Next Question has earned a loyal following in Reno, but they have been working extra-hard to play outside of their home city. In July, they booked three out-of-town shows within a week.
One was an eclectic fundraiser, The Fireman’s Ball in Silver City on July 18 that benefitted that city’s volunteer fire department. The next day, they played a DIY venue called The Temple of Friends in Salt Lake City. Then, they played at Fat Elephant Records in Folsom, Calif., on July 23.
That’s not all: They bookended the tour dates with two shows at the Holland Project—headlining on July 17 and playing a set at the XP Cross Pollination festival on July 25. As for that last one, they were one of six musical artists that won a poll of Holland attendees to play at XP.
“Overall, we couldn’t ask for more,” said Jack Lucian, guitarist and vocalist for Next Question, about this latest tour. “We had a great first impression of Folsom and Salt Lake City. Our sound seemed to fit well on the bills, and people were receptive.”
Next Question also features Malcolm Critchley on guitar, Tenzin Shae on bass and vocals, and Sam Wilhelm on drums.
While the band played in Portland, Ore., and Citrus Heights Calif., last year and had a weekend-long run in San Diego, this run of shows involved more sustained time away from Reno. Lucian said that getting to see unfamiliar show spaces and music scenes was a highlight.
“We also get to meet new people and get to perform our material for a room of brand-new faces,” he said. “We’ve gotten to bond with so many cool bands out of town.”
Lucian said it’s a challenge for the bandmates to keep up their energy levels while on the road.
“Another challenge is the lack of a safety net,” he said. “In Reno, we can count on a few people showing up and giving us love at shows, but in a new town, there’s zero guarantee anyone is going to give a crap about what we do. We just have to play our songs regardless, because we love them, and ideally someone in the room connects with it.”
Next Question made that bond with Reno audiences from the get-go. All four members were friends in elementary school and formed the group when they were barely 16 years old, Lucian said. They’ve become a firm favorite at Holland and other all-ages venues, and they released an EP and single, both in 2025. A full-length album, tracked with Patrick Hills at Earthtone Recording Company in Sacramento, is due in the fall.
The band is back at the Holland Project tonight, Friday, Aug. 7. Follow @next.question.band on Instagram.
Former Action Bastard members now on a Dynamite Kink
After COVID-19 and its related lockdowns, the Reno music scene came back to life slowly but surely throughout 2021. One standout from that era was Action Bastard, a chaotic but fun band that mixed progressive rock, brutal punk and avant-garde weirdness. Unfortunately, the band split in 2024.
Most of Action Bastard’s members are back, though, with a new group called Dynamite Kink—and a sound that’s got a twist compared to AB’s original King Crimson-meets-The Jesus Lizard sensibility. The band is a throwback hardcore punk band with fast tempos and simple song structure, but then they’ll take off into proggy, hard rock territory when you least expect it.
Dynamite Kink features Wolfman Grimes on guitar, Emmanuel Alexander on vocals, Max Burgess on bass guitar and Derek Todd on drums. The differences compared to the former band: Action Bastard’s previous singer, Taylor King, now lives in Texas, and the band decided to just stick with Todd on drums instead of featuring two drummers like its former band. Another difference is that Alexander isn’t playing sax anymore, but is sticking to rough-and-raw vocals that fit the music well.
Todd and Alexander were jamming on drums and vocals in April 2025 when they asked Grimes to re-join them.
“He came in and just instantly made our first song a solid one,” Alexander said of Grimes. “You know, like, real music and stuff.”
The three reunited bandmates then got in touch with Burgess, who said he wasn’t sure he wanted to play music again, but decided to give it a shot. To get to the band’s current eight songs, Dynamite Kink relied on tapes of jam sessions and on some finished material from Grimes that he said didn’t fit his other bands, Grimedog and Furrow.
In the next few weeks, the band is going to be working on its very first set, deciding song order and finishing up some ideas before its debut gig.
“We’re drilling stuff, but we’re also trying to see what fits together well, what transitions from one song to the next,” Burgess said.
Said Todd: “We have a plan maybe, like Action Bastard used to do, to just do some jams on stage. That’s still up in the air.”
You can see Dynamite Kink debut on Friday, Aug. 21, at Alturas Bar, and they’ll also be part of the Riffz & Rhymez Music Festival 2, taking place on Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Alpine. Follow @dynamitekinkreno on Instagram.
Alphabet Cult is back with a striking new album
A familiar name from the Reno indie scene’s 2010s heyday has reappeared: Alphabet Cult, the excellent and darn-near unclassifiable Reno trio featuring longtime local musicians Cyril Beatty on guitar, Leah Crawford on bass and Darren Barnes on drums.
Singularity Carnivore, released on July 15, is the band’s third full-length album and fits well with its quasi-Alphabet Cult EP, which the group released in 2025 under the band name Secret Monolith.
It was wise for the trio to fully resurrect the Alphabet Cult name, because Singularity has all the best qualities of the band: the dual singing of Beatty and Crawford, and the mix of stoner-doom metal riffs, classic new wave and ’70s art rock—with Barnes’ dexterous yet solid drumming powering it all.
My favorites are “Foam Finger #1,” which has a central riff that’s supremely catchy, and the eight-minute “You Already Know,” which twists and turns like an epic, but keeps you engaged as it unwinds.
Thus far, there are no plans for the band to play live, something it also didn’t do for the Secret Monolith record. Barnes did make clear that Alphabet Cult “exists, but just at a slow, old pace.”
You can get all of Alphabet Cult’s albums at its Bandcamp site.
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Local musicians, bands, venues: Let us know if you have something newsworthy going on. Give me the scoop at markearnestwriter@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram.