Fuzzstival Friday
Open Head at Arts at the ArmoryFuzzstival gets limber at Arts at the Armory on Friday, 15 September 2023.
BabyBaby_Explores and Landowner stretch their calves in the closing slots.
Fuzzstival, years pastHow long has Fuzzstival been around? The psych, garage, whatever, mostly local-ish music festival hung its banners from past years around the cavernous dwelling of the Arts at the Armory. The oldest one seemed to be 2015, which doesn’t mean that’s the first one, but it’s worth looking into.
In fact, you can find the Facebook event for the 2015 edition still floating around the internet. Hey, NICE GUYS performed both in 2015 and 2023. Is it still the same guys? Are they still nice?
As far as the banners tell the story, the festival’s iconoclastic cat evolved from a three-eyed to a two-eyed version over the years. And the feline seems to have fallen off during the height of the pandemic, as did so much else in the performing arts. But the festival was back in action and purring like a kitten in 2023.
Friday night opened with pizza at the merch table, local acts Ski Club, Strange Passage, Fuzzstival veterans Nice Guys, and the artcore, prepared guitar contortions of New York’s Open Head.
The lead vocalist of Open Head wishcasted that everyone in the audience start a band – a kind of play on the old line about Velvet Underground. You know, that they barely sold any records, but anyone who did buy one immediately started a band.
Looking around at a room full of faces marked with that signature “practice room pallor,” he was pretty close to already having his wish granted.
Rong
RongPost artcore, hardcore, thrash n mashers Rong have one setting, and it's loud. Someone’s mother sidled up to yours truly because he seemed like a good bet to not stomp her in the pit during the more raucous numbers. As the ancient Crusader said in the last Indiana Jones movie that was any good: “You’ve chosen wisely.”
GracieHorse
GracieHorseGracieHorse rolled through Somerville on a tour that’s taking them up and down the eastern seaboard, and into the heart of the Midwest. The alt country five-piece following on the heels of artcore thrashers Rong is the kind of transition that Fuzzstival goers don’t blink twice at.
Or is it just country, not alt country?
Some people brand themselves or others “alt country” because of contrived notions about who country musicians are or who their fans are. Sure, you don’t want to draw water from the same well as Jason Aldean, but does that make your ‘country’ ‘alt’? The sweet pedal steel guitar supporting GracieHorse says different. Pure country, no qualifiers.
Shout out to the Nashville musician who tried his first lobster roll. Watch out though: sometimes a lobster roll ain’t worth the price.
Editrix
EditrixThis band wails, Editrix, a three-piece out of Easthampton. Kind of a post punk, post metal, post artcore drill into your skull. Very little time is wasted between Point A and Point Rocking Out. The lead guitarist Wendy has her name on her pedalboard so it doesn’t get stolen, and her name on a gold chain around her neck so she doesn’t get stolen. Shout out to the bassist Steve who was wearing a Valley Free Radio t-shirt. WXOJ-LP, the Valley’s Independent Radio.
What’s the “LP” for? Aren’t radio call signs three or four-letters?
(New England) Patriots
(New England) PatriotsParentheses or not, (New England) Patriots bring the long, slow psychedelic grind.
The trio kicks out guitar and drum-led acid-drenched wallpaper numbers. Perfect backdrop for otherworldly vamping by the frontman who treated the crowd to an incremental striptease.
The guitar dropped occasional notes, which stretched out for miles like Dali’s clocks, or gum on the bottom of your shoe in late August.
Extra points for the voting privacy booth, repurposed as a little mobile laboratory of sampling & digital FX horrors.
Landowner
LandownerStraight outta Holyoke! Landowner has been gigging in bunches lately, sending up the bat signal to shout out its new album Escape the Compound. Expect rhythm-forward post punk that’s danceable without being cute about it. In fact, we might have seen more gyrations on the floor during their set than the rest of the Fuzzstival. Credit the driving bass lines and mesmerizing guitar refrains that build, and repeat, and multiply like horny fractals. Shades of Bombino meets Talking Heads. The lead vocalist levels up the entire ensemble, worth the wait if you were one of the early birds to this six-hour bill.
BabyBaby_Explores
BabyBaby_ExploresHow to describe this trio? A synth, a sampler, a guitar; a band that adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
BabyBaby_Explores crafts cool, medium tempo, electro lounge numbers. The lead vocalist sports a post-everything Rat Pack vibe, promenading back and forth between the synth player and guitarist like they're looking for a place to put out a cigarette. Get some martinis onstage.
The players had a relaxed, improvisational feel, shooting quick glances at each other as if they didn’t know what the other was going to play next. And maybe they didn’t.
Catch them on tour with Matt & Kim in September.
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