Angel Dust live at Fine Line, Minneapolis, MN
Angel Du$t – Fine Line – Minneapolis MN – March 9th 2026
First Avenue and The Fine Line present Angel Du$t with special guests Bad Beat and Big Boy on March 9th 2026
Review and photos by Jesse McKinney
Bad Beat
Bad Beat got the room moving fast! You don’t always get that much reaction from the first band of the night, but they were able to pull people in pretty much right away. The set had an old-school hardcore feel to it which I personally loved! They sounded like a band more interested in keeping the momentum up than cleaning every little thing up and that made the set feel like chaotic fun.
One of the better moments came when they broke a string and instead of letting that stop the set, the band pushed through and the guitarist jumped off stage and joined the crowd in the pit for a bit. That kind of thing usually tells you a lot about a band, and in their case it fit the set perfectly! Nothing about them felt stiff. Everybody on stage looked like they were having a great time, and that made the whole thing easier to connect with.
For a newer Detroit band that only formed in 2023, they came off a lot more settled than you might expect. They did their job as the opener, got people moving early, kept the energy up, and made the room feel fully in it before the next set started.
Big Boy
Sometimes you can just tell when a crowd is excited for a band, you can feel the energy in the room pick up just before they hit the stage, and that was 100% the case for Big Boy! Their whole set felt like a chaotic yet fun party and the stage and the floor barely mattered, because everything happening up front was feeding directly into the chaos in the pit. The second they got going, it stopped feeling like there was much neutral space left. If you were anywhere near the middle, you were either getting pushed toward the outer edge or ending up part of it whether you planned to or not.
That was probably the biggest thing that stood out during their set. The pit spread so wide that just hanging back in a normal spot did not really feel like an option. It changed the whole feel of the room and made their set feel bigger than just the band playing through songs. There were stage divers all over the place too, and it felt like Bad Beat kicking things off early only made people more willing to throw themselves into this one. You also had members of Bad Beat stage diving multiple times during the Big Boy set!
The whole time, the vocalist looked like he was having the best time up there! He didn’t stop smiling, even with everything flying around in front of him, and that added something extra to the set. Big Boy came off locked into exactly what they wanted to do, and the crowd met them there the entire time.
Angel Du$t
This was a set I had been looking forward to for a while now and Angel Du$t did not disappoint! Angel Du$t felt like the point where the whole night opened up. Big Boy and Bad Beat both leaned harder into straight up hardcore, but Angel Du$t has always done something a little different with it. They still hit with the same kind of intensity, the room was chaotic right away, but there is a lot more fun working into what they do. That is a big reason they are one of my favorite bands to show people who are not already into hardcore, they ease people into the intensity of hardcore music.
A lot of that comes down to the songs. I have always liked bands that keep things short, punchy, and to the point, and Angel Du$t is great at that! Their songs land fast, do what they need to do, and move on before anything starts dragging. And Live, it works even better! The set never felt stuck in one gear, and it kept the energy up the whole time without feeling too locked into one sound.
Even if they are not a purely hardcore band, Angel Du$t are still a well-respected band in the hardcore community. Coming from a legendary Baltimore hardcore scene, formed by vocalist Justice Tripp alongside drummer Daniel Fang of Turnstile (not currently drumming for Angel Du$t), and guitarist Pat McCrory, who would also later go on to join Turnstile (also not currently in Angel Du$t). And Turnstile vocalist Brendan Yates also joined Angel Du$t for a short time on guitar. Vocalist Justice Tripp is also a founding and current member of the major hardcore band Trapped Under Ice who Turnstile vocalist Brendan Yates is the current drummer for. But even with all of that, they don’t come off like a band coasting on their past history. They are one of the most fun live bands in hardcore right now and I already want to see them again! I am definitely going to keep trying to get more people to go with me next time they come through Minnesota!
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