October 18 & 19, 2024

Two days of underground music returns to Arts at the Armory. It’s the Fuzzstival! The only music fest to place a ‘z’ next to an ‘s’ in the title and get away with it.

Get your tickets here.

Twenty bands! Or thereabouts! Local music abounds, but watch for some out-of-town acts to make this a special occasion.

If there are t-shirts at the merch table, buy them, because they help fund the DIY operation. And last year there were pizza slices for sale, which is slim pickings for food options, but significantly cheaper than the bougie snack plates available at Rooted, the little cafe off the front lobby.

What to watch for? Doorways. That’s how you get into the venue.

What to listen for? Music. That’s mostly the point of this event.

What trends to expect in 2025? Pastels, baggy jeans, leveraging generative AI to embrace sustainability, exposed bras, and telemedicine.

Here are some other thoughts…

Friday

SWEEPING PROMISES / BABYBABY_EXPLORES / YHWH NAILGUN / BONG WISH / BALACLAVA / MINGKO / NURSE JOY / LUPO CITTA / THE SPATULAS / PLANT FIGHT

Saturday

DOUG TUTTLE / GREG FREEMAN / LATRELL JAMES / FRANCIE MEDOSCH (of FLORRY) / PAPER LADY / PREWN / CLIFFORD / WARMACHINE / CORPOREAL / PEW PEW

Sweeping Promises

Are there headliners at Fuzzstival? Are there openers at Fuzzstival? Are there spellchecks at Fuzzstival?

Not sure, but Sweeping Promises is coming all the way from Kansas – or wherever they last performed on tour – so it feels like a big deal. The duo of Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug play precise, boxy, post punk numbers with an electro spin. You can bounce to them. They’re noisy. Kind of a throwback riot grrrl texture, anxiously eyeing a Le Tigre turn.

Guitar, vocals, sampler. The Providence band is more than the sum of its parts, spinning out rich tapestries of dance punk within what feels like a zone of constant experimentation. Like the best punk, artcore, No Wave, babybaby_explores seems like a band that doesn’t know what a band is supposed to sound like. Or what a band name is supposed to look like. Sounds and looks just right.

Bong Wish

Psych folk runs riot in the fields and meadows of Bong Wish. More wiccan, less Flower Power. Mariam Saleh is the musician behind the moniker, with a canny ear for mid-20th century pop tropes fed through a post punk wringer. Her 2023 album Hazy Road, available via Feeding Tube Records, is a mmossy eye-opener. Check out “Witches.”

Nurse Joy

Fresh off a max capacity Nice Fest appearance at the Rockwell (or “fresh”-adjacent, the fest was in July) post punk gonzo fun outfit Nurse Joy returns to a festival stage. If you missed their blowout summer show, don’t make the same mistake twice.

Doug Tuttle

Doug Tuttle got deep psych roots in New England, reaching back at least as far back as the superlative New Hampshire outfit MMOSS. We just posted an Archives writeup of MMOSS’ album i in The Backyard.

Happy coincidence, one of the main drivers behind MMOSS will showcase his solo work. We must have an Archive writeup of Doug Tuttle’s self-titled hazy, gazy 2014 solo debut via Trouble In Mind Records?

Great record, great musician, a great set not to miss at Fuzzstival.

Latrell James

Last time Hump Day News covered Latrell James, he was making a surprise cameo appearance at his sister’s Boston Calling gig. Will ToriTori return the favor? Who knows, but the big or little brother can stand on his own two feet with a hip hop attack with some smooth RnB production. His full-length album Running In Place dropped earlier this year.

Intense, psych-drenched indie rock sounds coming off Northampton’s Prewn. Last time Hump Day News covered them was live at Pianos during the New Colossus festival in NYC last year. Highlight from that set? An electric opening song with virtuoso vocals from fronter Izzy Hagerup. Their 2023 album Through The Window, available via Exploding In Sound, is a bracing and intense clutch of sonic absolution.

Shout out to Boston’s Pew Pew for kicking out the post-punk, art rock, alt rock, Skate 3 music, and proudly repping Neocities, “a social network of 895,100 websites that are bringing back the lost individual creativity of the web.”