Winged Wheel w/ Gold Dust at The Iron Horse on Saturday, August 22 2026

“So, how did this band even happen?” That’s the question most often asked of Winged Wheel, a creatively and geographically scattered collective who have somehow congregated to make a noise that’s unexpected but undeniable. The band includes Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of the dream venue Tubby’s), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack, and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), each player living in a different city and bringing their own unique element to the group’s chain reactions. Early long distance file-trading between a few members yielded 2022’s No Island, a debut album that was accidentally really good. Good enough for the band to expand their membership and meet in person for the sessions that became 2024’s Big Hotel, a surgically-assembled murk of high energy kosmische rock with jammed-out tendencies. Fast forward just a little and all of a sudden the band that started out as a passing idea has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen on their third album, Desert So Green.

Drawing as much inspiration from local lore and hometown guitar legends as they do from the traditional folk revival of 1970s UK, Gold Dust emerges with a sound that is distinctly of New England. Started as a solo project of Stephen Pierce (Ampere, Kindling) in 2020, it now functions as a full band comprised of Ally Einbinder (Potty Mouth), Sean Greene (The Van Pelt), and Adam Reid (Nanny, Adam Reid & the In-Betweens). 

Joining them on In the Shade of the Living Light are J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), Anthony Saffery (Cornershop), Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me, Winged Wheel), Gretchen Williams (Kindling), Drew Gardner (Elkhorn), Josh Robbins (Late Bloomer), and Meghan Minior (Ampere, Corrode).