Go-Go-Gadget Gloom!
Somergloom: Night Two
Additional photos by Red Schomburg
Body Void voided bowels at Crystal Ballroom on Friday, 8 August 2025.
The Keening, Lepra, Vudu Sister, and Tears From a Grieving Heart opened the fivestack bill at Somegloom V.
Gloomglizzys? Since when did people start calling hot dogs “glizzys”? I don’t hate it.
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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️ Hump Nights 〰️
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Who knows what darkness lurks in the heart of the ‘Gloom?
Somergloom celebrated its Vth year, ushering into the world the melancholy music of sixteen bands, on two stages, over three days.
A fourstack bill opened the festival at Deep Cuts in Medford, followed by two nights of sorcery and sorrow at Crystal Ballroom in Somerville.
The Gloomdogs were $4. The ‘Gansett tallboys about $5 or so. And the altar of mourning dedicated to the recently deceased Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne? Priceless.
TFAGH
TFAGH
Tears From A Grieving Heart is one of those bands that must come to terms early on with the fact that people will acronymize their name instead of spelling it out. That’s life.
Writer Dave Eggers made his brand in the Aughts with that gimmick. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (AHWOSG, 2000), Mistakes We Knew We Were Making (MWKWWM, 2001), You Shall Know Our Velocity (YSKOV, 2002). Frankly, some of these titles aren’t all that long, but once people got into the habit of acronymizing, they had trouble quitting.
And the sound of TFAGH? A real slow grind. The band takes its time with downtempo doom, letting the texture of each growling guitar note dig its way through your abdomen. Does the drummer get bored drumming that slowly? Nah, it’s all part of the righteous aesthetic.
TFAGH (📷: Red Schomburg)
Vudu Sister
Vudu Sister
To repeat a phrase: “There’s no one way to get gloomy.”
Somergloom has always cultivated the “high gloom” variant, deviating from the sturm und drang of electric guitars to showcase a style of gloom that is sonically gentler while just as spiritually intense.
Vudu Sister performed as a trio of acoustic guitar, cello, and violin. When it didn’t sound like chambergloom, it sounded like an Unplugged edition of Alice In Chains. The cellist didn’t get the memo to dress rock n roll, but let’s say it again:
“There’s no one way to get gloomy.”
Lepra
Lepra
Maine’s Lepra had a lot of different pistons firing during their Friday set. The trio of keyboard, bass, and drums conjured up a lot of different sounds, textures, subgenres, and styles. That keyboard can usher them into New Wavey, post-punky territory. But they hit for the Somergloom crowd most decisively with the doomy hellfire variants. The drummer pursued his vocation with ferocious levels of aggression. The drum kit might’ve needed to visit the ER after the set.
Lepra (📷: Red Schomburg)
The Keening
The Keening
Out of the frying pan and into the freezer. Salt Lake City’s The Keening performed as a one-woman acoustic guitarist, picking melancholy tunes to accompany lyrics that traversed our collective emotional nether regions. Goth folk with hints of obscure Celtic ritual and sacrament. She performed her latest single “Hell Is A Mirror,” which calls attention to the genocide unfolding in Palestine.
Body Void
Body Void
Body Void voided bowels. No shit.
Experiencing a live set by this Vermont-based doom quartet was like being dropped a dozen layers down into the depths of a fiery hell. The fronter has disquieting scream-style vocals that ushers demons into this world.
The meat & potatoes of the sound is built on the trio of bass, guitar, and drums. The fronter also messes with a nest of electronics, which must add some nuanced elements of terror into the mix. But honestly, if you’re too close to the speaker, you’re not going to be able to tell what’s what anyway.
Body Void (📷: Red Schomburg)
Photo Gallery
by Red Schomburg
Photo Gallery
by HDN Staff
Body Void voided bowels at Crystal Ballroom.