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By : Mike Achille
4 min read
Fri 9/15 - Sat 9/16 BOSTON FUZZSTIVAL @The Armory (Somerville) 1-day pass: $22 2-day pass: $35 ALL AGES
One of the things I love most about local music is the process of discovery. Seeing a band I’m familiar with on a bill with several I’m not is what makes going to shows so exciting for me. It’s why I rely on folks like Jason Trefts who for the past ten years has been curating a wide array of sonic delights through his Illegally Blind moniker. Often partnering with other booking collectives, groups, and venues (many of which they’ve outlived) Illegally Blind has proved to be the connected, adaptive, and inclusive powerhouse that Boston so desperately needs.
Recently celebrating their 10 year anniversary with a show featuring Sweeping Promises, Illegally Blind is gearing up for the ninth iteration of its beloved local celebration of regional talent known as Fuzzstival on September 15th and 16th. True to form, the lineup is littered with styles and artists from around the northeast. Headed by the smooth and steady punk grooves of Holyoke’s Landowner and the churning, arty experimentalism of PVD’s Baby; Baby: Explores on Friday and the gothic post-punk of VT’s Thus Love alongside the guitar forward, lofi alt-folk of Northampton's Mal Devisa on Saturday, the fest is a smorgasbord of other acts old and new, near and far. The pounding garage rock of Nice Guys and Rong, legendary noise punks (NE) Patriots, the hip hop grooves of Pink Navel, funky dance punks Boston Cream, Boston expat Gracie’s new outfit Graciehorse, and many more. 22 bands over two days at Somerville’s The Armory provide ample opportunity to discover something new, something exciting, something different. Exactly what Illegally Blind has been trafficking in for a decade.
-Mike Achille
Originally published in-print in Boston Compass Newspaper #161 September 2023
Check out all the art and columns of September's Boston Compass at www.issuu.com/bostoncccompass