The Treefort Music Fest, a massive hub for indie lovers across all genres that takes place in Boise, ID, emphasizes the present. Selecting the best and buzziest of our current indie stars as headliners makes it a particularly unusual (and appetizing) event.

Both Geese and Magdalena Bay, two bands still on their victory lap after releasing their breakout records Getting Killed (2025) and Imaginal Disk (2024) respectively, are making their festival debut. Flipturn, an indie rock band who quietly but surely secured their spot as a solid indie rock mainstay join them as well, all before the rock singer-songwriter extraordinaire Father John Misty closes out the week with a predictably powerful performance. Aside from these four, we have other indie heavy-hitters like Samia, Tune Yards, PISS, Mother Mother, Machine Girl, hemlocke springs, and way, way more. Even some newcomers to my roster — the hilarious and brash electronic duo Big Sis and the Tacoma garage rocker Alex Vile, to name only two — prove that talent was oozing out of everywhere in this peculiar town.

Though Northern Transmissions cannot stress enough how many wonderful acts there were last week, we wanted to take some time to reflect on the four headliners, some other standout artists, and the music that makes all these people worth checking out.

—

Alex Vile at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Alex Vile: If you came to Treefort early, then you’d know that the party actually began on Wednesday, March 25, and that Tacoma-based grunge rock band Alex Vile were billed as one of the top performances of the evening. Though a part of a band for years, the project fronted by Alexandra Vilenius is relatively new, coming together with a handful of singles and live performances in underground venues over the Pacific Northwest. In some ways, the singer-songwriter’s band is classic Washington, siphoning the best of the city’s grunge groups like Soundgarden, Bikini Kill, and Sleater-Kinney in the throbbing, electric song “Lucky Number”. Yet, he sweet and airy vocals, exposed once she peels away the solid aggression of a good and messy yell, offer a softer side to her music, finding its uniqueness in the way it cuts through her incessant shredding. (I personally loved “Never Awake”, which tempers existential rage with soft-spoken vocals, an electric guitar that drowns out all the noise, and a drum line that sounds like clapping thunder.) Heavy and light at the same time, I’m excited to see where Alex Vile’s music takes her next. Hopefully, it’s an album!

The Belair Lip Bombs at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

The Belair Lip Bombs: In a wave of international artists cancelling shows due to border issues, the Australian rockers The Belair Lip Bombs managed to cease festival goers’ disappointment with a standout show. The fourpiece, fronted by lead vocalist Maisie Everett, find themselves somewhere between The Beths, Wunderhorse, and The 1975, delicately embellishing their loud and messy guitars with a youthful, synth-y rhinestone. “Hey You”, the band’s breakout track and crowd favorite, runs with a catchy and cathartic spirit, cooling down the hot and sunny Hideout stage with an atmospheric performance. Everett’s vocals are especially emotive, switching between a poppy and nonchalant melody and an outright punk yell that creaks with pain and desperation as she screams, “I can’t help myself! / I can’t save myself!” in “Look The Part”. Of the new bands to discover this week, The Belair Lip Bombs became one of my favorites.

Blondshell at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Blondshell: Like in her All Things Go performance, Blondshell’s Sabrina Teitelbaum started off the first official day of Treefort’s main stage programming with a slacker-esque, hazy, and lyrically hitting set. She’s definitely an artist who lets the music do the talking, often times just leisurely pacing to the frayed, rock-tinged music of the band that gently pours over the listener’s head. Overall, Blondshell puts on a relaxing show, just focusing on the standout part of her music: the nonchalant delivery of lyrics that dissect the nuances of conversations, relationships, sexuality, and self-realization.

Chalk at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Chalk: The Belfast duo Ross Cullen and Benedict Goddard are sleek, stylish, and a bit hardcore. A promising heir to the Nine Inch Nails sound and ambience, Chalk came out with one of the strongest debut records of the year so far, Crystalpunk. It’s sweaty, it’s thumping, it’s thrashing: a full body experience, the album charges with breakneck momentum and post-industrial, EBM flair. Though the two have been making dark dance music on the cutting edge of electronic and hardcore since 2023 with their twin Conditions EPs, this new installment is fully realized and shimmering — even more so when experienced as loudly as humanly possible, shuffling around in piercing strobe lights and the vibrations of the speakers. The singer and guitarist, supported by a live drummer and synth operator, absolutely turned the upstairs ballroom of Shrine Social Club (a place that can be only described as a cozy school gymnasium, complete with the waxy floors and colorful felt pendants) into a packed, hot nightclub, topped off by an outrageous, buzzy performance of “I.D.C.”, a sharp, flamboyant techno track brimming with total confidence.

