Once upon a time, in a chilly office in the middle of 2025, there was a woman named Sabrina Bollinger. She spent most of her days working, but while doing so, she would listen to music constantly. During one of her phases, the young woman would play games with herself, trying to guess the name or artist of the songs that came up on Spotify.
Once during her rotations, a song by The Happy Fits came on. More specifically, “Dirty Imbecile.” Almost every single time this song came on during her little game, she would get it wrong, always guessing the name of the song but always mixing up the band.
She then went on to listen to the song on repeat for hours, until she knew every lyric and had memorized the band name.
This was my introduction to The Happy Fits.
The four-piece indie rock band hailing from New Jersey is a sight to behold. Contrary to the story I told earlier, they have such a unique sound due to the blending of voices as well as instruments.
PHOTOS:
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For this stop of the tour, we were also graced with the presence of Double Standard and Phoneboy, whose names I can recite from memory after watching their thrilling performances.
PHOTOS
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Double Standard started off the night and immediately stood out to me, both because of their name and because of the members. The band was composed entirely of female-presenting people, which is not something we get to see very often in this day and age. This immediately made their name funnier and, as a woman myself, made me a little proud. Their performance was brief but fun. Starting off a little slow, they eventually found their pace and started getting more and more crowd interaction, and by the end of their set, they even had me singing the chorus along with them.
PHOTOS
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Following Double Standard, the next artist up on the bill was Phoneboy. I was previously unfamiliar with the band, but one thing I immediately deduced was that they had a dedicated fan base. Half of the front row was decked out in Phoneboy merch. Along with the merch, the whole front row knew most of the lyrics to the songs, if not all of them, which is really impressive for an opening band. A few songs into their performance, I understood why. The energetic alternative indie rock band crawled its way into my ears and has been there ever since. Their bright and catchy songs, with witty lyrics, made for a great performance.
At long last, after hours of memorizing and two great performances, it was time for The Happy Fits. With over twenty songs on the set list, I was ecstatic to see their performance. To my surprise, “Dirty Imbecile” was on the set list, and the live performance was everything I could’ve wanted and more. The showmanship of the group was incredible. It’s not every day you see someone bring out a cello strapped to their chest and still give the performance of a lifetime, with energy bursting through the whole room. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole show, and I can’t wait to finish memorizing the whole album.
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