All Events in Kingston

May 12th at The Broom Factory All Ages General Admission Doors 7pm Show 7:30pm Every band worth its salt has a member who worked in a record store. In METZ, the fearless noise rock trio who released five full-length albums on Sub Pop between 2012 and 2024, it was singer and guitarist Alex Edkins. Slinging indie rock and hardcore records in his hometown record store while attending university, Edkins became an ardent student of rock ‘n’ roll; from the psychedelic 1960s to the DIY 1990s and beyond. Hoopla, the catchy, melodic second LP from Edkins’s solo project Weird Nightmare, mixes and matches these influences in fun and exhilarating combinations, displaying his sophisticated musical mind. Bursting to life with hooks and earworms, Hoopla is that one tape that never gets ejected from the car stereo, but plays on repeat, soundtracking the summer. New and nostalgic at the same time, Hoopla will perk up your ears. Weird Nightmare’s self-produced, and decidedly lo-fi, self-titled debut was recorded at home during the pandemic and released by Sub Pop in 2022. Weird Nightmare displayed Edkins’s indie rock sensibility, with a penchant for undeniable hooks and massive sing-along choruses. His skills at writing and performing only tightened on a series of singles that followed. On the new studio album Hoopla—co-produced with Spoon’s Jim Eno and recorded at Seth Manchester’s Machines with Magnets—Edkins expands Weird Nightmare’s dimensions even further. Gilded onto the direct emotions of his straightforward songwriting, new musical textures such as piano, bells, and castanets give these well-wrought tunes a shiny luster. It’s like a beloved indie director leveling up to their first studio feature. If Weird Nightmare’s debut was an underground crowd pleaser akin to Richard Linklater’s Slacker, then Hoopla is Edkins’s Dazed and Confused, or even better, Before Sunrise. Hoopla represents a huge leap forward in his sonic palette and emotional vulnerability.