If you missed Boston Bitdown this year, don’t fret. Well, maybe a little, it was four nights to remember …
Bitdown, nominated for Music Festival of the Year at the 2025 Boston Music Awards, is the world’s largest dedicated to chiptune, an electric music genre created using the microchip-based sounds of vintage gaming consoles: Gameboy, Nintendo DS, Commodore 64 and more.
Organizers David “Biff” Jubinsky and Rob Carballo brought it back for its second year, from March 5-8. More than 50 artists performed, including Mega Ran (Grammy-nominated rapper, producer and pioneer of nerdcore), David Javelosa, (audio director for Sega of America from 1989-1996) and locals Battlemode.
The event unfolded at eight venues across Greater Boston: The Jungle, Warehouse XI, Aeronaut Brewing, Crystal Ballroom and The Rockwell in Somerville; Deep Cuts in Medford; the Capitol Theatre in Arlington; and Bit Bar in Salem.
See what you missed with the CS Independent’s comprehensive coverage.
March 5 (Warehouse XI and The Jungle, Somerville)
MC Facepalm
This Revere chip-hop artist MC Facepalm started the festival out strong Thursday with help from Sam Mulligan, a solo artist and bassist for Battlemode. With a mix of humor, beats and beeps, MC Facepalm got the audience excited for the weekend to come.
DEL
The Del Ponte brothers (from the acclaimed indie band Mallcops) unleashed their inner electronica, performing as DEL. They frequently picked up a phone, prerecorded with messages to the crowd, acting surprised every time they got a call. The messages referred to a computer that took control of the show. DEL finishing with their TikTok hit “I Don’t Want the Juul,” wielding an oversized electronic cigarette.
PANDAstar
This Wisconsin artist PANDAstar makes “happy dance music with Gameboys” because “everyone needs to let go of themselves every now and then.”
Shubzilla X Bill Beats
The duo from the Pacific Northwest, together for 10 years, blends hip-hop with gritty samples and deep bass. Shubzilla and Bill Beats co-run Noir Grime, a music label, which curates sounds that unite the allure of film noir with drum and bass.
Chicorito
Chicorito welcomed audience members to play with him, quickly teaching participants how to use two Nintendo DS consoles as instruments to form an on-the-spot four-person band. After the collective jamming, the artist performed a few of his songs solo.
Mega Ran
Raheem Jarbo, known as Mega Ran, is an American nerdcore rapper blending gaming and education – he’s a former middle school teacher out of Phoenix – who performed with energy and a vibe that left everyone smiling.
Problems
Problems is a one-person band from Chicago that creates electronic music with live vocals, often about personal, real-world problems that resonated with the audience. The album “Enter the Annals” responds to an era of “buy now, pay later” schemes and online banking.
Goof Goblin
Goof Goblin of Brooklyn is a trans emo punk trio addressing topics of politics, mental health and queerness mixed with energetic live instrumentals and metal-esque vocals. The performance got the crowd going, and sometimes brought in audience members as singers for a nu-metal, punk Bitdown component.
Void Ripper
The Connecticut hyperpop band Void Ripper captivated the crowd with its fast-paced, distorted and experimental “sounds from the void.” From crowd-surfing to singing from the mosh pit, members did it all, joined by a guest singer and harpist.
(T-T)b
This Boston chiptune band (T-T)b (whose name seems to be a play on “tiny toy bicycles”) brought an alt-rock feel to songs about feelings, TV and extraterrestrials, announcing themselves as a “deep-fried bitpunk band for short attention spans.”
DonutShoes
The chiptune musician, aspiring instrument builder and game composer DonutShoes crushed it, getting the crowd hyped in a performance deploying a variety of 8-bit tools.
Lonely Bunker
Brooklynites Lonely Bunker infused traditional punk power chords with 8-bit square, triangle and noise waves. The band’s soundcheck caused a rush to Warehouse XI. As people flooded in, the band encouraged everyone to “forget what they had just heard” – a funny nod to avoid set spoilers.
Boy Without Batteries
Thursday’s Boston Bitdown schedule closed with Boy Without Batteries, a Florida chiptune artist playing music for moshing – on a Gameboy. The Jungle was packed, making for an amazing way to end the first night and leaving the crowd hyped up for the days to follow.
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