Bread and Roses 2025 Reportback
Contributed by Jolie M-A
In the years since 2020, there’s been a running joke that punks in NYC are in an ongoing competition to host the most insanely illegal shows. Makeshift “venues” began cropping up all over the city as organizers began outdoing one another, putting hardcore bands in tunnels and behind train tracks for one night only. The morning after, TikToks would surface of flags burning and fireworks exploding in a sea of moshers, somehow in the middle of Manhattan. When there’s not much else to turn to by way of DIY venues and everyone is sick of having shows at the same four bars that allow us, it makes sense that the underground becomes not just a necessity, but a badge of alleged authenticity and commitment to keeping a city’s scene ungovernable and raw.
In keeping with this tradition, Bread and Roses Fest set the bar for keeping the indie experience… indie. Generator shows are back, and audiences have accepted a level of danger and spontaneity in a city governed by such principles on a daily basis. And there was no one better to do it than their DIY collective, committed to holding the most punk and least-corporate event possible, truly taking “doing it yourself” to another level. Hosting almost 40 bands over three days, the event was advertised via email and a Google drive folder with handmade flyers, many of which were missing a confirmed venue. It ended up that most would be outdoor generator gigs, some permitted and some not, with a phone number to text for the coordinates. The temporary autonomous zone was real: every show started two hours late and was hosted in a pile of trash outdoors, with varying degrees of cooperating PAs and weather. They were all $20 or Pay What You Can, and rest assured, no one WAS turned away for lack of funds.
The collective, helmed by Donna of CHRONOPHAGE and Jake from BULLSEYE, did a fantastic job of getting together DIY bands from every ether of the indie and punk spectrum. It was a group effort though, with so many types of people helping out to ensure that the show could and did go on, even when logistical hurdles threatened to extinguish some of our fun. Their intent of “uniting anarchist and communist non-hardcorists and peace punks for the sake of enriching our connections and community” seemed quite successful. Indeed, they gathered some of the best and most committed underground artists across North America, with a dynamic crew of people, blasted into the chaos of an uncontrollable and spirited festival.
The first festival evening was located in an almost comically cutty “venue” carved out of a scrap of a skatepark along Newton Creek in a seemingly abandoned and industrial part of Long Island City. Walking there consisted of a pigeon-shit-splattered overpass with shattered bottles littering the abandoned sidewalk – not a bodega in sight – through a cinematic wasteland with no homes, just pure industrial filth. In order to get to the garden where the generator was set up, you had to scuttle across a broken bridge and watch your step to meet the dozens of other weirdos huddled about in clumps of woodchips, dangerously close to the poisoned body of water.
Local legend HOME BLITZ opened up the evening with his signature blend of weird-as-fuck, medieval-sounding flamboyant pop guitar genius. It was a treat to see Austin’s TOUCH GIRL APPLE BLOSSOM’s jangly, heartfelt, HEAVENLY-inspired indie pop, which got everyone moving and feeling good, bopping along to front woman Olivia Garder’s sing-song but powerfully twee vocals. A fest highlight was GOOD FLYING BIRDS from Indianapolis, who brought the party down using their multiple tambourines as weapons. The makeshift stage was squished with seven members, jamming raucously with co-singer Susie Slaughter screeching as she passed out loosies to the audience. The band refused to slow down or stop screaming and wiggling for even a second, and their Gen Z exuberance was contagious. I felt for HORSEGIRL, who were still game to go on around 2am, eschewing their usual in-ear-monitor-type professional shows for the complete disorder of Bread and Roses. They were good sports and sounded even better, with their melodic and restrained style of mainstream indie-approved guitar music successfully reaching the outdoor masses, including their compellingly soft vocals that sounded beautiful on even the scraggliest of blown out speakers.
