Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Blue fluorescent lights illuminate Brighton Music Hall (158 Brighton Ave) as people bobbed their heads and tapped their feet to the rhythm of Sidney Gish’s 2017 hit song “Imposter Syndrome.” The audience moved to the DIY bedroom pop sounds of a loop pedal and light strings of Gish’s guitar.

“Every other day I’m wondering, what’s a human being got to be like?,” people sang along as they packed the sold out show in celebration of the music blog, Allston Pudding’s 15th anniversary on February 27, alongside performances from Winkler, and Beeef.

Since its launch in 2010, Allston Pudding has been a hub for Boston music lovers to discover local artists. Transcending the roles of a music blog, the publication hosts concerts that highlight the local, independent music scene. While the music blog hosts many events, they never held a celebration of the blog’s anniversary until now. 

“We talked about a couple of configurations of how we would sort of do it, and the stars aligned, and we got the show,” said Dillon Riley, manager of live events and editor for Allston Pudding.

“We sink a lot of time, energy, effort, and money into this thing, and doing anything for 15 years is remarkable, especially it’s just covering and being passionate about local art.” 

Founded in 2010 by four students at Boston University at the time, Allston Pudding’s mission to support the local music scene around Boston became a starting point for many local artists to attract engagement.

“We’d always been going to local shows anyways, and we were like, well, why don’t we write about them or photograph,” said Perry Eaton, Beeef’s singer and guitarist and co-founder of the blog. 

“All with just the mission of people who really liked local music, wanted to see more local music, and really wanted to promote what they were hearing.”

As traction grew in the later years, local bands would ask the blog to review their live performances.  

Harry Gustafson, co-owner and chief multimedia editor for Allston Pudding, said many people they have met at shows have told them that they are fans of artists due to Allston Pudding’s coverage.

“We are a force in the community for putting on the good local music talent around here, ” said Gustafson. 

Winkler, a local indie rock band with a sound described as “music made in the bedroom, for the bedroom” opened the concert. The band has been covered in Allston Pudding and performed at the blog’s music series collaboration last spring at Zone 3 Allston (267 Western Ave). Maddy Simpson, Winkler’s singer, was excited to be contacted once again to perform at the 15th anniversary.

 “I think it’s cool that there’s an indie publication right here that always is like uplifting people’s music, so it was definitely an easy yes,” Simpson said. “It’s really exciting that it’s sold out. I think it’s a testament to how excited people are about local music and local music blogs.”

Ally Kleinmann, a concert-goer, said she attended the performance for Sidney Gish but ended up enjoying all the performances.

“I came because I have been following Sidney Gish for a while, but all the bands, I really enjoyed their sound and everything,” Kleinmann said. “Honestly, I’ll probably be paying more attention to Allston Pudding now.”

Similarly, Lydia Hurley, another concert-goer, said she really liked the performance as well as shared the importance of indie publications to local music.

“I think indie publications are really important and local music is really important, and I’d love to come back for another event,” Hurley said.

As Allston Pudding continues to highlight the local music scene and remind the importance of local music blogs, Gustafson said events like these will only continue to inspire them to create and host more live event shows as well as an initiative to branch out into more forms of media. 

“I think it’s only going to inspire us to do more events like this. We have a lot of plans for 2026,” Gutsafson said. “I would just keep following, especially for a lot of multi-media stuff, that’s been a goal of mine for a while.” ▪