Houndmouth
Houndmouth is an American alternative blues band from New Albany, Indiana led by Matt Myers (guitar, vocals). Houndmouth formed in the summer of 2011. After playing locally in Louisville and Indiana, they performed at the SXSW music festival in March 2012 to promote their homemade self-titled EP. Geoff Travis, the head of Rough Trade was in the audience and offered a contract shortly after. In 2012, the band was named “Band Of The Week” by The Guardian. In 2013 Houndmouth’s debut album, From the Hills Below the City, was released by Rough Trade. This led to performances on Letterman, Conan, World Cafe, and several major festivals (ACL, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Newport Folk Festival). SPIN and Esquire.com named Houndmouth a “must-see” band at Lollapalooza, and Garden & Gun said, “You’d be hard pressed to find a more effortless, well-crafted mix of roots and rock this year than the debut album from this Louisville quartet.” On their latest album Good For You, Houndmouth share a collection of songs set in places as far-flung as the Alamo and the Hudson River, each populated by a motley cast of characters: fairy-tale princesses and vampires, parking-lot lovers and wanna-be beauty queens. The result is a lovingly gathered catalogue of those wild and fleeting moments that stay lodged in our hearts forever, taking on a dreamlike resonance as years go by. In a departure from the shambolic spirit of past work like Little Neon Limelight (Houndmouth’s 2015 breakout, featuring the platinum-selling “Sedona”), Good For You bears a hi-fi minimalism that beautifully illuminates its finespun storytelling. “From working with Brad and Jon we learned to go for the simplest parts that best support the melody, and to let the frequencies take up more space in the songs,” says Myers. On the album-opening title track, Houndmouth bring that approach to a sweetly languid breakup song set against the surreal backdrop of the Kentucky Derby (“I wrote that before Covid, but at the time I was sort of emotionally going through a pandemic,” Myers points out). On “Miracle Mile,” Houndmouth pay homage to the many misfits they’ve met on the road, including a woman they’ve nicknamed after the Greek god of wine and ritual madness (“Sweet Dionysus/She never really liked us/Hangs on and stays too long/And then supplies us all with vices”). And on “Cool Jam,” Houndmouth eulogize a doomed romance, embedding their lyrics with so much broken wisdom (e.g., “Ain’t no heaven when you’re having a good time”). On its closing track “Las Vegas,” Good For You shifts into a far rowdier mood, offering up a freewheeling anthem that once again reveals Houndmouth’s ability to build a novel’s worth of tension in just a few lines (“You wore makeup for three days straight/Half a Xanax for the holidays/By the look on your face/You’re rolling eights the hard way”). In assembling the tracklist for Good For You, Houndmouth nearly withheld the song due to its outlier status, but ultimately found its joyfully unhinged energy well-suited to a world waking up from a year of grief and isolation. For Houndmouth, the making of Good For You allowed for a major leap forward in their songwriting and sound while recalling the pure abandon of the band’s early days. “I remember the first time I ever came to the Green House and saw what was happening here and I thought, ‘I’m never leaving this place,’” says Myers. “This album felt like being back in that time again, only now everything’s a little more dialed-back and cared-for. It was like a return to the way we fell in love with playing music.”
Damones New Years Party!
The Return of Dan Alten Comedy
VentanA
Rivers of Nihil
Sixteen years and five albums after the Pennsylvania band’s formation, progressive death metal progenitors Rivers of Nihil are upping the ante with their 2025 self-titled album Rivers of Nihil. Traditionally, a self-titled record can signal a return to basics and/or a fresh beginning, and in 10 powerful songs, it’s clear that both those factors are in play. Founding bassist Adam Biggs became the band’s new lead vocalist/bassist in 2023; the same year marked the appearance of additional guitarist Andy Thomas (ex-Black Crown Initiate), whose vocals also play prominently on Rivers of Nihil. Producers Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland at Atrium Audio captured the new dynamics across more than 50 minutes of music. On June 15, 2023, the band released a new single, “The Sub-Orbital Blues,” the first track with Biggs handling lead vocals (following the 2022 departure of singer Jake Dieffenbach, and also their first featuring Thomas). A second single, “Hellbirds,” dropped on October 19 of that year. On April 29, 2024, the band released the cut “Criminals” and an accompanying music video. Both “Criminals” and “The Sub-Orbital Blues” appear on Rivers of Nihil. The new album’s first single of 2025, “House of