Winter Music Festival Heats Boston Up: Something In The Way Fest

Something In The Way Fest took place the first weekend in February at Boston’s Roadrunner and it was a blast of much needed everything but the cold. The mixed bill festival brought indie rock, punk, hardcore(ish), emo, shoe gaze and dream pop lovers together for a weekend full of music on two stages. The line up felt just right to me, and from what I could tell was enjoyed by all 3500 dancing, moshing, crowd surfing and standing off to the side bopping heads in the room. Something in The Way Fest felt like the early days of Lollapalooza to me and I hope it becomes an annual thing. Of course every festival has a few headliners, but in today’s music landscape a huge group of every crowd is there to listen to any number of the lesser known bands and sometimes not the headliner at all. The major draws were: Mannequin Pussy, Soccer Mommy, Fiddlehead, Sweet Pill, Militarie Gun, Balance and Composure, American Football, and Slow Dive. Something In The Way Fest was presented by Run for Cover Records and The Bowery Presents.

Roadrunner is a great large venue, that holds 3500 people but still manages to feel small depending where you choose to be. There are three balcony areas, some that require a special ticket and others that are open from which to take it all in. The floor is a typical concert venue floor with spaces on the side to retreat from the heart of the action if you want to observe from a distance or you can get yourself right in the middle of a pulsing crowd.

For Something In The Way Fest, Roadrunner was turned into a two stage venue. Kind of like those dolls that have two sides. They are one character from the story one way and then you flip the doll upside down and there’s a whole other character. In this case audience members would turn 180 degrees between sets to face the other stage. On Day 1 of the festival, Saturday February 1st, the sound from the smaller stage was a little rough around the edges if you were standing too far from the stage, but by Day 2, it was much improved.

With bands like TAGABOW being followed by Mini Trees, if the moshing didn’t give you whiplash the complete 180 between music styles might have. I am someone who loves both of those energies. My days of being in the middle of the mosh pit have passed but I did appreciate the energy from the sidelines.  After thrashing mildly in my own little corner, I then could turn and be completely swept up, in a calmer and softer way by Lexi Vega’s soft storytelling voice paired with some cool synth sounds and familiar retro beats of Mini Trees.

Women in Peril opened the festival mid-afternoon on a Saturday and set a great tone with their emo rock. Women in Peril call themselves “your favorite breed of dog rock”. They are a Boston-based band and will be playing later this month in town (upcoming shows listed at the end of the post). 

I love a good collaboration and several of the bands from  Something In The Way Fest’s line up have worked together in the past. For example, Dazy (pronounced like the flower) and Militarie Gun released the song Pressure Cooker in 2022 and did a remix version featuring Mannequin Pussy in 2023.

My Fictions, Enumclaw, Gouge Away, MSPaint,One Step Closer, Militarie Gun,, Portrayal of Guilt, Anxious, and slowdive brought the grunge, hardcore and the growl to Something In The Way Fest. These bands popped the tab, and let us all bubble over, releasing some of that pent up {insert emotion here] that needed to come out.

Glare, Weakened Friends, and Dazy bridged the gap a little between the hardcore rants and soft melodic story tellers. Weakened Friends was a welcome last minute addition after Sadurn cancelled their appearance.

Mannequin Pussy was incredible. They have a style all their own from the ASMR-ified dialogue and calls to action to music that layers punk, pop, revolution, and storytelling. Marisa Dabice had the entire room in the palm of her hand, we were her army, her therapy patient, her pupils, and her backup dancers. Dabice spoke to everyone with her words and music. Colins “Bear” Regisford took lead vocals for a song offered up especially to all the Black and Brown people and mentioning Black History Month. Regisford called out the horrors that are ICE and police forces in this country before playing a recording of Dante Terrell Smith aka Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def speaking about Jeffrey Wright’s character in Angel’s in America saying, “I don’t have to love America. I live here. And it’s not that I don’t love America. I do love America. Does America love me back?; is the question.”

Wishy, Mini Trees, Great Grandpa, American Football, and Soccer Mommy all brought the chill vibe to the festival. The emo moments were strong and plentiful allowing fans to perhaps process some of those raw emotions. Sweet Pill straddled both energies and had the whole room’s attention with their high energy and strong connection to the audience.

Balance and Composure closed out night one with their melodic post punk set and entrancing lights hypnotically drawing minds, bodies and souls towards the stage. slowdive closed out the entire Something In The Way Fest with their shoegaze tunes and full on light show. It was the end to a perfectly therapeutic and much enjoyed weekend of music. Fans of the weekend are hoping Something In The Way Fest becomes an annual festival including myself.

You can catch some of the bands that played the festival around town (or New England) on these dates and at these venues.

Women in Peril and Sophie’s Body, February 27th at The Lilypad

Heart to Gold, Enumclaw, Oolong, Park National, Makeout Palace March 18th at Warehouse XI

Anxious with Stateside and Ultra Q, April 11th at The Sinclair

Wishy with Momma, May 28th at The Sinclair

Mannequin Pussy, June 6th The Governors Ball 2025, Queens New York