Cambridge folk stalwarts Phil and the Flying Leap return right on time for the change of season with “Spring Again,” their first new song in five years.
Singer-songwriter Phil Berman pairs a Bacchic vocal with a loping, fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Behind him, handheld percussion courtesy of Fabio Pirozollo gives the track a beat you can frolic around a maypole to. A string section made up of violinists Rachel Panitch and Rachel Jayson and cellist Valerie Thompson spring up behind them like a fresh crop of crocuses.
“My husband reminded me that ‘it will be spring again,’ and I was hit with this deep yearning for change. In that moment, I felt more than just a preference for sunnier weather, but a deeper need for inevitable renewal and change,” Berman said.
Cat Power AKA Chan Marshall – Photo by Inez & VinoodhRoadrunner was filled with a distinctly Gen X and Millennial crowd on the evening of March 4th. The marquee event was a special evening with Cat Power, celebrating the 20th anniversary of her acclaimed 7th studio album The Greatest.
There was no opener. Cat Power, also known as Chan Marshall, walked onto a barely-lit, minimally furnished stage with her band and got straight to the point. She began with the titular track for The Greatest and performed the entire album front to back, in order. Two decades on from the album’s release, however, Marshall opted for some changes that might have surprised anyone expecting a simple rehash show. Her soulfully husky vocals were unquestionably the highlight of the live performance, but her band elevated the experience as they played reworked versions of the classic tracks.
One particularly notable change was the new rendition of “Hate” that departed from the unembellished, melancholic album version in favor of a groovier, fleshed-out, bass-driven affair. Another obvious change was the autotuned reinterpretation of “The Moon” that started quietly and slowly built to a robust crescendo. Marshall and her band concluded their retread of The Greatest with a slightly funkier edition of closing song “Love & Communication” before continuing for several more cuts from other albums. Besides her own writing, represented by “I Don’t Blame You,“ “Manhattan,” and “Good Woman,” the final segment of the set prominently featured covers of James Brown, Kitty Wells, and Prince.
While bantering with the crowd, Marshall recalled her early gigs in Massachusetts and gave a fond shout-out to The Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge and its co-owner Joseph Sater. She was visibly shocked when several members of the audience yelled out to let her know that Sater had died less than two days prior. After taking a moment to absorb the news, Marshall dedicated a heartfelt cover of “I’ll Be Seeing You” to Sater.
Cat Power’s performance of The Greatest was a testament to the enduring appeal of her landmark album, but more than that, it was a demonstration of the growth that Chan Marshall has undergone in the 20 years since its release. She seemed delighted to be on stage, locked in and performing a solid show. The refined artistry displayed at Roadrunner might have seemed unheard of in the messier days of Cat Power in 2006. Marshall herself seemed surprised, commenting “Who knew I’d be alive… who knew I’d have fun singing these songs?” Still the most concise statement was the very first one that Chan Marshall made when she walked on stage: “20 Years later and we’re still here!”
Kerrin Connolly headlines The Burren. February 21, 2026. Photo by Greg Wong
On Saturday February 21st, Boston’s own Kerrin Connolly performed at The Burren’s back room. The release show for Connolly’s brand new album Simpleton saw the live debut of the songs to a highly receptive audience.
The evening began with an opening performance from Celtic folk artist Madóc, who had attracted a sizable audience of her own to the concert. She rounded out her set with a duet cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” with her mother.
Madóc performs a duet with her mother at The Burren. February 21, 2026. Photo by Greg Wong
During her headline set, Kerrin Connolly noted that her last time playing The Burren’s back room stage was 6 years ago. She later added that she doesn’t perform very often at all, joking “it’s kind of like a once in a year thing because… I don’t do it for fun. I hate it!” Yet despite such claims, she delivered an incredible show that won the crowd over handily. The evening’s performance also featured a brief accompaniment from Ellis Piper, who brought the flair of her viola to the show.
Kerrin Connolly accompanied by Ellis Piper at The Burren. February 21, 2026. Photo by Greg Wong
Connolly charmed the crowd with her dry banter, and concluded the show with theatre-kid energy during the unrepentantly 80s-inspired power ballad “Simple,” a counter to her self-consciousness about being alone on stage. That song choice epitomized an admirable trend to Kerrin Connolly’s artistry: identify an insecurity and lean into it like nobody’s watching. The whoops and hollers that came in reply suggested otherwise, but in the best possible way.
