Of all the people who could’ve been outside Arts at the Armory at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, a man in his pajamas looked the most out of place.
“I live across the street, and I’ve never seen this many people outside. What’s going on?” he asked the swarms of teens and 20-somethings. A girl with red hair answered through the cigarette smoke. “Have you heard of the band ear?” she asked. The man shook his head.
Composed of musicians Jonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan, ear is one of the fastest-rising bands in alternative music. Recording its first single on an iPhone in 2024, the duo released “The Most Dear and the Future” in 2025 and sophomore album “Rumspringa” this spring. Apple used its song “Threads” this month to launch the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone.
Ear’s sound resists definition, collaging textured synths, spattering drums and spoken soundbites. (This seven-city leg of the Rumspringa ’26 tour has some unconventional venues that reflects the approach, including a church basement in Toronto and a heliport in New York.) The sound parallels a experience common among its Gen Z audience: seeking tangible connection within a digital foreground. Paz and Avtan whisper lyrics like friends sharing secrets.
“I find the whispering vocals with the heavy electronics a really interesting juxtaposition,” said Rose Collins, a political science student at Greenfield Community College. Collins was among a cluster of fans gathered in front of the venue’s doors an hour before the show.
Nick Keller, a Cape Cod musician and art student, said he puts on ear while traveling and working his part-time Whole Foods job.
“A lot of their music you can kind of zone out to,” he said.
Before lining up outside the venue, Veronica Lai, a Lesley University student filmmaker, used eyeliner to write the band’s name across the skin exposed by a lacy crop top.
“They just feel like very down-to-earth, real people, and I think the music reflects that,” Lai said.
Around 9 p.m., the duo took the stage, setting a MacBook and its coiled wires atop a beat-up wooden dresser. Avtan approached her mic in a colorful knit ensemble with knee-high striped socks. Paz wore a T-shirt on sale at the merch table beneath his flannel.
As they pressed play on the MacBook, the duo clung to their mic stands and thrashed with every glitching beat. Their movements spread throughout the crowd, prompting fans to headbang accordingly. The energy was cut short with the end of each song, when Paz and Avtan reconvened at the dresser before beginning the next track.
During one break, Paz, a Massachusetts native, asked the crowd: “Who else here was born at Brigham and Women’s Hospital?” A few fans cheered.
“I read they’re a little awkward on stage, and I kind of fuck with that,” Collins said.
During the atmospheric track, “Will,” the duo asked the crowd another question: “Can we come dance with you guys?”
The duo hopped off the stage into opposite sides of the pit, smiling and jumping about with fans as a steady bass drum pulsed under distorted synths.
After a 40-minute set, Paz and Avtan thanked the crowd for coming, ending on their first single, “Nerves.” Before they could close the MacBook and leave, the crowd came together, vocally this time, chanting “One more!” in unison for about 15 seconds before the duo obliged amd pressed play on fan favorite “Ne Plus Ultra.” In one final mosh, the energy crescendoed.
“Low-key the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me,” said Nina Zheng, a second-year premed student at Northeastern University, about the show. “Literally, the aura – oh my god, that was crazy.”
