Yellow Days was one of the main acts I wanted to catch at this year’s Treefort Music Fest and so I was determined to claim a spot on the rail of the Main Stage, which of course necessitated arriving the set before and—judging from what I was hearing all around me—Father John Misty, Treefort’s closing act, was not to be missed so I committed myself to hanging out all day at the Main Stage.
Michael, of course, couldn’t keep still. After a hectic (and loud!) four days of Treefort he found it lovely to begin Day 5 listening to the jazz and ambient-inflected soundscapes of singer-multi-instrumentalist Go Kurosawa, while lying on the lawn fronting the Gene Harris Bandshell in Julia Davis Park. Kurosawa-san and his touring band performed "Autowalk" from his 2025 LP “Soft Shakes.”
Michael joined me for the first few songs of The Womack Sisters who in varying designs of sensuous vermilion confirmed their claim of being a new generation of soul royalty, blending R&B, soul, and gospel influences drawn from their rich family legacy. As granddaughters of the legendary Sam Cooke, daughters of renowned soul and R&B artists Womack & Womack, nieces of Bobby Womack, and (by marriage) related to Mary Wells, The Womack Sisters ensorcelled their Main Stage audience with professions of love and unquestionable beauty. Their harmonies very much reminded Michael of the Hutchinson sisters (better known as The Emotions), whereas I took note that their performance at Treefort marked the beginning of an international and national tour with Treefort alumni Thee Sacred Souls and La Lom.
Michael recorded them singing their 2025 single, "I Just Don't Want You (To Say Goodbye)" and I caught “All Around.”
Michael wandered around the corner of the Main Stage to the Hideout to sample New Zealand singer-songwriter Will Swinton who a mere year before was managing an Aukland trampoline park when Kelly Clarkson performed one of his songs on TV, prompting him to sell his car and buy a one-way ticket to L.A. A Capitol Records deal and 100 million global streams later, Swinton launched his latest single, "Better Off" at Treefort.
Meanwhile, having jockeyed into position center-stage on the rail I was hyped and ready for Yellow Days. Marcy Donelson has described British musician George van den Broek's vocals as "throaty, yearning" accompanying his "swimmy indie soul-pop" and the lustrous B&W videos promoting Yellow Days recent release "Rock and A Hard Place" confirm visually what we can hear clearly: a dynamite talent with a soulful fuse. I was amused watching George hydrate from a bottle of Kendall Jackson chardonnay, while smoking cigarettes, and with a backdrop of spermatazoa swimming on the big screen. My kind of guy!!
Amber Mark is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. Her multifaceted style implements sounds from hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul, and bossa nova. She released her first EP, “3:33am”, in May 2017, followed by her EP “Conexão” in 2018. Her debut album, “Three Dimensions Deep”, was released in January 2022. “Pretty Idea” followed as her sophomore album in October 2025.
Her fluttering gossamer dress alone broadcast major sex appeal and her command of the stage all but guaranteed that her audience was fully under spell. I didn't know what to expect at all from Amber Mark but found myself dancing in place and having a good time with her cover of Toto’s “Georgy Porgy”.
Meanwhile, Michael was still at the Hideout Stage where he grooved to Melbourne, Australia's Belair Lip Bombs perform "Again and Again" (from their 2025 LP "Again"), with yet another quick dash to the Treefort Music Hall to hear Los Angeles duo Brijean (consisting of singer-songwriter/percussionist Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist Doug Stuart) perform "Hey Boy" and “Counting Sheep.”
My experience of Treefort Music Fest 14 culminated in the Main Stage triumph of Father John Misty. It's hard for me now to believe that I had never heard of Father John Misty before he was announced on the Treefort line-up and I’m glad I listened to the intense anticipation of his performance such that I parked myself center rail at the Main Stage, insuring the best seat in the house. The effort was not disappointing. Handsome, hypnotic, with masculine restraint and an idiosyncratic delivery, Father John Misty wowed me and surfaced as my favorite act of the festival. A winning way to wrap it all up. Here are my clips of “Nancy From Now On” and “Goodbye, Mr. Blue” (which he amusingly dedicates to Colossal Collective’s wooly mammoth).
Some marriages are just meant to happen, are God-given even, and the coupling of the third No Kings Rally on Idaho’s State Capitol steps and the fourth day of Treefort Music Fest will linger in my memory for years to come.
