Substance Festival in Los Angeles has become a right of passage in this city and this past November 7th and 8th we attended the 2025 installment in the festival’s return to the Belasco Theater.
Approaching this Substance Fest review with any overt enthusiasm would be antithetical to the spirit of the way we revel in the morose nature of this art- the oddly mesmerizing decay of destruction/creation approached with a somewhat detached dreariness that is direct in it’s aloofness. But also… the fucking horrific beauty of it all… or whatever.
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Even with the orbits and cycles of pop culture and music circling back to black lipstick among the masses, the mainstream attention can cause a scene to go into lockdown and it’s members more discerning on where they spend their show dollars. So for Substance Festival, it was important to pull in the beating heart of the scene at the increased ticket price.
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A touch for curation in the dark arts is what scene loyalists look for most and their return to the festival every year is essential. New scene babies are being born every year among the crop of first time attendees that help grow the legend of Substance Fest but one thing is clear- it’s organizers have a knack for putting the bait on the hook on every lineup they ever stacked for going on a decade now.
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For Substance 2025 the bait was Robert Alfons aka TR/ST headlining both nights, playing the first two albums in succession, along with the booking of a stateside performance by Qual- a rarity with Lebanon Hanover touring more the last couple years.
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Ding! That’s the notification on your phone from Restless Nites that a goth angel just got their wings.
Returning to The Belasco was the right move. It’s the perfect venue for this festival with it’s Moorish architecture and turn of the century secrets, it’s different chambers revealed perfect pockets of art.
There was honestly no way Substance could top the audiophile overload from 2024. There were so many themes of genres and sub genres over three weekends of music at the now defunct Globe Theater, it almost made me forget that the ladies room line wrapped around the venue almost every night it was open. But in the end, the thing that’s just as important as seeing Chat Pile for the first time is the new acts burgeoning and coming into their own before our very eyes- that along with local bands leveling up and taking the main stage at this festival and others like it along their tour routes makes a dad proud. It also makes my inner scene kid feel superior for seeing it first.
Acts like Nox Novacula, Geneva Jacuzzi, A Place To Bury Strangers, Fuedal, Dil.Dox, Void Palace, Sacred Skin, Soft Vein, Joyfriend and Lower Tar brought the vital life force that not only supports a festival like this but allows a scene to survive and the germ to metastasize into a legacy so that this may one day be dubbed, the “2020’s post punk era.” or the “post pandemic/post-punk era”.
But the best part of any festival for me are the bands that stir something in me the first time I see them live.
Of all the bands that could do that for me, it was one that has been here the entire time and just missed me, somehow. Los Angeles based Sleek Teeth know how to perform electronic music live. In stark contrast to acts like Qual and John Maus who’s sheer enthusiasm and fever dream performances are the exception to my personal rules of live performance execution, Sleek Teeth hammer out their live sets on their digital weapons in a very analog way. No set it and forget it and let your body and voice do the talking but programmatic with soul, executed in sequence by a human life form.
A Place To Bury Strangers did their job. They pierced my soul with dissonant feedback intertwined with space and melody and allowed me to watch the uninitiated have a total spiritual shift during their set.
Xeno & Oakloander– New England and Norway meet in Brooklyn to create a sound that can create both new and rekindle old romance at a dance club. Songs that conjure old memories and create new ones. Liz Wendelbo gives Maude Lebowski and Elaine Boosler vibes when she dances on stage and I can’t unsee that.
ADULT. Is an all time favorite of Janky Smooth. It wasn’t my favorite performance of theirs but it was my favorite response from the people at the show. There was a void of contempt and hate in the set which makes me happy for the band as people. After 25 years, ADULT. has been a part of so many scenes coming and going in music, seemingly never knowing where they fit. It feels like they finally found a home in the post pandemic/post-punk era.
Qual was the bait on the hook for me this year. I have pushed through so much angst in the last two years with him. Having finally seen Lebanon Hanover a couple years ago, it was time to push out the year’s anger by stomping to Qual. William Maybelline delivered with all the energy possible for one man dancing, pleading and stomping on stage-Slicing synths, 4 on the floor, EBM heaven.
TR/ST played the festival last year. It wasn’t the best set I’d seen Robert Alfons participate in, vocally. To be fair, the sound in the house cut out for a lot of the set and the only speakers that were pumping were stage monitors. That might’ve helped save face or even caused the issue in the first place. I’ve seen TR/ST so many times in the last 4 years that only something like having him playing his best albums on consecutive days would suffice.
This year, TR/ST delivered darkwave/synth pop perfection from start to finish. His vocals were perfect, his signature dance moves precise and what made the TR/ST set hit so hard this year was drummer Lia Braswell. After the last performances, my faith in TR/ST has been renewed.
All long running festivals go through this- Substance 2025 seemed like a transition year. A year to regroup, reset and re-fill their coffers but even with the higher ticket prices, the value was there. The value to the scene, its denizens, its bands and promoters was in uniting the tribes. Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Orange County, the Bay Area and all the way up to Canada- so many old friends and new made the pilgrimage. The loyalty to this festival is not quite at the Juggalo level but it withstood a higher ticket price with a lineup that did just enough to make the ticket buyers receive an acceptable value.
Words: Danny Baraz
Photos: Chris Molina