Father John Misty at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Father John Misty (Headline, 3/29): Father John Misty did what Father John Misty does best perform the greatest hits from each of his (fantastic) albums, force us to jam out to as many ten-minute tracks as possible, give special highlights to his 70s-flavored psych rock band, and be as charismatic as ever while doing it. He made some odd choices with the setlist, sacrificing one of his more beautiful and melancholic ballads like Chloë and the Next 20 th Century’s “Buddy’s Rendezvous” for Mahashmashana’s “Mental Health” — a song that, while poignant and beautifully well-written as an anthem for pressures under capitalism, drags on and deflates the crowd’s energy. The witty and folksy Fear Fun ditty “I’m Writing A Novel” also came in as a delightful surprise to some members of the audience, and though he rarely ever gives God’s Favorite Customer the attention other records get, “Mr. Tillman” getting second spot on the setlist certainly had the audience erupting into excited screams. Lastly, while I sorely missed the powerhouse of a vocal performance I know Joshua Tillman can bring while singing the slightly poorly-aged yet still legendary “Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Cow” from I Love You, Honeybear, the knockout big finish of “The Ideal Husband” made me forget all my troubles and realize (once again) that Father John Misty may be one of the best singer- songwriters and performers ever. Full stop.

Flipturn at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Flipturn (Headline, 3/26): Compared to the other three headliners of Magdalena Bay, Geese, and Father John Misty — two recent indie phenomena, as well as an untouchable household name in the singer-songwriter realm — Flipturn seemed like a random choice for top billing. They’re just college rockers who turned into a strong, crowd-pleasing band, making waves through their original University of Florida community before their 2022 debut Shadowglow, which propelled them into the festival circuit for the first time. Now on album no. 2 with Burnout Days, the indie rock band’s music is solid with rarely any skips, and their set just became a series of great, feel-good tracks. However, the notable lack of spectacle around them and/or their music (at least compared to the other three) makes their role as headliner even more confusing. Their performance at Treefort was like their studio recordings: tame yet inoffensive, fun but not that much of a splash. It’s good music, for sure; it has mass appeal and doesn’t risk with the eccentricity Magdalena Bay, Geese, and Father John Misty have. Their set was made more enjoyable by the passionate fans who packed the main stage just to sing along to every word, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something big about this indie rock band, even if they have been featured prominently in festivals long before others in their category. But I guess one could consider that some major rock bands oftentimes sneak up to the front, slowly but surely working hard in the background to build the right hype and draw in a large and dedicated audience.

Geese at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Geese (Headline, 3/28): Seeing Geese live in multiple contexts — regular sets both pre- and during Getting Killed, special hometown gigs, album release parties, and now as a Treefort headline performance — I’d like to counter the sensationalist narrative that Geese are mythical beings sent here to cure young people of boredom with transcendent music. In reality, while they’re keenly aware of both their musical ambitions and limits, their magnificence comes from the fact that they’re simply an extremely steady band. Even at a massive stage event like a festival headline spot, the young rockers were still anti-spectacle, averse to flashy backdrops and on-stage gimmicks and preferring simple black curtains, the band logo, and fun lights. Their setlist has been perfected and cemented into a rapid succession of fourteen songs, even accounting for the occasional swap (bye-bye “Domoto” and “Long Island City Here I Come” and hello “Crusades” and “I See Myself”) and obligatory cover riff in the middle of “2122”. (This time, we got Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive”, because Geese can prog hard, too.) The band might be a little sick from travel or charmingly awkward in between songs, but they will somehow manage to pull through, delivering an otherworldly vocal performance anyway. They are capital ‘R’ Reliable. However, Geese are never a “once you’ve seen them once, you’ve seen them enough” band. A crucial part of the show, the element that makes one of their concerts the most exciting moments to be active in indie music right now, is seeing how the crowd evolved from a pack of long-time fans back in the beginning of the 2020s into an all-out frenzy of hair, hands, legs, and shoes at Treefort’s main stage. For the outsider, all this Geese love seems like an overnight shot of adrenaline — a series of milestones just being handed to the “next big thing” that might burn everyone out too quickly. But from an insider’s perspective, I’d argue the festival headline spot is just a well-deserved achievement that came after years of working very hard (yes, even people in their early 20s can claim veteran status if they’ve built their entire lives off this gamble), developing a truly unique sound, and just being cool about it all. All this to say, they put on a killer show, as expected.

