Earlier this year I lamented that there wasn’t really much of a synthwave scene where I live, the north east coast of the United States, at least in terms of live shows with big name acts like Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, and GosT making only occasional touring appearances in Boston. Therefore, when I heard that there was going to be a massive two-day music festival in New Jersey, just a short four hour train ride away from me and featuring acts in the synthwave, chiptune, and electronic music genres, I knew that I had to go and I’m glad that I did because it turned out to be an amazing event.
Human Music, at the QXT Nightclub in Newark, was everything that a music festival should be: it brought together a community, highlighted a variety of acts, and introduced many of those acts to a new audience including myself; I walked away with a number of artists to dig deeper into as well as keep tabs on in the future. It was also a great time for me to finally get to see some of the heavy hitters play live, as this was my first ever exposure to any of the acts in person, and especially to do so in such an intimate venue where I was practically always in the front row made it feel even more special as a result.
Now, considering that this was a two day event, I will be having two posts between today and tomorrow to cover both. So, without further ado, let’s talk about the first half of Human Music:
Watermelon Banzai 