Touring band Dead Sullivan and local bands Iceblink (a.k.a. Small Jaw) and Placeholder will play from 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday night at a makeshift venue called Freddy’s Basement.
Freddy’s Basement is in a house located at 310 Elm St. in Oxford and gets its name from Freddy Krueger, the villain of 1984 film “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Artists perform in the basement, and there is room outside and in the house’s garage for listeners and musicians alike to relax.
This Saturday’s headliner is Dead Sullivan, a self-described bedroom and indie rock band from Denton, Texas. The band released an album titled “Season” this past summer and are in the midst of a tour throughout the South. Opening for Dead Sullivan are two bands from Oxford: Placeholder and Iceblink, a new project from Caleb Rushton.
“I’m super excited about this weekend because Dead Sullivan are super talented and the other two bands are all my friends,” said Sam Cox, who lives at the house and helped organize the event. “I’m excited to just see how people enjoy our space and respect it.”
Cox said Freddy’s is hosting these concerts to bring new music and entertainment to the city while displaying two of Oxford’s own local bands. He also said that the shows are free so that the financial pressure on attendees is minimal, but donations are encouraged to support traveling bands.
“Everyone at Freddy’s Basement wants to create a space where people feel safe, feel included, feel like they can have fun and, more than anything, just a space where people can enjoy music that’s easily accessible,” Cox said.
Justin Ryan, who also lives at Freddy’s and helped organize the event, said that hosting these shows is a great opportunity.
“I’m just super excited to continue listening to new music and providing an outlet for talented artists,” Ryan said. “New music. New friends. Hosting these shows (is) an absolute win-win for me, personally, and I just hope other people enjoy them as much as we do.”
Freddy’s Basement has had one concert thus far this year, on Aug. 15. Warm Thoughts, a musical project of Elliot Babin, stopped at Freddy’s Basement to play the headlining set while on a tour that began in Los Angeles.
“The one show previously went amazing,” Ryan said. “We had a pretty solid turnout. It was definitely a fun night.”
Hattiesburg band Somedaze and Ole Miss student Andrew Newman, performing under his stage name, Lo Noom, also played at that show. More than three dozen people — a mix of students and younger locals — piled into Freddy’s Basement to listen to all the performances throughout the night.
