Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Backstage at Webster Hall Saturday night, the members of PMFD were loose, joking around and seemingly unfazed by the fact that they were about to play the largest venue of their career.
The local band was one of four unsigned independent acts selected for the inaugural Anti-Anemoia Festival on Sept. 19, joining the Rote, Figure of Fun and Slorec0re for a night that festival founder Paul Fitzgerald had been imagining for more than a year.
For Fitzgerald, though, the idea goes back much further.
Before starting his career in hospitality, he organized an outdoor concert in Queens for several summers roughly 30 years ago.
Over time, he said, putting on another music event began to feel like "unfinished business."
"The Lower East Side has always been my playground," said Fitzgerald, who lives on MacDougal Street. "I have zero musical skills and [am] simply a fan of alternative music. I love seeing up-and-coming raw bands. From my punk days to the present, the Lower East Side supplies the energy I crave."
In early 2025, he began working on a festival that would give unsigned bands the opportunity to play a larger venue — and compensate them for doing so.
By September, Fitzgerald was ready to commit to a venue. He considered Webster Hall and Irving Plaza, two venues where he'd seen many shows over the years, before ultimately choosing Webster Hall on 11th Street between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue.
The festival team came together along the way. Fitzgerald met photographer Will Case at a show at Night Club 101 on Avenue A. Case initially came aboard to create the website and Instagram presence and eventually became Fitzgerald's collaborating partner on the project.
Then there was a chance encounter in Tompkins Square Park. Fitzgerald was approached by two women — one offered to sketch him while the other wrote him a poem. He gave them a flyer about his search for a twentysomething content creator for the festival. A few days later, Viv submitted a video and landed the role.
"That is how our small but mighty team was created," Fitzgerald said.
Finding the bands required considerably more work.
Fitzgerald listened to 187 acts that submitted for consideration and narrowed the field to 10. The team saw those finalists in the studio and in concert before choosing PMFD, the Rote, Figure of Fun and Slorec0re.
"It's hard to say why these four bands were chosen over the other 183," Fitzgerald said. "I can only say they were judged through the eyes/ears of a music fan and not a music executive."
For Saturday's show, PMFD — Tim Seeberger on guitar and vocals, Carmen Esperanza on bass and vocals, Nicole Harwayne on guitar and Krish Pitaccio on drums, filling in for Violette Grim — played last.
As always, the EVG faves played a high-energy set that showcased their punk fury.
Fitzgerald said he has long felt that way about the bands of the 1960s and '70s.
He originally wanted to call the event Anemoia Festival, but discovered a festival in Europe was already using the name. Adding "Anti" not only distinguished his event but gave the name another meaning.
For Fitzgerald, Anti-Anemoia became about "living in and appreciating the moment" — creating an experience now rather than wishing you had been around for one in the past.
Or, as he put it, "celebrating one unforgettable show that people could someday look back on with anemoia of their own."
Whether there will be another one remains to be seen. Fitzgerald and Case planned to meet this week to go over the inaugural edition before deciding what's next.
For now, Fitzgerald said, "I'm super proud of the bands and everything we accomplished to get to Webster Hall."