Claiming a bridge between the two was Cameron McCloud and his Cure For Paranoia crew whose evident talent and consummate humor provided a remarkable relevancy to the morning’s events. The evening before Cure For Paranoia had dropped their latest verse “WTF (‘Where The Files At’)” during their Treefort Music Hall set and my head about popped off my body as my fist shot into the air. Then when Cameron announced that he was going to be performing at No Kings 3 but wasn't sure how he'd be accepted, I shouted out, "You'll be LOVED by thousands." "You think so?" he smiled. And I was right. Roughly 10,000 people chanted along with Cure For Paranoia: “Where the files at? Where the where the files at? Where the files at? Where the where the files at?” Not that I needed to say so, but I wish I could have confirmed to Cameron, "I told you so." From my vantage point near the podium on the capitol steps, nothing could have been more beautiful and jubilant than those thousands of protesters chanting along with Cure For Paranoia. I was happy for him, happy for me, and happy for the country. We have a new poet to speak to a multigenerational nation.
From that empowering rally I ambled to the press lounge to prepare for an interview with Gregory Rawlins while Michael made his way to Rhodes Skate Park located beneath the Connector freeway ramp to partake in Treefort’s free punk and metal offerings. He caught two amazing shows from Seattle's The Rat Utopia Experiment and SoCal's Mexican Slum Rat. Rats were all the rage for him Saturday afternoon. In this clip, T.R.U.E. performs "Worlds End Lane" from their 2025 LP “No Hit Wonders.”
Off to the Neurolux next, Michael caught Canadian femme goth-rockers Bonnie Trash opening their set with "Veil of Greed," from their 2025 album “Mourning You.”
Rivaling Richochet Rabbit, Michael then popped up at the Cyclops to catch the 10-member Portland-by-way-of-Nashville Family Worship Center who served up their brand of Southern-fried funkified Rock n' Soul, RIYL Leon Russell, Dr. John, etc. They knocked out "Reason to Live" from their 2020 EP "Sunday A.M."
Meanwhile, I was taking it easy drinking African ambers at Pengilly Saloon where Gregory Rawlins was singing his resinous tunes accompanied by Jeff Grammer on keyboards and Wayne Marvin Callahan on bass. Having had a pleasant conversation with him earlier in the day, it felt like genuine friendship to catch his set, a welcome respite from Treefort’s commotion. No ear plugs necessary!
On the third day of Treefort Music Fest, Michael Hawley had the pleasure of listening to a fabulous collaboration between his favorite Boise hip-hop crew (Dedicated Servers) backed by his favorite Boise rock band (The French Tips) at the Treefort Music Hall. He filmed their performances of "Shades Up" and “Waifu Kisses” from Dedicated Servers's 2025 album “Colors.”
Michael had never heard of New York City dance-pop diva INJI (née Inci Gürün from Istanbul, Turkey) until she showed up as a top-of-the-poster headliner for this year's Treefort Music Fest. Here she performs "Bodega" from her 2025 LP “Superlame” on the Main Stage.
Denver's Jesus Christ Taxi Driver gave one of the most dynamic shows both Michael and I experienced at Treefort Music Fest this year, largely aided by some whacked-out stage antics from singer Ian Ehrhart. Michael loved that when the band hit the stage they immediately launched into his favorite song of theirs: “Ding Dong The Beaves Are Dead" from their 2023 LP "Lick My Soul."
It’s a dead give-away who my favorite discovery of Treefort is when I buy their merch. I've been wearing my JCTD t-shirt for days! And I've bought all the music. All in preparation for Easter, of course.
Somewhere between the violent rock and roll of Jon Spencer, the sophisticated rhythms of Ali Farka Toure, and the religious disorientation of Jean Meslier, Jesus Christ Taxi Driver makes joyfully irreverent noise. Taking aim at daily banal agonies, and existential uncertainty, the moods shift from meditative to unhinged. The music takes risks. Formed in 2022 on Colorado’s front range, Ian Ehrhart, Miles Jenkins, Colin Kelly and Will Ehrhart have been bringing their wildly disruptive live shows to venues across the mountain west at an incredible pace.
Jesus Christ Taxi Driver’s wild disruption energized me and fueled me for the rest of the evening. Michael and I then shifted to the Treefort Music Hall to catch the queer-flavored Dallas, Texas hip-hop collective Cure For Paranoia, fronted by rapper Cameron McCloud. Michael caught them performing their viral 2025 hit "No Brainer" (with its infectious "left brain right brain no brain" chorus) and “Drop A Bomb”, whereas I filmed “The Art Show”.
