“To Make the Messthetics, Mix a Reunion With One Virtuosic Newcomer”

The Messthetics were one of the first bands we announced for Big Ears 2019. They’ll join us twice, for a set of their own and then during a one-off improvisation with Lonnie Holley. From the start, we were fascinated by the possibilities of The Messthetics, a very new trio that reunites Fugazi’s old rhythm section of Joe Lally and Brendan Canty around the wild guitar playing of Anthony Pirog. This profile in The New York Times does an amazing job explaining those possibilities and why this band is so intriguing. “It feels like catching baseballs in a batting cage,” Canty says.