Half Dizzy circles the pit at Midway Cafe on Friday, 11 October 2024.

Indoor Friends and Bad Idea USA open the triplestack bill.

Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix

〰️

Hump Nights

〰️

Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️ Hump Nights 〰️

Hump Nights

Jan 29

Born Innocent makes the case for Redd Kross as the seminal West Coast band of the last half century.

Jan 30

Ani DiFranco on a wild road trip from her punk-folk past to her life today.

Feb 1

ONCE plants its flag at The 4th Wall in the Capitol Theater.

Feb 3

A triplestack of rock in Rat City, USA.

Feb 6

A tale of sex, LSD, and rock n roll with psych punk pioneers.

Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol / Lip Critic

Feb 7

The Austin, Texas band lays down the big dumb heavy riffs for all the party people.

Feb 8

A four-stack of indie rock served the right way at Midway Cafe.

Feb 14

Music, drag artists, probably not that much sex.

Feb 15

More music, drag artists, and probably not that much sex.

Feb 21

Sensory overload at the Capitol! Bands, arcade, 360 degree visual projection & screening of Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Feb 23

Matinees are punk rock. Doors at 3PM.

Hump Nights

〰️

Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix

〰️

Hump Nights 〰️ Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️

By the time this review gets posted, we’ll have broken through the pleasantly brisk portion of fall into a period where the temps can start to feel downright chilly. The best part of fall, like the best part of spring, is too brief. If only someone controlled the weather…

Autumn aside, Hump Day News has been hot on the trail of Bad Idea USA all year round. Seems like every time they’re on a bill, whether it’s Nice Fest, or a punk matinee at Midway Cafe, your trusty correspondent arrives right after they’ve ended their set.

Was the same fate fated for the Friday night show? Not this time. The Salem trio garage rocked in the opening slot, and announced a new album on the way, due Thanksgiving-ish.

Oftentimes when an out-of-town band is hopping on a bill, the local bands will take certain slots on the bill to ease them into things after having been on the road a while.

You know, like taking the opening slot so the out-of-towners can grab a bite or just get oriented before their set. Or take the closing set so the out-of-towners have extra time to load out or just chill out before hitting the road again.

If all that’s true you’d expect Long Island’s Half Dizzy to play the second slot. But I don’t think they were in the building by the time Bad Idea USA wrapped. In fact, I think it was a little iffy if they’d make the gig at all. But who knows? Nobody tells me anything and why should they?

Indoor Friends

Dizzy Spell

Half Dizzy circles the pit at Midway Cafe.

Portland Calling

J. Graves plays the faves at Deep Cuts.

In the Davis Square Ska-tacombs

The New Limits add a trumpet at The Rockwell.

Allston Is Better Than Or Equal To Flavortown

Crimelapse capped a four-stack bill at the Silhouette Lounge.

Yo Christmas

Christmas came early and delivered Yo Kinky beneath the tree at Midway Cafe on Monday night.

Indoor Friends played the second slot, delivering a pop-powered, vocals-forward alt rock set, complete with a “Happy Birthday” song dedicated to whomever was celebrating. That’s right, the crowd at Midway Cafe on Friday night was mostly constituted by birthday partiers, rocking the teeny tiny birthday hats, siting askance on heads throughout the venue.

The band passed out noisemakers, which produced wheezy toots at odd times for the rest of the night. Extra points for crowd participation.

Half Dizzy made it! The five-piece punk ensemble didn’t take long to settle in. About as soon as they burst through the door, they found the stage and fired up some skank-adjacent numbers hot enough to start a circle pit. Their album Courtesy Flush came out in 2023, and they just released a remix of their song “The Faceless” by Destryur.