And because it’s important to attend at least one bacchanal each Treefort, Michael and I wrapped up our third day with the strobing magenta and cobalt-blue bass punk of L.A.’s Sextile.
Started out the second day of Treefort Music Fest by baking a batch of “friendberry” cookies to deliver to the Press Lounge. From there I went to talk with the artists creating live murals in Julia Davis Park, then stopped at the Gene Harris Bandshell to listen to Deloyd Elze out of Jacksonville, Florida, whose guitar-driven tunes textured with electronic fuzz added spoken word to the mix to satisfying effect. He joked that competing with the loud sounds from the Main Stage was “kind of fun.”
Next stop was the Main Stage where I hooked up with Michael Hawley for Toronto-based The Beaches. Unabashedly sapphic and iridescent with raucous abandon, The Beaches rocked!! Like any gay guy with good sense I was hoping they would make me an honorary lesbian; but, even though they didn’t, I loved them anyway. Michael filmed performances of their 2022 non-album single "Grow Up Tomorrow" and “Did I Say Too Much” (from their 2025 album “No Hard Feelings”).
Idaho has the highest concentration of Basques in the U.S. so it made perfect sense for Northern Spain's Kokein to play Treefort Music Fest on their 25th anniversary tour celebrating their major presence in the Basque music scene. Founded in Eibar, Gipuzkoa in 1999, the band started out singing exclusively in Euskara and has stayed true to that choice ever since. Their appearance at Treefort had value added in that Kokein’s drummer Haritz Lete was able to visit with family members living in Boise. Here's Michael’s clip and mine of Kokein’s Basque Center blast. Michael wondered if "kokein" means what he thought it meant in Euskara, but it doesn’t. The Basque word for cocaine is “kokaina.”
Michael lingered at the Basque Center to hear Keddie’s Resort while I wandered off to the Cyclops stage to catch The Whips. Thrash-punkers Keddie's Resort—aka "Portland's Most Infamous Band"—performed "Cursed" and "Medical Love."
Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, The Whips want to grow up together. Set forth on an impossible journey by a fateful middle school rhythm section bus ride, creating art together remains the singular constant for these four Kansas boys navigating the mercurial landscape of young adulthood. Emanating from the warmth of their 10x10 apartment bedroom studio, their songs sound like the type of late night talks with friends about life, love and loss that you never truly forget. Singing these songs with friends across the country, the Whips have felt less lonely in those lonesome feelings and figured out the only universal truth that actually exists—none of us are truly alone and we’re all going through it.
Michael then joined me at the Cyclops much like members of The Whips joined Wichita, Kansas funksters Rudy Love & The Encore onstage for a fabulous and joyful 13-minute jam where they switched instruments, riffed beats, and filmed each other. This felt like one of those rare spur-of-the-moment events that characterize Treefort.
The Septuagenarians are back at it again!! On behalf of The Evening Class, Michael Hawley and I leaned into five full days of music, dance and art (Wednesday, March 25-Sunday, March 29), sampling from 500+ bands performing at 40+ venues throughout downtown Boise, and reminding ourselves that rock and roll will keep us young or—perhaps more realistically—keep us thinking we’re young. Treefort Music Fest is a fountain of youth in form and function and fantasy.
Michael and I lean into Treefort at different angles. For weeks before the festival he takes advantage of Treefort’s Spotify list and—I kid you not!—listens to every single track to familiarize himself with every single band. I wait until a few days before the festival begins and determine my schedule by how I want to move around the festival village and who’s available to listen to wherever I happen to be at any given time. Moving around the village has become a concern due to a bad back that makes walking long distances difficult and so I’m grateful to Treeline, the festival’s bus service provided by Valley Ride, that allows me to bounce between far-apart venues, if I’m so inclined. That’s really Michael’s thing. He crisscrosses the festival village, diving into the Neurolux, hanging at the Shrine, rushing back to the Main Stage in an enthused effort to see as many acts as possible. My focus, no less impassioned, is more centralized and tempered by the experience of having attended Treefort since its inception. I’ve watched it morph from a waddling toddler to full-blown adolescence. I’m also morphing. Edging towards decrepitude, I call it, though I’m not quite there yet. Still, I’m not as prone to bounce from venue to venue like Michael.