March 8, 2026. Grace Givertz enjoys popcorn and Sour Patch Kids when she goes to the movies, here at the Kendall Landmark Theater. Sinners is her personal Best Picture winner. Photo by Harry Gustafson.
When I call Grace Givertz, I catch the folk singer as she’s on her way to the post office to ship out pre-ordered vinyl copies of her new album, Midnight Feature. Almost immediately, she starts explaining USPS’ Media Mail program, which discounts shipping rates on books, film, manuscripts, and recorded music. These are the things you learn after almost 10 years in the indie distribution game.
It’s an unseasonably warm March day and her spirits seem high; Midnight Feature has sold enough pre-orders that Givertz needs a wheeled cart just to lug them all to the Brookline USPS. As she passes Village Vinyl on Harvard, she notices a poster for her upcoming album release show in the window. She was planning to ask if she could leave one in the shop, but someone beat her to it. She sighs, delighted.
Midnight Feature is Givertz’s second album and first since 2019’s Year of the Horse. It’s a bitter record by the singer’s own admission, a reflection of the tumultuous period in her life when it was written.
In 2017, Givertz was hit by an MBTA bus, an accident that necessitated shoulder surgery. “Apparently when you’re in the bus/bike lane, the bus has the right of way,” she deadpanned. Shoulder surgery left her unable to play guitar or banjo but she was still able to sing undeterred.
That was until temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, stemming from both the accident and a latent case of rheumatoid arthritis, made it impossible for her to sing and forced her into a period of musical hibernation. “Singing is something that has never made me feel sick, and having that taken away from me for almost a year while my jaw deteriorated was devastating,” she said. TMJ discopexy, a minimally invasive jaw surgery, followed in 2019 and has led to a (nearly) full recovery.
Though the music on Midnight Feature carries the weight and pain of several hard-fought years, Givertz no longer identifies with the person who wrote these songs three years ago. “I know it’s my story, but a lot of it feels like I’m retelling a story that didn’t happen to me. And maybe that’s just me dissociating. But you know what? Make it healthy.” She credits her boyfriend, pets (a cat, a dog, several lizards), and a close circle of friends for her newfound positive outlook.
For the Midnight Feature recording sessions, Givertz only collaborated with musicians and technicians that were BIPOC, disabled, or queer. If you think this narrowed her talent pool considerably, she’d urge you to reconsider. “You just have to look outside of the 5 white dudes playing guitar in front of you to realize that there are other people playing the same music and playing it just as well.” In fact, the Midnight Feature band is one of the largest ensembles the folk artist has ever assembled: ten players encompassing fiddle, horns, and drums. Most of the band she used in the recording sessions will return for the album release show at Capitol Theater.
Midnight Feature also includes the first featured vocalists in the Grace Givertz canon. Closing track “America” gives Providence-based folk artist Jake Blount, someone Givertz considers a mentor and a scholar of the Black roots of folk music, a turn on the mic. In his verse, he laments the deep-rooted racism of the country and doubts its ability to ever fully accept Black people as equals. Folk songs about America are almost as old as America herself and Givertz’s take on the traditional form doesn’t pull any punches.
After leaving the post office, I asked Givertz about America. Is there any hope there? “I have hope in my community, and there’s a really cute baby dog I’m walking by and I have hope in that.” She runs down a list of ills facing the nation and the nation’s role in many of the world’s ills. Amidst it all she lists the individual struggles—breakups, bad Hinge dates—that color our world and, mid-sentence, is catcalled by a passing man as if the world itself is proving her point for her. Givertz powers through the unpleasantness. Then, to the now-passed catcaller she offers, “Unless you want to give me $5,000 you can fuck right off.”
Ratboys performing at the Sinclair on February 28, 2026. Photo by Wendy Schiller
Chicago indie darlings the Ratboys popped up at the Sinclair on the nicest day of the year so far, bringing more than just sunshine with their setlist. There was something springy and hopeful in the air of the room, despite some audio issues from Julia Steiner’s microphone. When the crowd couldn’t hear, they just sang for her, impressive considering the band played a majority of songs from their freshly released album, Singin’ to an Empty Chair. New tracks “Penny at the Lake” and “The World, so Madly” paired well with rarer set choices like “Go Outside.” After a shameless merch plug, the socks sold out almost instantly from their table. Steiner ended the night with an emotional statement to look out for our immigrant neighbors, much to the affirming cheers of the crowd.
