Sunburned Hand of the Man at Stage 33 Live

Sunburned Hand of the Man are an enigmatic experimental collective with a stunningly large discography and frequent personnel changes. Their improvisations incorporate elements of free jazz, space rock, psych-rock, hypno krautrock, drone, folk, funk, punk, and dirty synth. Their live shows are a surprise every time — even to them, usually — ranging from wild freak-outs to more coherently sculpted material careening from unsettling to hypnotic to mellow.

According to Sean Kitching, writing in The Quietus, “Sunburned at their best are capable of taking the listener on a shamanic, boogie-fueled trip outside of quotidian reality. Live shows blend monstrous tectonics of rhythm, caustic guitar, echoing phased vocals, insect electronics and kitchen sink instrumentation that collide in an ecstatic racket.”

Throughout the mid-’90s they represented New England’s “free rock” contingency, and the “free folk” — sometimes misnomered “freak folk” — era described by David Keenan’s 2003 article “New Weird America” in British music magazine The Wire.

There will be no opener for this show, it will be 100% Sunburned. It’s likely to be loud. Stage 33 Live has no idea what the lineup will be, or how long the show will go. This is in accordance with the strange purity of Sunburned Hand of the Man.

Daisy Frederick will provide old-school psychedelic interactive liquid light projections.

February 28, 2026, which is a Saturday, at 7:00 PM. Tickets are just $20 in advance through stage33live.com or at the door as available. Advance tickets guarantee entry. Only 40 tickets will be sold. The performances will be recorded and filmed. Stage 33 Live is located at 33 Bridge Street in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

Stage 33 Live is a casual and intimate industrial-rustic listening room in a former factory hosting local, regional, and national performances and presentations of original material. No bar or kitchen, the stage is the mission; coffee / soda / juice / water and weird snacks available by donation. More information about the nonprofit, all-volunteer project, and this and other upcoming events, online at stage33live.com

Stage 33 Live gratefully acknowledges the help of so many individuals without whom none of this would be able to happen, and institutional support this season from The Island Corporation, WOOL-FM, Guilford Sound, and the Rockingham Arts & Museum Project to help fund improvements and maintenance, and generally smooth out a lot of the rough edges. Stage 33 Live is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and all donations are deductible to the fullest extent. Volunteers run the thing from stem to stern.