PREVIEW: Festival of Humanity Brings Eight Hours of Noise
10/05 @ Paper Moon Bookstore, Troy
“Every act is going to represent how someone’s feeling in an intense and real way. Some will be planned, some improvised.”
This Sunday, Paper Moon Bookstore in Troy will host The Festival of Humanity, an eight-hour experimental noise marathon bringing together some of the Northeast’s most daring sound artists and performance provocateurs. Curated by musician and promoter John Weed in collaboration with bookstore owner Joshua Gruft, the festival celebrates noise not only as a genre, but as a form of social resistance and raw self-expression.
The lineup includes a diverse mix of solo acts: Crackhead Barney, Bad Dream Adventure, Lady Ruby Mae, DJ Riddick, ML Nitrate, Dreamland from Another Function, and Industry Standard, among others. Performances will stretch from ambient to confrontational, meditative to manic—an unfiltered snapshot of a community that thrives on chaos, experimentation, and intensity.
The idea for the marathon came together organically after a summer show at Paper Moon. “There’s something about the diversity of what solo acts bring,” Weed explains. “You never know what you’re going to get yourself into going from one act to the next. You're giving somebody the reins to an entire project, you’re entering one person’s mind, and that can get really crazy really fast. This bill really exemplifies that.”
Weed, who performs under ssj4weed, is known for blending lush synth textures with the abrasive edge of live improvisation. His collaboration with artist William Deschamps, who manipulates his voice through a walkie-talkie-like device connected to a noise pedal, will open the day on an ambient note before the following artists travel into increasingly unhinged territory. “It’s going to start mellow and nostalgic, then get wild,” Weed says. “The curious shall be rewarded.”
One of the festival’s headliners, Crackhead Barney, brings a distinct political edge. Known for her confrontational performances at protests where she is often dressed as a baby, covered in powder, and screaming at far-right demonstrators, her work blurs satire, activism, and performance art. Weed describes her set as “shocking and traumatic, but honest. She’s very much in the trenches.”
Another highlight, Bad Dream Adventure, hails from Troy and has been performing increasingly triumphant sets that, as Weed puts it, “feel like an eternal build without ever falling—like a crescendo that never ends.” Between these extremes are artists whose sounds range from delicate ambient tones to distorted feedback storms like DJ Riddick, who oscillates between melodic and harsh textures; ML Nitrate, a rising artist drawing from video games and harsh noise; and Dreamland from Another Function, whose homemade setup includes Casio keyboards, kalimbas, and toy pianos wired through pedals.
Noise music, as both Gruft and Weed emphasize, isn’t just about sound, it’s about the emotion and expression itself. Noise is absurd in a lot of ways, but so are the systems we’re forced to survive in. The genre’s roots trace back to the early twentieth century, when avant-garde composers and Dadaists sought to reject musical convention and reflect the illogic of war, fascism, and industrial modernity. Gruft sees today’s noise scene as carrying that same energy of resistance.
“After studying Beethoven and Bach, composers began experimenting with sounds outside of melody. John Cage, percussion ensembles, electronic music in the ’50s. Now, the traditional instruments are guitar, drums, and laptop. Noise musicians make their own instruments or use feedback, what most musicians would consider a mistake, and turn it into something expressive.”
For Gruft, the importance of noise lies in its accessibility. “The entry to noise is minimal,” he explains. “You don’t need training or school to make noise music.”
That sense of community is central to Paper Moon. Opened as a bookstore, it has evolved into an interdisciplinary space where experimental musicians, poets, and readers converge. “I started Paper Moon just to sell books,” Gruft says, “but being an independent business owner means listening to what people need. Within a week of opening, someone messaged me looking for a place to host a hip-hop show. Coming from the punk scene, setting up a show was second nature.”
Since then, the shop has hosted everything from noise sets to zine launches. “It wasn’t what I expected to do,” Gruft admits, “but it’s turned into a way to give back to the local music scene that raised me. Regardless of who’s president or what’s going on in the world, experimental music is important. It challenges what people think live performance can be—and that’s what I care about most.”
Noise music’s political charge is as relevant now as ever. As Gruft puts it, “The world feels confusing and frustrating. The Festival of Humanity brings together people who are angry, curious, or just trying to make sense of it all. They’re expressing themselves without boundaries.”
“Every act is going to represent how someone’s feeling in an intense and real way,” Weed adds. “Some will be planned, some improvised. You never know what emotion you’ll tap into, but that’s the beauty of it.”
The Festival of Humanity runs from 1–9 p.m. at Paper Moon Bookstore, Troy, NY. Tickets are $15 at the door, with possible after-hours events to follow at an undisclosed location. Bring earplugs and an open mind.
