The Armed Premiere “Future Drugs” Live Clip From Secret Pop-Up Open Mic Night Tour

Last year, one of the only albums I truly cared about was the untitled album by The Armed, a phenomenal bare-bones piece of catchy mathcore.

Some very reputable people and media outlets have been completely duped by this band, and one of the most confusing things about The Armed is that they seem to have no interest in touring behind an album that they’d put a ton of work/press effort/content creation/cold hard $ into.

But they did tour it – just, not the way we’re used to bands touring.

Under various pseudonyms (including Mike Lane, Barbara Loden, and “Big Mac”), The Armed played a series of anonymous shows at gas stations, open mic nights, and after-school specials around the Goshen, Indiana, and Passaic, New Jersey areas (culminating at the Lebanon City-County Fair). They didn’t publicize these shows, design tour fliers, or “make a guest list.” They did record all of it, though, and the results have been culled into a live album, Unanticipated, mixed at God City by Kurt Ballou (Nails, Kvelertak, Baptists).

The band transmitted a preview clip to me, via an airgapped Lacie hard drive, for the song “Future Drugs.” As with the band’s video for “Polarizer,” the clip’s contents may have been corrupted in their upload to the mainframe. See below:

Unanticipated is out June 17th via No Rest Til Ruin.