Gelli Haha at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Gelli Haha: If you wanted an 80s-influenced synth and dance pop artist who isn’t afraid to share any deranged idea, then Gelli Haha will be one of the best and most memorable live performances of your life. The Los Angeles artist — a native to Boise, ID with an intimate history with Treefort — brought the whole “Gelliverse” circus to her midnight show this past weekend. Parachutes, dancers, choreography that blends jazz and aerobic workouts, building blocks, skits, foam balls, hula hoops, mini trampolines: the singer-songwriter’s wacky world incorporates all of these in high-energy numbers that leave no room for breaks. If there’s one admirable thing about Miss Haha (aka Angel Abaya), it’s that she takes frivolity very seriously. The dirty disco song “Piss House”, a spoken-word sleazy track about urinating into a jar at a particularly messy party, works as a tremendous crowd pleaser because she performs it with such exaggerated expressions, sharp movements, and a thumping bass that lets the crowd get loose. “Bounce House” tones her down into a Tiffany-esque bubbly pop singer, but it’s got equally playful and on-theme metaphors that come with cutesy choreography. What makes music most enjoyable is the fact that going to a concert can and should be very fun, a moment of escape from the boring routine of everyday life. With Gelli Haha, the only routine is a dance routine: the rest is just a blur of fully-saturated colors, distorted laughs, and a dreamy synth melody.

INJI at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

INJI: Dance pop artist INJI certainly captured attention with her cheeky, electric, and fun-loving music, compiled in all caps on her 2025 album, SUPERLAME. The artist made her way through the EDM scene before pulling together a pop record that draws from house, dancehall, hip-hop, and electroclash. With her 2023 debut LFG, she burst into club rooms with the sassy, catchy, and viral singles “Madeline”, “UNTZ UNTZ”, and “GASLIGHT”, proving she could liven up any party. At Treefort, which gave listeners even more dance bangers complemented by straightforward yet amusing lyrics and a groovy and enthusiastic live band, INJI asserted herself as a pop star not to be overlooked — a promise for a fun time either through a speaker or in a packed, equally revved up crowd.

Magdalena Bay at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Magdalena Bay (Headline, 3/27): Concluding what I’d describe as the uber pop day of Treefort, the eccentric art duo Magdalena Bay exploded with color, costumes, synths, and talent as they brought the Imaginal Mystery Tour to life. The minds behind this project, Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, got to this point in their careers through Imaginal Disk, their 2024 sophomore record that became an immediate hit among fans and critics alike. Psychedelic, maximalist, fizzy, and utterly ambitious with its sound, the album propelled the two into rethinking their relationships with themselves, especially when pixelized, condensed, and zipped into files stored in a cybernetic world. Their show certainly stood out among the other headliners, who opted for simpler, rock-aligned sets. Yet, Magdalena Bay aren’t just singer-songwriters and guitarists; they’re storytellers who wanted to do their high-concept music some justice. I’d go even further to say they’re the best of art pop right now, putting the surrealist lyrics and synth production Björk and Grimes in dialogue with the complexity of guitar and bass of The Beatles and Pink Floyd, all while singing in a unique, airy, fairy-like voice. With synth pop and rock tunes like “That’s My Floor”, “Image”, “Death and Romance”, “Love Is Everywhere”, and “Vampire in the Corner” — all performed at last week’s performance, among other fan-favorite tracks — the two indulged in their wackiest selves, metamorphosizing into different creatures as they told stories of heartbreak, self-perception, ego death, conquering hardships, and becoming their true selves on stage. Most of all, it’s fun to watch Tenenbaum and Levin skip around and clearly connect with their own music; their brightness is infectious, and it makes their space a welcoming one to all fans.