Light,” is a track the band believes “encapsulates the nature of what it is that we do perfectly while offering a different perspective on the sound with the new lineup,” explains founding member/guitarist Brody Uttley, who also plays piano and does the programming in the band. “Everything that our fans have come to love about our sound is demonstrated in this song with the new addition of Andy singing and Biggs on main vocals. It has the riffs, it has the big chorus, it has the prog, it has the solos, it has the sax. Just a real classic example of what we will do as a band in 2025.” Rivers of Nihil also showcases additional musicians, including Patrick Corona on alto saxophone; Stephan Lopez on banjo; McFarland on cello; and a slate of other guest vocalists. Further singles include “American Death,” a true-to-form beater that’s sure to slay live, and “Water & Time,” which Uttley says is Rivers’ “stab at writing a big chorus style synth-laden song. The main melody on synth came out so cool the band filled out the song with “metal band stuff” for the potent final version heard on Rivers of Nihil. Despite the fresh approach on Rivers of Nihil, the album fits neatly into the band’s discography. With Where Owls Know My Name (2018), Rivers of Nihil transcended all labels applied to them, and with its 2021 follow-up, The Work, they forged further into new territory. Metal Injection calling the latter album “by far the group’s most cohesive, ambitious, meditative, and varied effort, with greater uses of philosophical significance and transcendental respites.” The quartet’s musicianship has been honed to a fine point thanks to an unrelenting touring schedule over the past few years, including headline tours of the U.S. and EU/UK, as well as support slots on the Chaos and Carnage Tour (Cattle Decapitation, Carnifex, etc.), Lorna Shore, Between the Buried and Me, and shows with Killswitch Engage.
Snowball Showdown 2!!
THE MAIN EVENT: TRAFFIC DEATHViolent punk crossover from Des Moineshttps://trafficdeath.bandcamp.com/music VS. M.A.N.Non stop raging, punky grindcore and stupid dancing from Lincoln, NEhttps://mantheband.bandcamp.com/UNDERCARD:PIT LORD BBQ Death Metal from Davenport, IAhttps://pitlordbbq.bandcamp.com/ VS.TEHOM sludge / death metal / black metal from Omaha, NEhttps://tehomne.bandcamp.com/album/ep-2023 QUADE Iowa punk/grindcore/power violence/hardcorehttps://quade1.bandcamp.com/ VS. DISREPAIRD-beat raw punk from Lincolnhttps://disrepairpunk.bandcamp.comGREG WHEELER & THE POLY MALL COPS Manic garage punk slime from Des Noise, IAhttps://polymallcops.bandcamp.com/ VS.TREES WITH EYESA couple scuzzy punk fucks from Omaha, NEhttps://treeswitheyes402.bandcamp.com/FUNERAL DRUGSviolent riffs from Omahahttps://www.instagram.com/funeraldrugs402/VSPIGSTYEdeath/grind from Lincolnhttps://www.instagram.com/_pigstye_lincolnne_grind
Savage Master
One of the most exciting and electrifying bands in the occult metal scene, SAVAGE MASTER swiftly built an impressive canon of work by releasing two cult albums, an EP, and over-the-top live shows. Founded in 2013 by guitarist Adam Neal and vocalist Stacey Savage, the band was inspired by their love of heavy metal and horror. Shortly thereafter, Savage and her hooded henchmen began their assured ascent through the underground, touring nonstop across North America and Europe, playing festivals such as Keep It True, Hell Over Hammaburg, Legions of Metal, Frost and Fire, Ragnarokkr, Hell’s Heroes, and many more, helping land their longstanding album deal with Shadow Kingdom Records.
Railroad Earth
For over two decades, Railroad Earth has captivated audiences with gleefully unpredictable live shows and eloquent and elevated studio output. The group introduced its signature sound on 2001’s The Black Bear Sessions. Between selling out hallowed venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO, they’ve launched the longstanding annual Hangtown Music Festival in Placerville, CA and Hillberry: The Harvest Moon Festival in Ozark, AR—both running for a decade-plus. Sought after by legends, the John Denver Estate tapped them to put lyrics penned by the late John Denver to music on the 2019 vinyl EP, Railroad Earth: The John Denver Letters. Beyond tallying tens of millions of streams, the collective have earned widespread critical acclaim from David Fricke of Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Glide Magazine, and NPR who assured, “Well-versed in rambling around, as you might expect from a band named after a Jack Kerouac poem, the New Jersey-built jam-grass engine Railroad Earth has let no moss grow under its rustic wheels.”
K-POP Night
AGES 18+ Dance to your favorite KPOP songs all night long at The Waiting Room! Party all night to your favorite hits from BTS, BLACKPINK, Stray Kids, TWICE, NCT, NewJeans, and more! Local dance cover groups will also be taking the stage throughout the night.
Fust & Merce Lemon