They were supported by the always-effervescent Florry. The completely magnetic alt-country project based out of Philly won the crowd over with new tracks off their latest album Sounds Like, including “First it was a Movie, then it was a Book,” and “Truck Flipped Over ‘19.”
Boston duo Kind Being are one of the more conceptual bands in town. Marrying the sweet and tender harmonies of folk with the crunchy guitars of alt rock and the gridded, textural beats of IDM and hip hop, and the sqeauky clean sheen of turn-of-the-century pop music Mateo Garcia (of, like so many bands he’s stamped) and Tommy Ng (of Jesus The Dinosaur, among others) are clear students of the game. They are also among kindest and most genuine folks around, and it’s no surprise that the music they make together is in many ways a tribute to the people around them. With a live show that blends the at times haunting specificity of their songs with skits based on Yamaha keyboard preset instrumentals and harmonies bolstered by Tommy’s Jesus The Dinosaur bandmate Hannah Foxman, Kind Being naturally reflects the easy-going vibe of close friends making art for the fun of it in every aspect. It just so happens that the songs are also rock solid.
We spoke with Kind Being on EP release day about their roots, their place in the Boston scene and more, hit play on the stream below and read on.
Allston Pudding: The two of you obviously have a rich history in the Boston music scene, how and when did Kind Being come together?
Mateo Garcia: It was during COVID. I had time and money and was constantly writing, but some songs didn’t fit my projects at the time. We’ve known each other since college, but hadn’t really hung out much til quarantine. I had always loved and admired Tommy as a person and their writing in Jesus The Dinosaur, and wanted to hang more, so we did. They also had some songs that could be separate from JTD stuff, so we tried combining stuff and our first EP Two Truths came pretty quickly.
AP: How does the songwriting differ for this project versus your other ones?
Tommy Ng: there are some elements that are the same, in that the songs are very collaboratively written, but there’s definitely something unique about this project is how we record. We do it all in Mateo’s bedroom with whatever we got lying around, and mostly everything that ends up on the record is a first take or something close to it. Like maybe we aren’t even sure what we are doing yet and if something makes us laugh or scream when we are doing it then that is something we want to keep.
MG: Heavy emphasis on seeking out things that actively make us laugh.
AP: What is the process like for building a Kind Being song? Are there certain elements you build on first?
MG: We’ll have a song idea or structure, usually vocals and a chord progression, or a riff, and then see what feels good and fun. We write and arrange parts as we record so we’re constantly playing, exploring and committing. It’s very free and open ended, but usually after the initial idea we’ll try building a beat and then all the individual elements on top of that.
AP: Building community and taking care of the people in your life are clearly big lyrical motifs for this band, what other themes do you feel are key to the EP?
TN: Oh, lots of bummer stuff: low self-esteem, changing yourself for others, I feel very tapped into my adolescence with this stuff. Some of these songs were started 5-10 years ago.
MG: Love and loss during the fall of an empire.
AP; There are some crunchier guitars and synths on this one compared to the first couple of Kind Being releases, was there a conscious choice to get a little heavier here?
MG: Yes, definitely. We were very inspired by the 90s and early 2000s, and I feel like our first two EPs show our love for commercial indie and alternative rock and pop, especially in the production aspects. I wanted this one to feel closer to a “regular” rock band, with a bigger emphasis on rock and roll guitars. That and some of the songs just felt better supported by distortion more than prior ones.
AP: Folk and indie rock are obviously your main influences, but the drum programming definitely bears some traces of electronic music as well. What artists in that realm inspire you?
MG: When the band started I was getting into drum and bass. I asked local celebrity and good friend of the pod DJ Denim Dill (now DJ Wholesale Club –ed) about DnB, introducing me to artists like LTJ Bukem and Roni Size. Around the time of this discovery, I was listening to my pals’ great electronic music as well (shout out Bronze Vases, Mercet, Bas Relief, Sander777). This helped me realize I had always loved fun electronic shit: “Rubber Johnny” by Aphex Twin, glitchy Tera Melos, the defeated sound of a Microkorg in early 2000s indie rock and screamo music. Marrying these ideas with the electronic and hip hop production of the early aughts (shout out Michelle Branch, Shakira, Nelly Furtado, Dido, Christina Aguilera, etc), funny shit like “Sandstorm” by Darude and “Better Off Alone” by Alice Deejay, and the rock of Third Eye Blind is essentially how we got to the KB sound. I’m also very inspired by electronic-inspired and adjacent modern stuff like Spirit of the Beehive, Hovvdy, Couplet, Postal Service, etc.