He jumped feet-first into Day One by catching eight sets (okay, some were just 2 or 3-song partials). We both started out, however, with The Other Room There, before he took off to see Dela Freed at the Boise Brewing stage, The Old One Two at the Neurolux, Death Lens at the Shrine Ballroom, back to Boise Brewing for The Thing, then joined me at the Music Hall for the tail end of Son Little’s set leading into Tune-Yards. We had agreed beforehand that we had to catch one of our Bay Area favorites—Tune-Yards—at the Treefort Music Hall, which I knew was going to be a packed event, and I wanted to have an advantaged perspective from the slightly elevated tables to the sides of the stage so I arrived early to claim one and stayed with it the whole evening so that—by the time Michael joined me—I could share our unobstructed view of the stage.
I settled into my table and didn’t budge. You could call that unfair and selfish. I call it smart, even clever. The only disadvantage was that I couldn’t leave it for fear of losing it and so didn’t record any of the acts: The Other Room There, Floating Witch’s Head, Kassa Overall, Son Little and Tune-Yards; but, that was okay. I just wanted to enjoy the music.
I wasn’t intending to watch local band The Other Room There—they were on Michael’s schedule—but, after shuffling our schedules, it only made sense, and I was really glad I added them on because—boasting their third performance at Treefort—they were upbeat and a great way to launch the fest. They performed select tunes from their recently released “Look Alive”, including a catchy cover of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself.”
Settling into my chair before Floating Witch’s Head took the stage, the physical sense that I would not be moving all evening seemed underscored by how my age from hereon in would negotiate Treefort. I want to make a point here that Treefort allows for such accommodations. I may not be able to experience Treefort as I have in years past, but it’s clear to me that I can enjoy Treefort for many more years in different ways. Looking out at the youthful crowd milling around while waiting for the next act, I was touched by the heedless entitlement of their youth. Youth, they say, is wasted on the young. I’m not sure that’s true. But it does give an elder pause observing young people throwing away minutes, idle hours, like party confetti. I bless them and the joy Treefort will give the young for generations to come, let alone senior statesmen like me.
Photo: Unknown
Floating Witch’s Head started their set and I considered how clever Eric Gilbert was for booking his band early on the first day to free himself up to enjoy the rest of the festival. Well-deserved.
Cribbing from Treefort’s website: “Floating Witch's Head is a project based in Boise, Idaho concocted by Travis Ward (guitars & vocals) with Michael Mitchell (drums), Eric Gilbert (keyboards). RIYL [“recommended if you like”]: garage, psych, swamp, proto-punk, acid rock, beards, hot peppers, pickles, parties, nice people.” I mean, is there anybody who doesn’t?
Boise's own garage-psych power trio offers overdriven guitars, organs, Moog bass lines and driving rhythms that are easy to love. At the heart of Floating Witch's Head is the songwriting of Travis Ward—also the frontman of the nearly 20-years active Hillfolk Noir. While Hillfolk Noir is very much a folk oriented affair, Floating Witch’s Head is a sweaty, gritty, tube-driven, garage-y milieu. Joined by Eric Gilbert (previously Finn Riggins) on organs/synths and Michael Mitchell on drums (who I’ve also been enjoying in LED’s house band), this is a band dedicated to the artistry of music and all the little things in a song that make it great.
Ward’s open guitar tunings and overdriven amps lend themselves to a very heavy, psychedelic blues-oriented guitar. Gilbert on keys provides organ leads and soundscapes while providing perfectly punchy round basslines through his Moog synth. Then there’s Mitchell on the drums whose taste on the kit balances driving rhythms with laid back beats in all the right moments.
I’ve long described Treefort Music Fest as a discovery festival and I mean that not only in terms of being introduced to bands and performers but an equal exposure to multiple genres of music. Because if you thought Treefort is just about neopsychedelia, folk or hiphop, you’re misinformed. One of Treefort’s most innovative acts is jazz drummer Kassa Overall, whose liquid and lambient arrangements inspires the mind to fly. The appreciative Treefort crowd went soaring.
Participating in a New York Times survey conducted by Giovanni Russonello, fellow drummer and Grammy Award-winner Terri Lyne Carrington described Overall as a “pre-eminent style bender and blender, successfully juxtaposing genres through his production expertise and use of melodic and harmonic forms that deftly integrate the new with the old.”
That bending and blending is evident on his latest album CREAM (2025), where the acronymic title track “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” artfully reworks Wu Tang-Clan’s original; “Back That Azz Up” covers Juvenile; and “Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thing” leans right into Dr. Dre.
