashioned, non-electric typewriter. It's the sound from the keys, drumming on the back, bel...

We like to think we do a pretty good job of bringing you new music, but every so often we do drop the ball. After seeing Modern Nature play The Rockwell Tuesday night, I can safely say we massively missed out on their excellent 2025 album The Heat Warps. Coming all the way from Cambridge, UK, Modern Nature took the tiny stage of The Rockwell in front of a decent crowd and quite simply blew everyone in attendance away. Usually when we say that, we are speaking about volume, or aggression, or noise. Instead, Modern Nature play a fairly quiet and mellow blend of indie rock. It was along the lines of Sonic Youth or Slint... just much more chill. Of curse, chill and mellow don't have to mean boring or not intense. Modern Nature's songs are rather intense despite how laid back their playing is. If you've never heard their single "Pharoh," do yourself a favor and check it out. It's an absolute masterpiece. Modern Nature were at their best when Jack Cooper and Tara Cu...

I've been looking forward to seeing Mamalarky live since I first discovered them back in 2020. They've made it to Boston since then, but it just never quite worked out for me. Luckily, they just released the excellent Hex Key  and had a Tuesday night show at The Rockwell that finally worked with my schedule. Doss opened the show up. Not to be confused with the DJ named Doss, this was a local Boston "indie folk rock mish mosh." They played a short set that was wonderfully compelling. I'd say they were a bit more rock than folk, but not by much. Doss was a charming opener that won over the crowd quickly. I'm sure they brought some friends and fans with them, but I can't imagine anyone that wasn't already a fan left The Rockwell without becoming one. Kennedy Mann played next, finishing up their tour with Mamalarky. She played an acoustic guitar, and for the first couple of songs of their set, used some backing electronic music from a phone. After that, it...

I have a soft spot for garage rock, and one of the coolest garage rock albums so far this year is The Internal Theater from Archer Oh. The California band has this interesting crooner style element added into their garage rock, which ups the cool factor for their sound. It's a smooth version of the decades old genre, and somehow adding something older than garage rock to garage rock makes it sound fresh. Once I saw they were playing The Rockwell in Somerville, I couldn't resist making the trip into the city on a Sunday night. To put it simply, Archer Oh were fabulous. Garage rock is always a genre that works best played live, and they were no exception. I had no idea what kind of fanbase they have, but their fans packed The Rockwell on a school night and sang along to virtually every word. This is a band that doesn't seem to have any casual fans, and the younger leaning audience was stoked to see their heroes take the stage. Their energy was well rewarded, and Archer Oh put...

We both really enjoyed meg elsier's spittake when it was released in June. It's filled with songs that are both indie rock and alt-pop, and that's one of our favorite genres as of late. When I had the opportunity to see her live on her first tour, I had to jump at the chance, especially since she was playing The Rockwell. (It's one of my favorite venues I don't make it to nearly enough.) Based in Nashville, meg elsier mentioned that even though she was from forty minutes away from Boston and went to school in Boston, this was her first show in town. Playing as a three piece band, elsier put on one of the most charming shows I've seen all year. Her exuberance was contagious, and she quickly won over the crowd that wasn't already there for her. It always helps when you have a New England themed song, and she played a new one that may be called "Dogs Don't Piss on a New England Lawn" that was a delightful fuzzy pop song. (I would say the working t...

Fourth of July is a weird weekend in Boston. The city is chock full of tourists, a lot of locals are on vacation, and those that stay in the area can be wiped out. I was in the wiped out category, but I couldn't let myself miss the triple bill of Happy Little Clouds, Lovina Falls, and Parlour Bells! Parlour Bells opened the evening, and it was my first time seeing them. For a show like this, The Rockwell will keep the floor free for standing/dancing and have the seats available on the sides and back for anyone that prefers sitting. It could be that the audience attracted an older crowd, or everyone was still recovering from the Fourth, but everyone decided to hang out in the seats. (That's not to say that the crowd wasn't great, as there was more lively applause for all three bands than I usually see at a local rock showcase.) Singer Goddamn Glenn is always a joy to see perform live and is one of the most natural frontpeople in Boston. Their set is just killer glammed up ro...

