Healer, one of Indianapolis’s busiest all ages DIY venues, held a benefit concert Sunday October 19 all proceeds going towards funding future shows. With a range of genres taking the stage each week and weekend, you can often catch a show here for less than a ticket anywhere else in town. Touring acts, especially from the national do it yourself culture, mark it as a stoping point while traversing the midwest and are always strongly supported by local support acts. On Sunday, four local bands came together for a mixed bill show to give back to the venue.
Alex Beckman (Pat and the Pissers) got the night started by trading in his signature high energy front man duties for an acoustic guitar and mic stand. Staying true to his punk and hardcore style, he commanded the small room with equal enthusiasm to his full band performance earlier this year for a sold out crowd in one of Indy’s biggest venues. Playing originals and covering “Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements, he got the audience laughing along with him each time he introduced himself as a different name. Nobody was fooled though, because Alex is one of the most vocal supporters of the all ages DIY scene in Indiana.
Radar Gold was up next, starting their set with an extended vintage inspired psych pop infused rock song. It’s easy to get lost in the dreamy vocals and rock riffs they’ve become known for. They played several songs from their 2026 release “Fortune Teller”. Add them to the growing list of why we need more female fronted groups. With her black velvet bellbottoms and stark white fringed tank top, lead singer Emma Clark effortlessly slid her platform shoes off to operate her pedal board while singing and without missing a note. Impressive enough to inspire anyone to start a band.
After a short break it was Blank Stare up from Bloomington, Indiana telling the audience “You can move closer, we’re not gonna melt your face off or anything.” They proceeded to melt our faces off anyway with their catchy up tempo emo pop punk melodies and loud distorted rifts. The four piece rolled from song to song with each singer taking turns on lead vocals before joining together for the last songs.
Indianapolis hardcore outfit Chromarama sprang off the stage several times to join the crowd in moshing. The uplifting undertone of the loud high energy songs combined with constant movement and almost no breaks between songs had us forgetting it was late on a Sunday night. The band’s love for not only the hardcore fanbase they’ve gathered, but also any supporter of the local music scene was impossible to ignore. It was a perfect way to end the night celebrating local bands in one of Indy’s favorite venues.
You can find the schedule for future Healer shows at www.healerdiy.net or on their socials @healerdiy. You can also donate to help the venue keep putting on shows anytime at the link in their bio.