While I was enjoying Floating Witch’s Head and Kassa Overall and holding onto our primo seats at the Treefort Music Hall, Michael was out and about exploring the festival village and edging up against mosh pits. He had regrettably missed seeing Boise's own Dela Freed at last year's Treefort Music Fest and—having fallen in love with their 2022 single, "Billboard Jesus" (with its anthemic chorus, "I don't need your Billboard Jesus, to save me from your diseases")—he rectified last year’s omission by catching Freed perform a stripped-down version of “Billboard Jesus” on the Boise Brewing stage.
The last time Michael got close to a mosh pit was 30 years ago during a Rage Against the Machine set at Free Tibet in Golden Gate Park. I experienced that mosh pit with him. We were having a perfectly nice picnic with friends when Rage Against the Machine took to the stage, the crowd exploded into fury, and me, Michael, our friends, our picnic supplies, abruptly shifted 30 feet away from our original position. It was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. Thus, I am grateful and respectful that Michael dared edging up against a mosh pit while watching L.A. post-hardcore punkers Death Lens perform their new single "Debt Collector" at the Shrine Ballroom.
Brooklyn-based The Thing takes a back-to-basics approach to rock and roll. Raised on Zeppelin, psych rock, and jazz, each member adds a distinct edge. The result is loud, unfiltered, and entirely their own. Michael caught a Boise Brewing stage performance of "Dave's TV" from The Thing’s 2025 self-titled third LP.
Michael then joined me back at the Treefort Music Hall to enjoy Tune-Yards. My prediction was right. The place was packed and I was glad we could watch the concert from our comfortable position.
I have so many filmic memories of San Francisco, including a performance by Tune-Yards at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (2012) where they accompanied projections of Buster Keaton’s shorts. That was a thoroughly entertaining event.
As was their Treefort performance, which Michael described as “insanely great.” The highlight was "How Big is the Rainbow" from their 2025 album "Better Dreaming." Tune-Yards mastermind Merrill Garbus (accompanied by Nate Brenner on bass and keyboards) led the audience in the song's ethereal chorus. She also struck a few seriously comic Maori warrior poses.
I really love the peanut with the Saturnesque rings around it. Let alone the peanut astronaut and the peanut rocket pilot!
Dana Wagner describes herself as "an illustrator and graphic designer who loves bright colors and bold shapes." She earned her bachelor's degree at Furman University in Studio Art with a minor in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. With a few years of freelance work under her belt, she headed back to class to earn her MFA in Illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design.
"When I'm not illustrating and designing," she admits, "I'm probably sewing a quilt, baking banana muffins, validating my friends, or playing with my cat Stella."
I stopped into Zamzows to get some compost and was delighted to see their first participation with Treefort's Window Walk, which is gaining range with each successive year.
Mitsuko is one of the artists who has been selected by the City of Boise to participate in their Public Art Collection. She'll be designing an image on the theme of transportation for a traffic box at 195 S. Capitol Blvd. Congratulations, Mitsuko!
Mariel is another of the artists who has been selected by the City of Boise to participate in their Public Art Collection. She'll be designing an image on the theme of transportation for a traffic box at the corner of 10th & Grove St. Congratulations, Mariel!
Hailing from Boise, Idaho, the third time is the charm for The Other Room There who perform tunes from their recently-released “Look Alive” at Treefort Music Fest on Wednesday, March 25, 5:00PM at the Treefort Music Hall.
As noted by the Treefort team: “The Other Room There is the solo, dream pop, indietronic project of why-it. For years, why-it has spent time in other groups building his ability to create lush soundscapes and droning tones to create meticulous sonic atmospheres along with catchy, poppy melodies. The Other Room There is a project focused on creating anthems to suburbia, anxiety, loss, and the great unknown. Pulling inspiration from electronic and indie artists of both the last 20 years and the 20 before then, The Other Room There creates music that both feels nostalgic, fresh, and unique. Now accompanied by Carsen Cranney (Moon Owl's Mages, Crush The Monster), the energy of The Other Room There shows has never been more electric.”
Formed in 2022 on Colorado’s front range, Jesus Christ Taxi Driver is made up of Ian Ehrhart (guitar and vocals), Colin Kelly (guitar and vocals), Miles Jenkins (drums) and Will Ehrhart (bass). Known for their unrestrained, disruptive live shows that have been likened to Iggy Pop and The Cramps, Jesus Christ Taxi Driver has previously opened for Frank Black (Pixies), The Hold Steady, A Place To Bury Strangers, The Thing and more. Leaving their mark across North America, they have also performed at festivals including Treefort, Somewhere Fest and Break Out West. Fueled by the human connections they make on the road, the band has every intention of spending as little time at home this year as possible.
