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Fartbarf is a Gas for Halloween: Yeah, Fartbarf is the perfect band for a pre-Halloween shindig at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach. Thankfully, a negative COVID test of vaccination is required to get into all indoor public venues — this is a good thing. We can all enjoy Fartbarf, wearing a mask (pun intended), and know that we’re more likely to be safe.

By now you likely know that Fartbarf is a bunch of dudes in creepy cavemen masks with a backstory of being from another planet (or something), and they play awesome synth-punk with distorted vocals. And the name is wonderful. Back in 2019, band member Josh McLeod told us that “The name to us is so commonplace now that we don’t laugh or blink at it. After 10 years, we’ve finally become numb to the absurd quality of it. But I think at the end of the day, it’s served a purpose, which has gone beyond what we anticipated. It’s really good for Google searches, obviously. There’s only one group of people in the world that would want to call themselves this, and work hard as a band. Make it happen. A lot of times early on, venues didn’t want to put our name anywhere, let alone on the marquee at the front of their establishment. It was refreshing the first time we saw our name on the side of a building — we’re actually accepted now.”

As for the sound, he said: “I think we consider ourselves a live, aggressive dance band. If I sum it up in a sentence, it’s if Hot Chip met Devo met Slayer. Going back to the early days when we started playing shows, dubstep was huge and a lot of promoters tried to bill us with DJs like that, and we were like, ‘Nah, you don’t really get it.’ We think of ourselves as more of a punk band than something that could go hand in hand with dubstep and that genre of music. All of us in the group grew up listening to punk and metal. So we never considered ourselves to fall into the deep house DJs genre, even though we’re playing electronic music.”

See for yourself when they play on Friday with Restavrant, Toys That Kill, and Moonfuzz.

Fartbarf is a Gas for Halloween: The event takes place at 8 p.m. on Friday, October 29 at Alex’s Bar.

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