Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 2:30 PM to Sunday, September 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Zebulon, Los Angeles
**Faraquet / Light Beams** (ALL AGES) Faraquet, the late ’90s / early-’00s DC post-hardcore trio formed by Devin Ocampo and Jeff Boswell of Smart Went Crazy and drummer Chad Molter, have announced their first shows since 2008. During their short time together, Faraquet released two singles and a split EP with Akarso before releasing their sole album, the J Robbins-produced The View From This Tower, on Dischord Records in 2000. They broke up the next year but played a handful of shows later in the ’00s. You can listen to The View From This Tower and the Anthology 1997-98 compilation below. Meahwhile, Chad Molter’s solo project, Whisper States, have a few shows coming up this month. He’ll be backed by two greats, Mary Timony and Joe Wong, and they’re playing NYC’s TV Eye on April 16 with Devin Ocampo (solo) and Crying Jordan (Franklin Fisher), then Philly’s Kung Fu Necktie on April 17 with Ocampo and False Tracks, and Rhizome DC on April 18 with Dennis Kane. On their new album Wild Life, DC dance punks **Light Beams** paint a surreal portrait of a world filtered through front person Justin Moyer’s recent experiences as a protest reporter (and a member of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol). The shadow of the attack looms large over the record as the quintet acutely distills nine songs into a twenty-five-minute package that voyages through insurrection deep into the bittersweet heart of 21st-century America. From their self-titled debut album through 2020’s Self Help, Light Beams have eschewed traditional melody instruments in favor of Moyer’s minimalist samplers and vocals, Sam Lavine’s drumming and Arthur Noll’s basslines. On Wild Life, they expand this palette with the addition of Leah Gage (vocals, rototoms) and Erin McCarley (vocals, timbales, samples). The result: bigger sounds, bigger themes, and a bigger canvas.