New Colossus: Sunday
Landing at Baker Falls and Pianos on March 9, 2025
Peer Pleasure shares a Guinness at Baker Falls on Sunday, March 9 2025.
Them Flying Monkeys and more shoot their shot at the last shows of the last night of New Colossus.
They call this music festival the New Colossus. That’s no joke. Hump Day News counted one hundred and ninety-six bands, playing on twelve stages, spread over six days in this sixth edition of the festival. That’s the kind of critical mass you can reach when you’ve timed your event as a landing pad for international acts on their way to an even bigger festival, SXSW. But New Colossus does just fine on its own merits, thanks. Local, national, and international talent converge on the Lower East Side to play music, make memories, and trade notes on chopped cheese. “Hey, I’m walking here!”
Peer Pleasure at Baker Falls
Peer Pleasure
Who played the most sets at New Colossus? Not sure, but Ireland’s Peer Pleasure was up there. They fit eight performers on the stage, with two or three of them roaming the pit, stirring up the crowd, at any given moment. Topless. Pale. Heroic. The partial nudity is a fun gimmick, but don’t let it distract you from how good the set was on its own merits. A post-hardcore melange that mixed punk anthems with rootsy, bluesy riffs and plenty of Guinness. Seriously though, plenty of Guinness, which was trucked up to the lip of the stage throughout the set. And when they were done, they gifted an unopened can to the band that followed. A true highlight band of this year’s New Colossus.
WATCH PEER PLEASURE LIVE ↓
Last Waltzon at Baker Falls
Last Waltzon
Last Waltzon didn’t drink the Guinness. I’m not even sure they noticed it underfoot. The Canadian quartet is one of those bands that locks in, torques up, and blasts away until they’ve played the last note. They describe themselves as “art punk” in their New Colossus artist bio. There’s something to that. But the live experience was closer to protopunks like MC5 that emerged at the end of the 60s. Balls-to-the-wall rock n roll jammery that wants to peel your face off every minute of every song of every set. The band just dropped a new LP called Wethouse a few days before the festival.
Black Bordello at Baker Falls
Black Bordello
Each member of London’s Black Bordello took the stage with an ashy cross emblazoned on their forehead. They were a “Marvel Dark Universe” type of alt rock band. Coincidentally (or not?), Ash Wednesday was a few days earlier. If you had been attending the festival from the start, you would have run across multiple instances of the faithful New York City flock observing the start of Lent in the traditional fashion. An ashy cross on the forehead, right where your third eye would be, if you had a third eye, which you don’t.
Shady Baby at Pianos
Shady Baby
The last sets of the last day of the festival. It’s time to either “shoot your shot” or “wilt from exhaustion.” With some bands, both scenarios look pretty much the same.
On the best and worst days most guitarists and bassists are just holding their spot, leaning a few inches to sing into the microphone, and count success as staying upright. That’s true for everyone except the drummers, who, if they let up intensity, would sink performances in conspicuous ways. God bless the drummers.
Shady Baby’s drummer brought the energy. The UK band performed as a three-piece, balancing rhythm-forward rock hooks on the back of the percussion. Shades of a Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream-era groove. In particular, their new single “Held In,” which flashed some throwback alt rock charm.
World News at Pianos
World News
World News was a jangly, alt rock four-piece from London whose name reminds you that there is an impending or full blown crisis unfolding in every corner of this planet. Politically, socially, environmentally. Thousands of people at New Colossus, including myself, took the festival as an opportunity to tune out for a bit from the unceasing drama of world events. There was surprisingly little soapbox preaching from the stage. You usually get some. Surely the acts from abroad had some thoughts in mind about what America is, or has become, at the moment. But maybe they were too polite to say it. Or maybe what should be said has been said already, and everyone in the room already agrees with it, and it’s a kind of spiritual and emotional death to preach to the converted.
Is it a quietist and regressive posture to just enjoy the music for a few days?
Them Flying Monkeys at Pianos
Them Flying Monkeys
Another QRO contributor recommended Them Flying Monkeys to me, despite their name. As if I would care what an act was named after seeing more than sixty bands in five days. I’ve seen all the bad names. No band was ever bad because they had a bad name.
On the other hand, I take recommendations very seriously, so the five-piece outfit from Portugal was a must-see for me upstairs at Pianos. Not a great sound system up there, to be honest. But the rhythmic, psych-inflected, post-hardcore tomfoolery of Them Flying Monkeys is an act that’s enjoyed with both eyes and ears.
The frontman roamed around the room, a man with no other mission than to blow your mind. Add to the mix a lightshow reminiscent of a teen disco, and you’ve got the makings of a good night. Shades of Boston’s Gut Health.
WATCH THEM FLYING MONKEYS LIVE ↓
Tetsuians at Pianos
Tetsuians
The Melbourne indie rockers Tetsuians are a four-piece outfit, but it looked like only three made the trip. It’s a long and expensive trip, and a bitch to secure the necessary travel visas, so it’s much appreciated whenever artists make the effort to make the trip.
Whether they’re continuing to SXSW, some other stretch of touring, or just turning around and heading home after their last set, New Colossus and all the locals owe the visiting acts a massive “Thank You” note for lending the festival a genuinely international profile.
As a three-piece Tetsuians lacked some of the melodic complexity that you hear on their latest LP Ego In Echo. They compensated with some extra attack, extra punch in the live set to put their eggs in the power, rather than the nuance, basket.
That’s it. You survived. Or is there another day of music at The New Colossus Fest? The massive indie music festival on NYC’s Lower East Side is already booked for 2026. Hump Day News, in all likelihood, will see you there.
Photo Gallery
Peer Pleasure shares a Guinness at Baker Falls.