In 2023, the band released their debut record “Lick My Soul” with standout tracks “STUPIDMOTHERFUCKER” and “Ding Dong The Beeves Are Dead.” In 2025, they were included in the National Independent Venue Association’s (NIVA) Live List of best independent live bands to keep an eye on. The Denver Westword frequently champions Jesus Christ Taxi Driver as one of the best bands in the scene right now.
Their most recent releases include the eponymous “Jesus Christ Taxi Driver”, “Too Cold To Golf”, and “Lana Del Rey”, anticipating the release of their second album “Taxi the Rich” coming April 19, 2026 on Midtopia.
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For pop listeners looking for a bit more to chew on, Social Cinema’s debut “Don’t Get Lost” features a wealth of simultaneously at-odds and complementary instrumentation, whether that’s demonstrated by the band’s hard-panned, three-pronged guitar track of Gang Of Four-esque chimes exchanged among guitarists Griffin Bush, Mari Crisler and Reed Tiwald, or via the stop-start, drum-pad-aided grooves played by Logan Bush and bassist Austin Engler.
Each song on “Don’t Get Lost” is ultimately concerned with stuffing in as many hooky bits as possible, which often sends the songs in unexpected directions.
Take second track “Human Development,” which contains the elements of a normal pop song—there’s an intro, a verso and a chorus, albeit separated by several other distinct parts. Instead of returning from the chorus to a second verse, the song diverts into a maracas-infused instrument break whose only vocal part functions to bolster the song’s rhythm, not the song’s melody. It’s a delightfully adventurous move that makes the eventual explosive second chorus that much more gratifying.
“Don’t Get Lost” is unmistakably a pop album meant to hook you in at the surface level and designed to reward you with repeated listens. Social Cinema have evolved here from their own self-prescribed characterization as a “live” band. While the live show will remain key to their identity, “Don’t Get Lost” is a full-length feat that earns them a new label: a “complete” band.
Social Cinema plays Treefort Music Fest twice; first, late Thursday night, March 26, 2026 at 12:40AM at The Olympic, and then the following afternoon, Friday, March 27, 2026 on the Cyclops stage at 7:00PM.
Unabashedly sapphic and iridescent with raucous abandon, The Beaches will rock the Main Stage at Treefort Music Fest on Thursday, March 26, 7:00PM. Like any gay guy with good sense I’m hoping they’ll make me an honorary lesbian; but, even if they simply can’t, I’m going to love them anyway, like all those other adoring str8ers.
As profiled on Spotify: “The Beaches have spent the past decade building something unstoppable.
“Sisters Jordan Miller (lead vocals, bass) and Kylie Miller (guitar), along with best friends Leandra Earl (guitar, keys) and Eliza Enman-McDaniel (drums), have gone from Toronto up-and-comers to one of the biggest rock bands in Canada.
“Their breakthrough came with ‘Blame My Ex’, a heartbreak-fueled, anthemic record that turned them into a viral sensation. It’s Platinum-certified lead single, ‘Blame Brett,’ exploded across platforms, racking up 115 million+ streams, 20 million views, and 15 weeks at #1 on Alternative Radio in Canada. The song’s success on TikTok introduced their music to a whole new wave of fans, solidifying their place in modern rock.
“But The Beaches aren’t just a band you stream—they’re a band you experience. Known for their panty-throwing, stage-diving, no-holds-barred live shows, they bring an energy that’s as fierce as it is infectious. Their ‘Blame My Ex’ Tour proved it, selling out major venues worldwide, including their upcoming headline show at Budweiser Stage (Toronto)—a 16,000-capacity venue sold out three months in advance.
“Now, with sold-out tours, major festival slots, and a sound that blends raw emotion with unapologetic fun, The Beaches have become more than just a band—they’re a movement. Loud, fearless, and completely in their own lane.”
Their most recent 2026 releases include “I Ran (So Far Away)” and a live recording of “Silver Springs.” Getting rowdy with G Flip, The Beaches also have a new video for “Lez Go.” Otherwise, I’m offering up three of my favorites from 2025’s “No Hard Feelings.”
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Whether irony or mere wistfulness my mind has circumambulated around Father John Misty’s (sold-out launch of his 2026 tour at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, which grounded so many of the entertainments of my youth and mid-age. Granted, I’m not sure I would have been able to afford the tickets plus service charges recently required by the Castro, so I am all the more appreciative that I will get to hear Father John Misty (née Josh Tillman) on the Main Stage at Treefort Music Fest on Sunday, March 29, 2026 at 8:20PM. Rather than bemoan a bygone era, I celebrate my current opportunities.
