No news is good news – except when it comes to the Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble.
The long-running battle of the bands, established in 1979, signed off after the 2024 competition with the announcement that it would take 2025 off to do “some resetting” and return in 2026.
It was an unusual development. The Rumble has proved a remarkably resilient beast, platforming local bands such as ’Til Tuesday, Big Catholic Guilt, The Dresden Dolls, Zip-Tie Handcuffs and 2024 winner The Ghouls on a nearly yearly basis through six decades of changing venues, organizers and sponsorships.
Before 2025 the tournament missed only four years: 2010 fell through due to a sudden corporate reshuffling that killed WBCN, its radio sponsor; 2020 through 2022 were lost to the Covid pandemic.
While Rumble lead organizer Anngelle Woods (Boston Emissions) declined to elaborate on the nature of the “reset” in 2025, no one I’ve talked to in the local music scene was surprised by the announcement.
We seem to be in a particularly punishing economic cycle for concert and festival promoters. The music industry’s struggle to regain prepandemic ticket sales has been confounded by the same inflationary pressures experienced by the rest of the economy. Others are in the same boat: Nice, A Fest took a break in 2025, and Boston Calling has called off its 2026.
It’s the year of the Rumble’s promised return. Yet uncertainty hangs in the air. Should we be asking “when” the Rumble returns, or “if”? I put the question to Anngelle Woods, and I haven’t heard back anything definitive. That’s not a confidence builder, though optimists will read a recent Facebook post as a promising development.
The Rock ‘N’ Roll Rumble is a cherished tradition. The resurgence of rock in 2025, with bands such as Turnstile, Wet Leg and Geese exploding in popularity, suggests a new generation of fans is willing to buy into the genre. If Boston Emissions doesn’t want to sell them a ticket, have we reached a hand-off-the-baton moment?
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Feb. 8: Dan Deacon (The Sinclair, Cambridge)
Electronic musician and composer Dan Deacon broke into the business when Myspace was still a thing. The pictures and videos of his live performances, involving ornate yet seemingly effortless feats of crowd participation, filled our social media feeds in the Teens. In recent years he’s taken a few steps back from the touring grind to concentrate on film scores. But his most recent album, 2020’s “Mystic Familiar,” shows he’s still got a taste for that ecstatic, postrave indie pop lyfe. If he does something crazy in the pit (and why wouldn’t he?), you don’t want to miss it.
Feb. 12: Hellbender, Agent Lockhart (Lizard Lounge, Cambridge)
Hellbender promises to bend jazz “until it snaps.” Expect a bracing take on classic fusion, leaning more toward “Bitches Brew” than “On the Corner.” You’ll recognize the names of Jared Sims (saxophone), Andrew Stern (guitar), James Rohr (keys), Marc Friedman (bass) and Randy Wooten (drums) from lineups all over town. Gig hounds extraordinaire. Agent Lockhart, led by guitarist and Berklee professor Jeffrey Lockhart, fills out a well-seasoned bill.
Feb. 13: Otis Shanty, Their Treasure, Ruby Lou (Lilypad, Cambridge)
Somerville’s Otis Shanty headlines an indie bill in Inman Square. Its 2024 album “Up On The Hill” established the four-piece as dream poppers on the rise, mixing alternately urgent and languid guitar phrases atop a commodious rhythm section. Keys player Sadye Bobbette sometimes pulls out a trumpet, the brassy tone of which could scare the feathers off a goose in the cozy interior of The Lilypad. Their Treasure, making a rare appearance outside the “DM for address” circuit, and cosmic strummer Ruby Lou open in support.
Live: Pieces vi at The Lilypad
Pieces reconvened for its sixth edition at The Lilypad. The R&B and hip-hop showcase, presented by EveryDejaVu Records, was highlighted by twin homecomings: Cambridge-native k-the-i??? moved back to the area after almost a decade in Los Angeles, and MonaVeli just returned from a European tour.
R&B vocalist and rapper MonaVeli signed recently to EveryDejaVu to release her next EP. The tour, which traveled through Iceland, U.K. and the Netherlands, provided the artist with an opportunity to test the new material on the road. But MonaVeli hadn’t performed the EP in full for an audience until Thursday. The setlist included never-before-performed tracks and the lead single off the new album, “Hero.”
Kiki Ceac, aka k-the-i???, moved from Cambridge to Los Angeles in 2007. It’s the same year that Eli Manning and the New York Giants pulled off an improbable Super Bowl win over the Patriots.
Now he’s back, and the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl. I don’t know whether all these facts are related. The rapper’s moniker ends with question marks, so some things should remain a mystery.
K-the-i??? played at a folding desk topped with one of those luminescent rainbow samplers that looks like it was designed by Willy Wonka. The first half of the performance consisted of beats-driven instrumentals, followed by the second half, earmarked by the artist as “the yelling portion of the set.”
Sandwiching the four-stack bill was opener Dot Dev (fka Pink Navel), who released his set as a live album roughly three hours after the show, and the closer V V N. The latter act was fronted by a vocalist and saxophone player, who led the seven-piece through post-R&B, jazz contortions. Lavagxrl batted cleanup duty, deejaying throughout the winter’s night.
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