04/09/2025
BUMMER NEWS UPDATE: Dug hit the van trouble wall and are stuck in Dickinson ND slurping Lemon Fizzbang and scarfing steak at Applebees. There's some might silver dollar flaps available for those who linger long enough.
Van troubles are real. Support your DIY touring friends, friends.
The show is still happening tonight so hope y'all can keep the cave emerging momentum going and support some stellar locals.
Dig on Dug. That’s probably all that needs to be said, but I’m not one for brevity.
One of the benefits of Total Fest was the built in “holy sh*t” moments as bands peppered the radar. Building’s 2011 Melt, Cry, Sleep was one of those moments for me. A few emails, a fiendish tour with Hawks, some sketchy cats messing with them all weekend, and, the rest, as they say is history. Like many, I was bummed when Buildings announced they were hanging up the cleats. It happens, though, right. Things run their course, and we just need to adapt.
Well, we likely shouldn’t approach all things that way, but I digress …
Back in 21, when the stick wielding swashbuckler Travis Kuhlman announced that he had a new project and that their album would be on TGIC, I hit the pre-order button before the preview was done. Joined by Michael Baillie (guitar), Dug was just the face slap that I needed at the time. Thick in the pandemic without much of sense that there would be an end, Dug dangled the familiar and then brutally contrasted it with a purgatorial, tonal drip. It’s a sonic Rothko, just layer after layer of thick, guttural, sludge evidencing the listless and Groundhog day feel of the entire Covid experience.
They’re not locked in as some time-capsuled curiosity. Relentlessly touring, they’ve blossomed with releases in 2022 and 2023, digging themselves deeper into the soil and shooting tendrils into the very groundwater that nourishes every lumbering second of every Sisyphean day of every mise en abyme year. Like time, they show no evidence of slowing down.
Dug is a thunderous force. Straight up pummeling. I’ve not had the opportunity to see them live until now. The reports from Caterwaul and videos I’ve seen confirm that they exceed translation and pied-piper you to grabbing those ear plugs and immersing yourself in wave after wave after wave of brute force.
BUMMER NEWS UPDATE: Dug are stuck in Dickinson ND slurping lemon fizzbang and scarfing steak and silver dollars at Applebees. Van troubles are real -- support your DIY touring friends, friends.
The thing I miss most about Total Fest is the annual reunion that came with it. Old and new friends on repeat. Horizonless and endless summers. Again, things run their course, and time moves whether we do or not. Though there are certainly longer intervals at play here, it’s pretty awesome that there’s a familiar landing spot for old and new connections. Hope y’all can shake off some mid-week rust and get your sludge on. It does a weary soul good.
Dug Plays the ZACC with support from .Repetend and Skadget on Wednesday, April 09. Doors at 7:30. $15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd1FeaPcNhA
Dug: https://www.instagram.com/dug_noise/
Melt, Cry, Sleep: https://buildingsband.bandcamp.com/album/melt-cry-sleep
The Ghost is Clear Records: https://theghostisclearrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dugRepetend: https://repetendband.bandcamp.com/album/permutations
Skadget: https://skadget.bandcamp.com/track/maga-fest