Pearly Drops: Featured as one of our albums you might have slept on in 2025, the electronic rock duo Pearly Drops are made their Treefort debut while promoting The Voices Are Coming Back, their third studio album. I can say without a doubt their show is a must-see: rarely do we ever hear a band who can so easily replicate the unique sound of their gentle vocals, their lo-fi and melancholic rock melodies, and the hard-hitting nature of the electronic beats they produce, all while keeping the visuals simple yet effortlessly cool. On the surface, Sandra Tervonen and Juuso Malin are two people bathed in green lights and hooked up to a synth board and a laptop, letting their music play and following along to whatever they queued. They roam around the stage and let the lyrics — sometimes silly and cool, sometimes shockingly precise and introspective about self-image and existing in public — dictate their delivery, saving the exciting dance breaks whenever the beat goes hard. Their humor comes through almost immediately with Malin’s soundboard, programmed with pre-recorded ad-libs like “Perfect” and “Pearly Drops” he throws into a conversation at random times, as well as Tervonen’s autotune mic she hams up at precious moment. But their music does leave the listener sitting with themselves for a moment, pausing at lines that shake off the layers of artifice and quirk and instead finding their reflections on writer’s block and the struggles of creativity profound.At Pearly Drops set, you could be a party girl, sad girl, or just a “ratgirl;” either way, you’ll leave
impressed.

The Sophs at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

The Sophs: The Sophs genuinely have a song for every alternative person. Ska, country, rock, electronic, punk, emo, cabaret, WHATEVER: in a 30-minute window, the LA rock band impulsively jumbled all of these sounds together in a high-energy set that had the packed basement of Shrine swinging fists and bodies by the end. I won’t be the first to describe this band as ambitious, as their front man Ethan Ramon moaned “Where’s my gold star?” through a tinny, old-fashioned microphone while the band erupts into a garage-meets-flamenco frenzy on “GOLDSTAR”. Likewise, “They Told Me to Jump, I Said How High” had the singer frantically pacing and throwing himself on the ground repeatedly as he hunched over the microphone, sweating to get a word out on how badly he dreams of escape from an overstimulated, superficial, and murderous world. They also nailed wacky and demanding songs like “SWEETIEPIE”, which featured a whimsical Jew’s harp that turned The Sophs briefly into a jug band, and they led everyone in a theatrical, tambourine-heavy group melody before jumping into the crowd for a quick mosh. Attention is what The Sophs want, and after a show like their Treefort set, it’s what they deserve.

Tyler Ballgame at Treefort Music Fest 2026 by Bobby Nicholas III

Tyler Ballgame: The singer-songwriter Tyler Ballgame can do so much with just a piano and his booming, timeless voice. Celebrating the release of his debut record, For The First Time, Again, the artist performed at Treefort’s main stage on a particularly gorgeous day, adding to the tranquility of spring in full bloom with a set that highlighted his feel-good lyricism, his spritely melodies, and a highly expressive singing style that channels the gravitas of the 70s glam rockers yet edits them down to a more acoustic tone. “I Believe In Love”, his realistic yet optimistic anthem that beams with joy and simplicity, put a smile on every listener’s face, getting them to naturally clap with enthusiasm to the syncopated beat. Likewise, the Belle and Sebastian-channeling “New Car” — a series of images that symbolize starting over and finding happiness in life again — dazzled, accentuating the vocalist’s ability to glide from a dreamy falsetto to a bellowing, lullaby-like hum. Tyler Ballgame stood out as an unpredictable artist, countering all the synth boards and fuzzy guitars with an extremely intimate set; yet, based on the mastery of his performance, as well as the debut of some new, unreleased material, he asserted himself as someone exciting to watch — a refreshing face in indie music.

With words by Victoria Borlando and photography by Bobby Nicholas III

See artist portraits Northern Transmissions photographed at Treefort Music Fest 2026 HERE

More info on Treefort Music Fest HERE