Aly & AJ, Dub Trio, Armors, and Among Criminals at Higher Ground in South Burlington, VT on May 17, 2019

An American pop rock duo that consists of sisters Alyson and Amanda Michalka. Every time we wake up, we return to life. Shaking off slumber, the world seemingly begins anew in front of our eyes. Dub Trio underwent such an awakening. Over nearly two decades together, the Brooklyn triumvirate—Stu Brooks [bass], DP Holmes [guitar], and Joe Tomino [drums]—not only delivered a string of albums that forever redefined the term “dub” under cover of metal, punk, alternative, and shoegaze, but also infused its musical prowess into the studio recordings and the shows of genre-bending icons ranging from Mike Patton to Lady Gaga. The three-piece introduced itself on 2004’s “live-dub experiment” Exploring the Dangers Of followed by successors New Heavy [2006], Another Sound Is Dying [2008], and IV [2011]. Conjuring up instrumental music hummable enough to sing, praise came from the likes of Pitchfork who predicted “Dub Trio are on to something.” Along the way, the guys served as Peeping Tom’s live band and toured alongside everyone from Clutch to Gogol Bordello and Dillinger Escape Plan. However, the band took a hiatus as a collective in 2015 after touring heavily behind IV. Having an impact on various genres, they served as the backing band on the Lady Gaga demos that famously attracted the attention of Interscope in addition to backing Matisyahu for six years. Brooks received a GRAMMY® Award nomination for his work with Pretty Lights in addition to backing Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® Inductee Dr. John on the road. During 2018, he played bass in the Saturday Night Live Band sharing the stage with the likes of Kanye West and Kid Cudi. Moreover, he is the musical director and bassist for the GRiZ Live Band alongside Tomino. Additionally, Tomino hit the kit for The Fugees as Holmes lent his six-string talents to Mos Def, Common, and more in the studio. Members shuffled around the country with Holmes in North Carolina and Tomino in Cleveland before regrouping for a European tour in 2017. A two-week 2018 reunion at a tiny Brooklyn rehearsal spot set the stage for their fifth full-length and first release for New Damage Records, The Shape of Dub To Come as an homage to titles such as The Refused’s The Shape of Punk to Come and Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come. “The band has been in hibernation, and now we’ve awakened,” smiles Brooks. “It took a while just by virtue of the fact everyone was in a different geographical location. Once we got together, we rehearsed for a few days, hit the studio, tracked, and mixed everything within two weeks. It has a different energy. It’s more fresh. The first time playing these songs was three days before we hit ‘record.’ That’s a big part of the record’s identity. We needed a little bit of a break, because we’d gone so hard for fifteen years. Joe had a baby. Dave had a baby. In the rehearsal room, it was like no time had passed though. There was a little bit of nostalgia and sentimentality. We fell into our usual patterns and continued.”