Something in the Way pics & video: Slowdive, American Football, Mannequin Pussy, Militarie Gun & more

Run For Cover’s 20th anniversary festival also included Balance and Compose, Fiddlehead, Anxious, Sweet Pill, Great Grandpa, TAGABOW, Ovlov, MSPAINT, and more.

Feb 3, 2025 - 20:57

Something in the Way pics & video: Slowdive, American Football, Mannequin Pussy, Militarie Gun & more

Run For Cover Records celebrated its 20th anniversary with the Something In The Way festival on Saturday (2/1) and Sunday (2/2) at Roadrunner in the label’s birthplace of Boston. The lineup had a handful of RFC bands, like Fiddlehead, Anxious, Great Grandpa, One Step Closer, Portrayal of Guilt, Enumclaw, Sadurn, and Mini Trees; plus friends of the label like Balance and Composure, Soccer Mommy, Mannequin Pussy, Militarie Gun, Sweet Pill, MSPAINT, Dazy, Glare, Gouge Away, TAGABOW, Ovlov, Wishy, My Fictions, and Women In Peril; and two ’90s legends that influenced a large chunk of the RFC roster, shoegaze pioneers Slowdive and emo pioneers American Football, the latter of whom played a 25th anniversary set for their 1999 self-titled debut album.

With Militarie Gun collaborators MSPAINT and Dazy both on the bill, they both joined MG during their set for “Delete It” and “Pressure Cooker,” respectively. Militarie Gun also played some new material, as did Anxious, Sweet Pill, and Great Grandpa. Mannequin Pussy had a message for all the boys in the crowd to “start calling out your boys when they’re not acting like good boys” before playing “Loud Bark.” And here’s what writer Gwen Egan had to say about Balance and Composure’s set for Boston.com:

Using “Dancing Queen” as a walk-on, Balance and Composure immediately filled the farthest reaches of the venue with drums, salient guitar, and vocals intended for the back rafters. The Grillo’s Pickle mascot also made its way across the mosh pit towards the stage, crowd surfing to the tune of “Parachutes,” the band’s first song of the night.
After Soccer Mommy’s set, possibly due to the sheer amount of standing that folks were doing all day, it seemed a crowd with a powerful force of die-hard fans was left to greet the last band of the day. And greet the band they did. “Reflection” was met with hands in the air.

Check out a bunch of videos from the fest and pics from Saturday and Sunday by Ben Stas below.