Stefano Bellezza

Lead guitar, backing vox (check out his windmills)

Dave Cameron

Lead vox, rhythm guitar (delightfully crushable)

Dave Gould

Percussion, backing vox (the drum solo is not a dying art form)

Aaron Clark

Bass guitar, backing vox (runs marathons in Buddy the Elf suits)

Fuzz drenched poetry, slick licks, and hints of eastern mysticism 

There’s no difference between a great song and a great story. Both should thrill you and alter how you see the world. That’s the vision of Charming Arson. This Boston-based alt-rock power-pop quartet wants to excite your imagination and feed your mind. Soaring guitar licks and expressionist lyrics are the yin and yang in their songwriting alchemy. The song as story; the story as song. 

Charming Arson was hatched over a few beers at the Burren in Somerville, MA, in February of 2020, when Dave Cameron and Dave Gould decided to rekindle their musical flame. 

Both had played together in the late 90s in Zoot, an alt/prog-rock trio that worked the Boston scene hard until the untimely death of their guitarist, John Haley. Cameron and Gould parted musical ways, but never stopped talking about how they would one day fire up the tubes. Years later, brooding in that Irish pub over empty pint glasses and the mellifluous yearnings of ​​uilleann pipes, they realized they were idiots for not doing this ten years earlier. 

First band practice occurred on March 5, 2020, which just so happened to coincide with an up-and-coming respiratory virus named after America’s #51 selling beer. 

For the next 18 months, as the Cervecería Modelo brewing company launched a marketing counteroffensive2, band practice consisted of Zoom meetings and GarageBand file transfers. In the summer of 2021, the band, now a four piece3, convened at Quiethouse Recording and recorded their first EP/album, Breathe in Joy. One year, six songs, and a few shows later, the band returned to Quiethouse for their follow up, the soon to be released Cabaré Apocalypse. “Haley, you’re my comet,” dedicated to Zoot’s late-guitarist, was the first single. 

Charming Arson’s current lineup is Stefano Bellezza4 on lead guitar, Dave Cameron on guitar and lead vox, Aaron Clark on bass, and Dave Gould on drums. Everyone sings backing vocals, especially Clark5. 

With the upcoming release of Cabaré Apocalypse, Charming Arson leans into their commitment to melodic guitar rock aimed straight at your poetic imagination. Your spiritual imagination too. It’s all part of the same muse that draws you to what makes you feel alive. Glad to be alive. That’s where this band can take you. 

Make it loud. Make it beautiful. 

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Footnotes:

1-America’s 26 top-selling beers show that the country still likes a cold one now and then, USAToday, Oct 17, 2018

2-The United States Centers for Disease Control have declared Corona beer perfectly safe for consumption

3-Initial lineup included the masterful Dr. Hell on lead guitar and the inimitable Dave Parillo on bass

4-Spent four years disguised as Pete Townshend in two separate Who cover bands, which explains his overly developed rotator cuff

5-He’s actually kind of a genius at it. The slickest harmonies are all him, plus a jazzy spoken-word interlude.