Photo courtesy of @andershelsby.
Four-piece deathcore band Dishpit closed out their set at the Sour City Tapes Fest with a moshpit.
By Caroline Huber ’26
Staff Writer
Amid a damp and cold winter evening, show-goers clustered inside Amherst College’s Marsh Arts House for the “Sour City Tapes Fest.” The show, which opened its doors on Dec. 1 at 6 p.m., featured a mixed-genre bill that spanned emo, hardcore punk and beatdown.
Beginning at 7 p.m., Brimfield Massachusetts’ Posthumous Obsession played the first set. Their music featured wailing riffs contrasting against a background of intense rhythms. The crowd responded with enthusiastic moshing — often at odds with the steady tempos produced by the band.
Posthumous Obsession’s drummer, Anthony Franco, described the band as incorporating the genres of beatdown and metal, saying that “characteristically, there's a lot of breakdowns and slower sessions.” Cole D’Onofrio, the vocalist of another participating band called Dishpit, said, “My favorite parts [of the show] were definitely [in] Posthumous Obsessions’ set. That was really good.”
Next, four-piece emo band Radical Joy played an enthusiastic set. Catchy riffs, a mix of tempos and emotional singing augmented their performance. The audience responded with attentive swaying and bobbing, the occasional pushpit and an overall gentler environment than the one produced by Posthumous Obsession.
The band performed a set of originals, including the entirety of their upcoming EP set for release in 2024. They concluded with a cover of “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, alongside an enthusiastic mosh pit that they prompted and participated in. This culminated in their lead guitarist, Shaye Marino, dropping her guitar in the chaos — something that Ethan Kennedy, lead vocalist and guitarist, jokingly cited as his favorite moment from the show.
Kennedy identified Radical Joy as “a mix between power pop and punk,” noting that the band “take[s] a lot of influence from emo music.” Members of the band mentioned Green Day and Nirvana as inspirations, with Marino noting that they take inspiration for their stage presence from the hardcore band The Chariot.
Kennedy added that the band enjoyed playing Amherst College because “The kids are fucking rowdy. Honestly, like, I didn’t expect people to go as hard as they did. For all the other ones [bands], it’s fucking crazy.”
Following this performance, four-piece emo band Bully Maguire, based in Pittsfield, played. The group, who take their name from the symbiote-Peter-Parker fusion featured in “Spider-Man 3,” performed a passionate set, attracting many enthusiastic fans. The band’s sound is reminiscent of Midwest emo, with surfing riffs and impassioned singing. They performed several songs from their upcoming EP and played their newest release, “Avatar: The Last Crusade.” The band also featured songs from their first EP, “Pizza Time,” including “Peter Parker … I Hardly Know ‘er!!”
Finally, four-piece deathcore band Dishpit concluded the night with an aggressive set, inciting the most violent and rowdy moshpit. The band, who cited their inspirations as Suicide Silence, Lamb of God and Massachusetts’s own Killswitch Engage, played numerous songs from their recent EP “S/T” alongside unreleased songs, producing the angriest set of the night.
Franco, who attended Dishpits’ first show earlier this year, appreciated their performance. “To compare what I saw tonight versus how they sounded their first show … they’ve gotten insanely good, and they’re just on this crazy uptick, I think.”
The active Amherst punk music scene and community, which fostered both Dishpit and Posthumous Obsession, drew comments from multiple artists. Franco said, “As someone that goes to a lot of shows out, here it’s like there’s a sense of community within the crowd. … even between the crowd and the bands.”
“As someone that goes to a lot of shows out, here it’s like there’s a sense of community within the crowd. … even between the crowd and the bands.”
Radical Joys’ drummer Sean Maclure also appreciated the involved audience. “I feel like the community for like the scene in Amherst [is] … pretty special … this is one of the only places I know where people just go to shows. … just go to, like, hang out, [and] listen to music.”
Jeremy Devany, the guitarist of Dishpit, appreciated both the attendees and the music itself. “There’s bands that are doing very different genres really, really well. And so we’re kind of happy that people are just doing the kind of music they want to do, and they’re doing it very well, and it's very unique and creative.”
“We just want to see more bands come out and hopefully some more venues too,” D’Onofrio added.