TN: When Mateo came up with the beat for the first song we ever wrote together I was so shocked in the very best way at how it reinterpreted my perception of the music from indie to electronic fusion whatever the hell it is. It made me smile a lot, and I loved how unusual it felt for me.
AP: How do you recreate these dense productions live, and do the songs change at all onstage versus in the computer?
MG: The live versions are mostly different arrangements with limited instrumentation in comparison to the recordings. Shout out to our best pal Hannah Foxman who holds down guitar and harmony duties live. We play along to backing tracks that have all the beats and percussion elements as well as bass, then Hannah and I play guitar, letting Tommy focus on just singing. We also try to do funny transitions live sometimes. Shout out my ancient Yamaha keyboard for having the sickest instrumentals.
AP: What does the city of Boston mean to this band?
TN: I have lived here since i was 17 or 18, so i feel like I grew up a second time here since my entire 20’s were spent here. Bostonians are a funny mix of feeling very “loner-y” and secluded, but also very tight knit, it’s like everybody gets how much it sucks to go out and how being a shut-in is natural, but if a friend is playing a gig, or a band you stand for is playing, or something important for the community needs to be done, no matter how much it sucks to get there or how awful the weather is, people say “fuck it” and endure to support.
MG: I have also been here for the better part of 14 years or so. The people, the place itself, have shaped who I am so much. I love it, and can’t imagine living anywhere else.
AP: What’s next for Kind Being?
MG: Some gigs, maybe more new songs when we get around to it. It’s a very fluid and flexible project. The world is burning, so we’ll see how that pans out and do what we can.
Miguel performs on top of a car at MGM Music Hall in Fenway. February 14, 2026. Photo by Kenneth Palacios.
Bringing the heat and kicking off his fifth headlining tour, Miguel swings by MGM Music Hall on Valentine’s Day, bringing loved ones together to witness their favorite songs live. Through the fire, confusion and reiteration of his identity, these experiences have built up and since then provided the world with CAOS, his fifth studio album, after eight years of not releasing any albums. What has been a personal evolution became a lesson for how violent transformation can be. Miguel opened his set with “Perderme”, banging his head to the slow but raw sound, similar to other tracks on the new album. With fan-favorites from the new album, “CAOS,” Miguel’s set mostly consisted of new songs, while mixing in old songs as well. Older fans, staying until the end, enjoyed Miguel closing with “Sky Walker,” “All I Want Is You,” and “Sure Thing”. The crowd burst into chaos and cheers as Miguel walked off the stage. Fans were left touched at heart and even closer to those they shared the moment with.
February 21st, 2026. Lauren Spencer Smith performs at House of Blues Boston. Photo by Samantha Davidson.
Canadian singer-songwriter Lauren Spencer Smith stopped by a very sold-out House of Blues Boston on February 21st in support of her new album, THE ART OF BEING A MESS. Even the freezing weather couldn’t stop fans who camped outside the venue for hours, wrapping the line down Lansdowne St. and Brookline Ave., the longest line this author has seen at the House of Blues. Guests sporting Spencer Smith’s signature braids quickly scurried into the warmth of the concert hall.
The night began with the ethereal Maisy Kay, who floated out in a lacey periwinkle sequined dress, waving her bedazzled butterfly mic in the air. During standout tracks “Vantablack” and a cover of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep,” she delivered silky vocals that mesmerized the crowd. The room fell to a hush when Maisy Kay dropped to her knees and hit an effortless whistle tone vocal solo. Next up was bedroom pop artist Sadie Jean, who smoothly transitioned the vibe from sparkly to intimate. She captivated the crowd with relatable tracks like “Slow Burn” and “WYD Now?,” showcasing her aching vocals. She twirled around the stage in a draped black dress with pink crushed velvet flower appliques, occasionally grabbing an acoustic guitar for ballads and once picking up a drum stick to cathartically hit a cymbal during the track “Move On First.”