Father John Misty has recently released a three-song EP, “The Old Law” with its eponymous track, and repeats of two tunes from his sixth album 2024’s “Mahāśmaśāna”, whose title refers to the Sanskrit word Mahāśmaśāna, meaning "great cremation ground". Tillman chose the word after reading it in Bruce Wagner's 2006 novel Memorial and feeling inspired by it, "Just visually, it has all these sha-na-nas and ha-ha-has in it. With the record, there’s a lot in there about the self and about identity, and I think just the micro and the macro scale of endings."
Tillman commissioned artist Joe Roberts to do some collages for the album, he also sent along a few doodles. One of them was made while Roberts was listening to the record, Tillman thought they looked like biblical angels, and chose it as the cover. Roberts almost did not send the drawing due to an accidental "red splotch" of paint.
If the hundreds of bands offered at this year’s edition of Treefort Music Fest has you schedule-addled, here are five acts I recommend to get you started.
As ever, Treefort’s line-up is amazing, not the least of which because they’ve scored Brookyn, New York’s Geese for a main stage 8:50PM performance on Saturday, March 28, 2026.
As Treefort synopsizes: “New York City’s Geese return with their universally-acclaimed third studio album, ‘Getting Killed’. After being approached by Kenneth ‘Kenny Beats’ Blume at a music festival, Geese tracked the album in his LA studio over the course of ten fast-paced days. With scant time for overdubbing, the finished project emerges as something of a chaotic comedy, shambolic in structure but passionately performed, informed by an exacting vision. Garage riffs are layered upon Ukrainian choir samples; hissing drum machines pulse softly behind screeching guitars; strange, lullaby-esque songs are interspersed with furious, repetitive experiments. With ‘Getting Killed,’ Geese balances a disarming new tenderness with an intensified anger, seemingly trading their love of classic rock for a disdain for music itself.”
Geese performed on “Saturday Night Live” recently and here are two songs from that set, “Au Pays Du Cocaine” and “Trinidad.”
Geese next appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” with their tune “Taxes.”
Finally, if that’s not enough for you, here’s their full session for “From the Basement.”
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With his new album “Rock and A Hard Place” having dropped in mid-February, British musician George van den Broek (performing under the alias Yellow Days) is one of the acts on Treefort Music Fest’s Main Stage that I’m most excited to catch (Sunday, March 29, 5:00PM). Treefort cribs from Marcy Donelson:
“Noted for throaty, yearning vocals that accompany his swimmy indie soul-pop, Yellow Days is the performance alias of British musician George van den Broek. After some early releases during his teenage years, he began to gain traction with 2017’s full-length ‘Is Everything Okay in Your World?’. Switching locales to Los Angeles, his follow-up, ‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’, appeared in 2020. Two years later, the pandemic-inspired EP trilogy ‘Slow Dance & Romance’, ‘Apple Pie’, and ‘Inner Peace’ was steeped in psychedelic soul.
“Born in Manchester, England, and raised in Haslemere, van den Broek’s musical endeavors began when he got a guitar for Christmas at the age of 11. With influences that include Ray Charles, Mac DeMarco, and Thundercat, he started releasing stand-alone singles as a teen in late 2015. His debut EP, ‘Harmless Melodies’, arrived in November 2016. Yellow Days continued to release periodic singles in 2017, some of which appeared on his debut LP, ‘Is Everything Okay in Your World?’, that October. It featured a guest spot by hip-hop artist Rejjie Snow.
“Early the next year, ‘Gap in the Clouds,’ from his first EP, reached a broader audience when it accompanied the trailer for the second season of Donald Glover’s show Atlanta. Yellow Days followed up in April 2018 with the single ‘The Way Things Change’ and a week’s worth of club shows in the U.S. that quickly sold out, before continuing the tour in Europe.
“The musician’s sophomore effort arrived in 2020: titled ‘A Day in a Yellow Beat’, the project was written and recorded primarily in L.A., with van den Broek sourcing new inspiration from local collaborators. Yellow Days’ next undertaking was a set of three self-produced EPs released throughout 2022 and consisting of a combined 17 songs. ‘Slow Dance & Romance’ began the series in April, with ‘Apple Pie’ following in July, and ‘Inner Peace’ closing out the project in September. Conceived and recorded during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were said to represent a catalog of his ‘mindset in lockdown’.”
