Packed into a dark, narrow backroom of a basement bar with limited sightlines and a sort of-sketchy sound system — it might not be the ideal way to enjoy a must-see, must-hear band. But by golly, that’s exactly how a pack of eager patrons took it at Quarry House Tavern the night of April 1.
Fust, an alt-country group out of Durham, has quickly caught on with choosy listeners, and for good reason. With just a few recordings, founder Aaron Dowdy has shown himself to be a remarkable songwriter who utters arresting lyrics with a heart-wrenching drawl.
Dowdy and his band visited Silver Spring recently, filling Quarry House Tavern and delivering a stunning set of songs, including tracks from the latest Fust album, Big Ugly, released in early March on Dear Life Records.
Listen to Big Ugly, the new album from Fust, via Spotify:
Though it began as a solo recording project in 2017, Dowdy’s friends/past bandmates joined him a year later: keyboardist Frank Meadows (Tashi Dorji), drummer Avery Sullivan (Sluice), and guitarist and vocalist John Wallace. Eventually, guitarist and pedal steel player Justin Morris (Sluice) and bassist Oliver Child-Lanning (Weirs) came on board, as did fiddler and vocalist Libby Rodenbough (Mipso).
Describing Evil Joy, the group’s 2021 record and first as a team, the band wrote that it came together to play “lonesome, somewhat hopeless songs as quietly as possible,” and that “it seems a violation to play gently songs of wrongdoing and despair.”
Currently out on tour to promote Big Ugly and buoyed by deserved media coverage, the band is clearly finding the right kind of space each night out to share thoughtful, emotionally potent music.
Hard to see for most in the room, and even a little difficult to hear to start, Dowdy and his crew still made the most of the opportunity in Silver Spring by sharing some of the extraordinarily powerful songs that haven’t just turned folks onto this band in short time but already helped them obsess over it.
Setlist
Genevieve
Violent Jubilee
Searchers
Jody
Rockfort Bay
Open Water
Mountain Language
Heart Song
Bleached
Spangled
Below are color digital shots along with very dark home-rolled/developed/scanned 35mm black-and-white film photos of Fust along with opening act Heaven Forbid performing at Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, Md., the night of April 1, 2025. All images copyright and courtesy of Casey Ryan Vock.
Fust
Heaven Forbid