Fans screamed every word to the preshow playlist, foreshadowing the passion to come. Songs like “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo and “I Love You, I’m Sorry” by Gracie Abrams kept the energy high between sets. Soon after, members of the crew unveiled exciting set pieces, including a bus station stop with a “sad girl on a bench” tissue box, a payphone, and a stacked white platform. The lights flashed as the booming bassline to “IF KARMA DOESN’T GET YOU (I WILL)” reverberated around the venue. Spencer Smith skipped out in an Akira leather bomber jacket, thick silver chains, and waist-length quadruple braids. She dove right into the track, belting powerfully along with the crowd while waving to fans between lyrics. She smiled ear to ear after seeing that the energy she poured into this project was returned tenfold by the audience. A particularly touching moment was when a young fan in the front row was bawling their eyes out while singing along to “Bigger Person.” It was a reminder of the healing power and connection of music. During tracks like “WORSE” and “small,” Spencer Smith visited the payphone to talk to a recording of her best friend and later her younger self on the other line, transporting the venue to her inner circle and thoughts. The singer held the audience in the palm of her hand. Toward the end of her set, she did a triumphant cover of “Happier Than Ever” by Billie Eilish. She returned for a two-song encore, closing out the night with “Sticks & Stones,” before stepping off stage for the final time. Make sure to catch Lauren Spencer Smith live before The Art of Being a Mess Tour ends in March. Buy tickets here.
Check out all of Samantha’s photos from the show below.
Justin Schaefers took us on a stroll around Jamaica Pond. It’s not his actual birthday. February 19, 2026. Photo by Harry Gustafson
Suffice to say, Justin Schaefers is a busy guy. As the co-creative force in two of the city’s most buzzed about acts in Winkler and Doss (both of whom share members with a whole host of AP faves, we might add), Schaefers and company have created something of an in-scene themselves, carving a (slightly) quieter, more classicist indie pop space in the noisy din that typifies the Boston music universe. You know, pop songs with a capital P and just a tasteful amount of tape hiss and room sound to keep it DIY. Somehow, the NorCal-born Schaefers has found time to write for a third, entirely solo project where he records and plays every instrument himself. Like Bob Pollard of Guided By Voices, these solo tunes are eclectic by nature, chasing whims and sounds that fall just outside the margins of his two (somewhat) more streamlined bands, but still bearing those signature hooks lying just beneath the haze.
Whether it’s a mini-album or a long EP, Modest Hits is out today and it’s a great listen so we simply had to talk to Justin about the process and shoot some photos too. Hit the stream below and read on for more.
Allston Pudding: Between Winkler, Doss, and now your solo stuff we must ask: where do you find the time?
Justin Schaefers: At the sake of the sanity of my loved ones, my songwriting rarely finds a break. I find I’m usually humming something underneath my breath if I’m not full on singing to myself on the sidewalk. There are so many little ideas that can just sprout up throughout a day, and while most of them are not worth keeping, some turn into songs for better or for worse! I am so lucky to have Winkler and Doss in my life to share and develop these ideas with!
AP: How does your songwriting differ for your solo material over your bands?
JS: I think that the collaborative nature of playing in bands is incredibly energizing. The thought of taking an individual idea and creating something larger is one of the great joys in my life. However, with these songs, it felt like I was taking a look under the hood to find out what made my engine run as an individual. I found that this batch of songs felt personal in a way that was more like a weird diary entry than a rock album.
AP: Obviously you record these all by yourself at home, what is your set up like there, and what is it about home recording that you find inspiring?
JS: This whole record was done on my phone, I didn’t intend for it to be that way but that’s the way it came to be! There are no demos of any of these songs because I only ever recorded each song once. The funny part of recording alone is that there is no real conversation to be had. I was maybe seventy five percent sure how the song would go, I’d grab my guitar, open the Garageband app, and LET LOOSE. I have always made demos this way and loved the little weird mistakes in the room. Things like dogs barking, conversations in other rooms, radiators clanging, and doors slamming all feel so special to me, there’s no way you could ever think to get it on purpose!
AP: How do these songs change in a full band arrangement live?
JS: When I play these songs with a band, they tend to be played MUCH better than the recordings. The live band that I have for this project are all so talented and really put my parts in their place. The songs also tend to take on more of a rock and roll sound that I feel isn’t as present in the recordings. This is largely due to the fact that a little over half of the record was done without a drum kit. With the exception of maybe the first three songs, all percussion was made up of weird little things around my apartment. The kick drum was my fist against my desk, the snare was claps mixed with a kids tambourine, and the shakers were mostly black pepper. When we play live, we’re able to get these songs across in a bit more formal of a setting for sure!