As much as I love Rosali's new album Bite Down , I wasn't quite sure what to expect with a live show. An album can be as great as Bite Down , but sometimes mid-tempo songs just don't translate well in a live setting. That was not the case as Rosali and her band played The Rockwell last Thursday. The set opened with "On Tonight," which might be the best set starting song Rosali could possibly have chosen. It's also the first song on Bite Down, and set the mood for the evening. The Rockwell is a small, intimate black box theater that occasionally hosts music, and it was the perfect setting for Rosali. Her blend of singer-songwriter alt-rock is intensely personal, and it was beautiful to see in a setting that was curated to her style so perfectly.  Plus, Rosali is a captivating performer with a fantastic band. She just has that something special that locks you in and you just can't turn away. (Not that you'd want to...) A highlight of the set was "Hi...

Sometimes there are just bands you think you'll never get to see live. I felt that way about Elephant Stone. Some Canadian bands never quite make it down to the States, and when they do, a lot skip by Boston and head straight to New York. Once Elephant Stone announced a tour that was actually hitting Boston, and playing the underutilized Rockwell, I knew I had to check it out. Elephant Stone started out their set with singer Rishi Dhir taking the stage solo and playing a song on the sitar. Despite all the shows I've been to over the decades I've been regularly going to shows, I don't think I've ever actually seen someone play the sitar live. It was completely mesmerizing. Dhir's playing started off as almost calming, but it grew in intensity and was nearly hypnotizing by the end of the song. Once the opening song was finished, the rest of Elephant Stone joined him on stage and Dhir switched over to the guitar. Live, Elephant Stone's music is more akin to 60...

Razor Braids have been one of those bands I've enjoyed and have wanted to see them live since discovering their music last year. When I saw the Brooklyn quartet were playing The Rockwell, I wanted to go but was kind of on the fence. Once they announced Mint Green was opening, I immediately bought a ticket. Despite them being local and playing around a lot, seeing them just hadn't worked out yet. Turns out I made the right decision since I also got to discover the fantastic Matilde Heckler, too! Recent Berklee graduate Matilde Heckler opened the show with a short set. They played an electric violin shaped like a flying "v," and with their band played a great set of violin based indie rock/alt pop songs. I believe they only have two songs out to date (with a third due on Friday), so they're in the very early stages of a music career. But sometimes even this early on, you can just tell someone is going to be great someday. They also busted out a cover of Olivia Rodri...

In its second year, Nice, a Fest took over The Rockwell and Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theater for three night (four if you count the "after party" on Sunday). I wasn't able to go for all three (or four), so I made it for just Saturday. And seeing how I couldn't pull off twelve hours of live music at my advanced age, I made it a late afternoon/early evening start time. So apologies to all the bands I didn't see! Here are my five favorites from Saturday at Nice, a Fest, in no particular order. Circus Trees This one came out of nowhere for me. Circus Trees are a band out of Marlborough, MA made up of three sisters. Saturday night they had a replacement drummer, and they announced that they would be playing sad music before they started, which, they did. But Circus Trees are hardly a mopey band. Sure, their songs do have mopey parts, but it's more like if shoegaze was really, really heavy as well as beautiful. Their quiet parts were shockingly lovely, but whe...

The Huntress and Holder of Hands' 2017 album Avalon  has stealthily become an all time favorite. Although I did see MorganEve Swain perform solo late last summer, it had been quite a while since I saw The Huntress and Holder of Hands as a full band. Add to that the fact that they were playing in a new venue I had yet to make it to, and Eye Witness was opening, and it quickly became an impossible to miss show.  Eye Witness opened the show. They're an indie folk duo out of central MA making their debut as a trio. Rainy and Milo are now joined by Lovina on keyboard. Seeing as how I had never seen them, I can't compare them to their previous incarnation, but the trio played quite well together. One thing that surprised me is how loudly they played for an indie folk band. Sure, Eye Witness have some folk elements, but they rocked more than a little too hard to be truly folk. Plus, the music had some very dark vibes. An alt-rock band disguised as a folk trio playing dark music? S...