The following day we somehow dusted off for round two, starting up at a church in Ridgewood for the day show. Catered by Food Not Bombs, I sat outside slurping their hearty soup to get brought back to life for the morning show. The basement scene showed out new bands as well as NYC faves, and the most fun was loitering outside getting to know new people who had the enduring curse and blessing of sharing the same subculture. TW33DY from Kansas City were among those new comrades, and their blend of slightly country-twinged, loud, jangly indie fuzzed out the audience with a fun “Cry No Tears” NEIL YOUNG cover. PROVIDERS played their first show, featuring Groovy Mike from VEXX, VANITY, and a million other guitar projects alongside my bandmate David from RIBBON STAGE – better known for TERCER MUNDO, POBREZA MENTAL, HYSTERIC POLEMIX and also a million other international punk bands, as well as Ava from CBS and an eponymous solo project she also performed under.
The daytime event was delightfully accessible compared to Saturday’s evening chaos, which was located behind a fence and past a park on the Williamsburg waterfront. Attendees were given coordinates to a location where someone was supposed to walk them into the show area, but I’m not totally sure if such a person existed. Real “if you know, you know” hours, and don’t expect it to be easy if you want an intentionally anti-corporate event. This involved climbing on a literal trash can to get over a fence, then walking another 100 yards down a carpet of broken glass to a small enclave of trees on top of rocks before the East River starts. We were treated to an end of summer rain that pretty much did not stop all night, lightly dusting our electronic equipment and creating problems with gear, prolonging the show’s start to at least 3 hours after alleged start time.
Miraculously, the generator held on, and RAT HENRY finally kicked it off with some stellar 39 CLOCKS-style catchy and down tempo post-punky, scrappy guitar music. My band, RIBBON STAGE then showed up for a surprise super-short set. In true B & R fashion, we were added to the lineup two days beforehand, and had only practiced with a new band lineup once before our three-song debut. Naturally, it was a mess. I didn’t love looking like a drowned rat while desperately trying to pee in the bushes before playing to an impatient crowd of some of my most beloved and annoying peers, but one has to pretend to be hardcore and not care about such luxuries.
JEANINES played after us, coming down from Western Mass to blast their saccharine and melody-laden clean indie tones through demonically loud amps, allowing Alicia’s clear and dreamy vocals to shred the whole waterfront. Other bands included the always great GALORE from SF, whose recent LP “Dirt” was one of my favorites of 2025 and quite overlooked in my opinion. Also on the lineup were MOPAR STARS, a Philly favorite with members of SHEER MAG and POISON RUIN who have an upcoming debut record on K in 2026. I think the show finished before 3am, but at least there were delis nearby if you felt like hopping the fence again to get to them.
We closed out the weekend at the amphitheater at Far Rockaway, an almost refreshingly “normal” venue by virtue of having a bathroom you could walk to close by – one that even had toilet paper lovingly provided by the NYC Parks Department. Due to permitting issues, the show had to start late and end early, but the morale was high as artists like BULLSEYE took the sunny stage. It was a lovely, sunny day and Dan Dimaggio and I took a dip in the water, which was definitely too cold at the absolute tail end of summer but still a necessity at the rock show. We didn’t put our shoes back on and indulged in the amphitheater's smooth floored safety to dance barefoot to Canada’s sweethearts, GARDEN OF LOVE. A Sunday highlight, the three piece was fronted by Donna’s frequent collaborator and multimedia artist Jane Harms who joined us from Montreal. They shared the stage with indie mainstays LIGHTHEADED from New Jersey, as well as hometown heroes the avant-garde AUTOBAHN who heralded the younger end of fest participants. I watched them while eating more nourishing yet slightly bland vegan food, provided by the illustrious Food Not Bombs squad once again.
The sun set on a successful event that brought together like-minded freaks from across the spectrum of whatever might be called "independent rock music.” The collective also graced us with a compilation tape and zine with artists who played, printed on newsprint and effectively capturing the ethos of Bread and Roses in all its xeroxed glory, available on an esoteric Youtube link. The fest’s vibe was decidedly inaccessible – yes they provided all the coordinates, but you had to will yourself to get there, descending into the “freaks only” kind of atmosphere. You have to really want to be there to be there, but somehow hundreds of people did.
Overall we were lucky to be together and have fun especially in a city with increasing brutality toward those who fall outside the mainstream, and I’m grateful to the organizers for creating such a dangerous and inclusive environment. Yes, the dream of the 90’s is dead and “indie rock” no longer exists, but for one dazzling weekend its corporate capture could be ignored to keep the DIY dream alive in NYC.