Monday, October 5, 2026

rock n roll

Live MusicMatt BassReview

Live Music Review: Fiddlehead played surprise pop-up show at Alewife Station in Boston

Hours after playing a once-in-a-lifetime bill at Portland, Maine’s Thompson’s Point with Dinosaur Jr and Turnstile, Boston post-hardcore legends Fiddlehead weren’t ready to end their weekend just yet. At 2:30 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, September 27, a post came across my social media feed announcing a pop-up show at the MBTA’s Alewife Train Station in Cambridge, MA – going down in 12 hours. The post read “we may get shut down, we may be able to get thru one song or maybe multiple…” – by the morning the post was gone – but the word was out. An Instagram story confirmed the band would be playing around 2:30 p.m., telling people to show up early, but not too early and encouraging attendees to respect employees and commuters around them.

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Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Soulfly, Nailbomb and Incite took over Come and Take It Live

The Cavalera name is heavy metal royalty. Brothers Max and Igor dragged Sepultura out of Belo Horizonte and turned it into one of the most feared bands on the planet, then walked away. Whatever Sepultura did without them is a footnote. What the brothers did next is a sprawl of bands and records that hasn’t let up, and the bloodline didn’t stop with them. Max’s sons and stepson fill out his lineups and run outfits of their own. The family business is metal violence set to a downtuned riff, and business is good. On Monday, September 21, the Cavalera clan took over Come and Take It Live on Riverside for a full night of musical brutality with Soulfly, Nailbomb and Incite. Nobody in the building showed any sign of slowing down.

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Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Ripplefest Six Goes Doom for a Weekend at Far Out Lounge

Ripplefest returned to South Austin’s Far Out Lounge September 17 through 20 for its sixth year of doom metal excess. The crowd came ready for all the sludgey riffs they could handle. Founded by Ryan Garney of Lick of My Spoon Productions, the festival has built a name as a family reunion for the stoner doom metal scene, pulling bands in from across the globe. The Cosmic Clash team was on the ground for all the Ripplefest action. Here’s what stuck with us.

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Live MusicReviewRoger Stafford

Live music review: supergroup Stick Men with Oogwei at 13th Floor

What could bring out a crowd of experienced music lovers on a hot, sticky Tuesday, September 8 night? The progressive mastery of Stick Men. With Tony Levin on Chapman stick, Markus Reuter on touch guitar and Pat Mastelotto on drums, they are one of those three piece bands that somehow create a much larger sound than should be possible. The trio played a well crafted and substantial set supporting their September release of Let’s Thrak Again. This album is a direct descendant of King Crimson’s Thrak and that relationship set the musical agenda for the evening.

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Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Squid Pisser hosted packed metal lineup at Lost Well

Los Angeles hardcore supergroup Squid Pisser hosted a packed lineup at Austin metal stronghold The Lost Well on Thursday, August 27, bringing their horror-infused attack to town. The masked outfit shares members with GWAR, Cancer Christ, Duck Duck Goose, and more. The Lost Well’s Airport Boulevard location is thoroughly broken in now, the bookings keep stacking up, and the underground metal scene keeps flourishing under the ownership of longtime Austin venue operators Marcello and Tasha Murphy.

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Live MusicReviewRobert Dean

Live music review: Nevermind the Bollocks, Here’s My Sex Pistols Review

Getting your first copy of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols is a rite of passage for kids getting into punk rock. Somewhere around 13–16 years old, everyone manages to get a copy of that record, either as a gift, a burned CD, or because someone’s hot older sister shoved it into your hands. Well, that’s how it went in my day. Now we’ve got playlists and Spotify, so the natural order of things has changed. But whatever. Kids are still finding out about the Sex Pistols, and that’s always a good thing like they did September 12 at Emo’s.

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Brian HillsmanLive MusicReview

Live music review: Opening Levitation night with Bikini Kill, Die Spitz, Gibby Haynes Butthole Surfers Mania

Levitation 2026 officially kicked off on Friday, September 11. South Austin’s Far Out Lounge hosted a doozy of an opening night, featuring a Butthole Surfers reunion show—officially deemed Gibby Haynes: Butthole Surfers Mania —that stunned, followed  by Die Spitz, and Bikini Kill. The show was completely sold out.

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April DawneLive MusicReview

Live music review: Peter Hook, Cabaret Voltaire thrilled at Far Out Lounge for Levitation 2026

I like to think of myself as a diehard rock and roll lover who does what she can to see and do all the things. Sometimes that’s easy and sometimes life gets in the way. Be it money problems, work schedules, personal issues, you name it, they come up as reasons not to leave the house, much less attend a music festival, but when it’s one of your favorite festivals, Levitation which took place last weekend in Austin, you find a way to rally.

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Live MusicMatt BassReview

Live music review: The Rupert Selection Turns Off Cabot Into Evening to Remember

Do you ever leave a show and have that moment of realization that you just witnessed something really special? That was the vibe walking out of Off Cabot this past Sunday (8/23) after The Rupert Selection, Bad Larrys, Spinworld, and a surprise set by Reilly Somach + The Frozen Ponies rocked the sold-out downtown club in Beverly, Massachusetts, all while the sun was still out. The event was a benefit for Reilly who’d been diagnosed with cancer. 

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Live MusicReviewRobert Dean

Live music review: Social Distortion Sang Their Hearts Out at Moody Amphitheater

Attending Social Distortion’s show at the Moody Amphitheater, on August 28, it was probably my tenth time seeing the band. I know what to expect at one of those shows: lots of gray hair, lots of parents trying to pass on their music to their kids, and those on the come up looking back to the classics as something of their own. Catching Australia’s The Chats was a plus;

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Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: King Gizzard’s Field of Vision nights two and three with no song repeats

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard don’t rest. The Melbourne sextet closed out the second Field of Vision Festival with two more three-hour sets on August 15 and 16, pushing deeper into the Meadow Creek grounds in Buena Vista, Colorado they’d already claimed as their own. They’d fired the first shot on day one: a surprise drop of their 28th LP, Alien Metal, with zero warning. Then came the dare. “No song repeats,” the band promised Friday night, and fans spent the rest of the weekend hunting for new-album cuts and deep tracks to see if that promise would hold. Field of Vision was three of only seven U.S. tour dates. There was no room to coast.

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