Promotion for “Rock and A Hard Place” has involved a series of stylish black-and-white stagings that lean into nostalgic cinema. Judging from these, Yellow Days promises to be one of the most satisfying acts in Treefort’s stellar line-up. Ben Tibbits interviews Yellow Days for Wonderland.
I’ve long described Treefort Music Fest as a discovery festival and I mean that not only in terms of being introduced to bands and performers, but equally exposed to multiple genres of music, because if you think Treefort is just about psychedelia and rap, you’re misinformed. One of the best acts around is on the opening night lineup at the Treefort Music Hall: jazz drummer Kassa Overall, whose liquid and lambient arrangements will inspire your mind to fly. Participating in a New York Times survey conducted by Giovanni Russonello, fellow drummer and Grammy Award-winner Terri Lyne Carrington described Overall as a “pre-eminent style bender and blender, successfully juxtaposing genres through his production expertise and use of melodic and harmonic forms that deftly integrate the new with the old.”
That bending and blending is evident on his latest album CREAM (2025), where the acronymic title track “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” artfully reworks Wu Tang-Clan’s original; “Back That Azz Up” covers Juvenile; and “Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thing” leans right into Dr. Dre. All three tracks were recently performed at The Cubes, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Son Little (née Aaron Livingston) has dropped his new album “Cityfolk” a few days before the launch of Treefort and so Treeforters will be some of the first to hear these fresh tracks from his “hymnal stew” when Little appears at the Treefort Music Hall on opening night, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 9:00PM. He’s released three preview tracks—“Be Better”, “Cherry” and “In Orbit.”
Described by Treefort as “the polyglot translator and rightful torchbearer of the celebrated musical tradition known as rhythm and blues”, Son Little’s curiosity about his ancestry has led him on a journey throughout the American South, resulting in “Cityfolk”. The West coast born, Northeast-bred musician finetunes his craft here and speaks for those enduring tribulations about finding their place in the world.
Now living outside of Atlanta, Livingston attributes the development of “Cityfolk” to going even further south to record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, in January 2025. It was there that Little, whose past collaborations include The Roots and RJD2, connected with two-time Grammy-winning musician and Alabama Shakes band member Ben Tanner to flesh out sketches of songs that he’d crafted through epiphanies about his family’s roots. Already having an understanding of his father’s side, Little views his maternal line as a “mystery unfolding,” but it was in Shoals that the stars aligned, both through retracing his history and formulating an organic chemistry with Tanner.
The three preview tracks offered here anticipate the remaining tracks on “Cityfolk”, which according to his website will include “sounds that embody the spirit of ancestral folklore. The banjo is strummed at a rhythmic church-stomping pace on ‘Rabbit,’ where Little strives for peace amid societal upheaval. ‘Whip the Wind’ grooves with Afro-Latin polyrhythms, its hook driven by a constant shaker and a silky synth melody that recalls early-1970s Stevie Wonder. But the song sticks to Little’s true form: despite its danceable feeling, the song is a call to recognize the human cost of power before it’s too late. The musician’s message becomes even more urgent on ‘Paper Children,’ an outcry for those downtrodden and forced into inherited hardships. ‘Time has come to testify, there’s another Trail of Tears tonight,’ Little wails on the song’s second verse.”
Now I get a second chance when tUnE-yArDs takes over the Treefort Music Hall stage on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 10:30PM. As outlined by Treefort Music Fest:
“Formed by Merrill Garbus in 2006, Tune-Yards has become a name synonymous with creativity and forward motion. Known for explosive performances, surprising song structures, and danceable rhythms, their music also highlights connections between song and social consciousness. The New York Times praised their debut album, ‘BiRd-BrAiNs’, as ‘a confident do-it-yourselfer’s opening salvo,’ and relentless touring established Garbus as a commanding live performer.
“Garbus stepped into the producer role with 2011’s ‘w h o k i l l’, a bold and sonically inventive album that earned critical acclaim, including the #1 spot on The Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop poll. By 2021’s ‘sketchy’, Garbus and bassist Nate Brenner had solidified their partnership, creating a fully collaborative work. The duo released their sixth studio record, ‘Better Dreaming’ in 2025 [followed by EP ‘Tell the Future With Your Body’].
“Tune-Yards also excels in scoring, contributing to Boots Riley’s ‘Sorry to Bother You, I’m A Virgo’, and the forthcoming ‘I Love Boosters’. Their artistry continues to expand across music, film, and television.”
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