AP: Modest Hits is a funny almost dig at these songs, do you find yourself incorporating humor into this project more so than your others?
JS: Well, I think I’m very funny. With this project being just my name alone, I think there is a little bit more of an area for me to do bits and be a bit more light hearted with the material. I thought Modest Hits was a funny title because it is more or less a conversation in every artist’s mind before they share something with the world. There is such an innate desire to share our art and we have to stand behind it in order to release it, but at the same time it can be so mortifying to stand on a hill and yell to the world about some cool shit that you just made. So yes, they are all hits to me, but I’m trying to be modest about it.
AP: Could you tell us about your relationship with the music of Jonathan Richman?
JS: While sometimes it may be in my best interest to downplay his influence on me, I think it’s safe to say that my life can be split into Pre Jonathan, and Post Jonathan eras. I was studying songwriting in school and taking myself very seriously– turtleneck, little coffee, spilling my heart to the world in my notebook. Then I heard what must have been his song “Gail Loves Me” from the album Modern Lovers 88, and my world flipped upside down. The lightness and the playfulness in Jonathan’s writing only strengthens the emotional depth. He really showed me that music can be life or death without having to be about life and death. We’ve exchanged letters a handful of times and he’s always taken the time to talk about music and writing inspiration with me. I could say much more, but for the sake of the question I’ll just say “What a guy!”
AP: These songs were written and recorded in both Northern California and Boston, but they feel like a cohesive collection. How much does the place you’re in affect your songwriting?
JS: California is still my home in so many ways, I think that there is always a little bit of it hiding in everything I do. These songs really felt like they were written with the west coast in mind. I think they really only could have been written while thinking of home from a distance. Most of these tracks were recorded within three days in a little room in my childhood home, maybe the least vibed out space an album could be made in– the overhead light was shining down on me and my dad’s paperwork and the family desktop was taking up any part of the room that the drum kit wasn’t. The rest of these tracks were made in my garden level apartment in Brookline. The nice part about recording on the phone is that the studio is kind of always in your pocket!
AP: There’s a lot of different sort of musical flavors here, do you ever see yourself narrowing the scope of your solo project in one direction or is the variety and spontaneity of this work what moves you to make it?
JS: Well I think you hit the nail right on the head! I would like to think that the variety from song to song is what keeps it interesting for me. I always feel like it’s hard to define the music I make, the title of “Indie Rock” is usually the default answer but so much can fall under that umbrella that it’s almost freeing in a way. The most natural approach for this record was just to let the songs style themselves. Whether it be a Bossa Nova, a country bouncer, or straight up ugly garage rock. I think that the mix of genres paints a pretty clear picture of both what I was listening to and how I was feeling during the making of Modest Hits.
Modest Hits is out today, you can grab a digital copy here. The record release show is going down at on Saturday March 14th at the Lilypad in Cambridge with Nora Meier and Tiberius, keep an eye out for tickets via Get To The Gig Boston.
Daffo headlining the Middle East Upstairs. February 6, 2026. Photo by Greg Wong.
On February 6, Daffo sold out the first show of their headline tour at the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge. The crowd was densely-packed from the start as fans showed up early to support the opener, earth 2 tiffany. Some local music aficionados were already familiar with singer-songwriter chrysalis, who briefly accompanied earth 2 tiffany during the opening set.
Chrysalis and earth 2 tiffany during their opening set. February 6, 2026. Photo by Greg Wong.
Daffo, the indie-rock project of Gabi Gamberg, delivered a bold performance of their debut album Where The Earth Bends to an eager-yet-patient audience. Hampered by early technical difficulties with the monitors that prevented the band from hearing their own instruments, the headline set got off to a halting start. Gamberg remarked, “First sold-out show of tour!” followed immediately with “First time having problems of this magnitude,” but ultimately the hiccup proved inconsequential as Daffo pushed onward. In fact, the most dramatic outcome of the delay was that Gamberg filled the silence with some tea: they pointed out the shocking similarities between Taylor Swift’s brand-new music video for “Opalite” and their own music video for “Quick Fix,” released in April 2025.
Once the technical problems were overcome, Daffo proceeded to delight the crowd with a near-complete play-through of Where The Earth Bends and their Pest EP. They concluded the show with an encore performance of their jaunty tune “The Experiment” with the lyrics “Life is so serious but it’s also a game, crying and laughing, hiccups all the same,” a fittingly blithe end to a great, albeit slightly imperfect concert.
