All Ages
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Chin Ho! occupy a unique place in Vermont music history — a band long regarded as one of the state’s great “what-ifs.” Formed in 1989 by college friends Andrew X Smith and David Morency, the group spent more than 15 years building a fiercely loyal following across the Northeast and earning a reputation that Seven Days once described as “Vermont indie rock royalty.” At the height of the 1990s alternative-rock explosion, Chin Ho! were widely viewed as perhaps the closest Vermont ever came to breaking into that national movement. Through eight self-produced albums and EPs, countless DIY tours, nearly 1,000 live shows, and an ever-evolving cast of musicians, the band became a legendary underground institution — logging more than 400,000 miles in two Dodge Ram vans, appearing on nearly 100 compilation releases, spending a decade as an officially sponsored Jägermeister band, and surviving 27 lineup changes before quietly fading away in the early 2000s.
For more than two decades, Chin Ho! existed largely as a memory until 2023, when the band’s manager organized a reunion BBQ that unexpectedly reignited the chemistry between members. Old friendships were rekindled, the band’s catalog finally arrived on streaming services, and what followed was the creation of the first new Chin Ho! album in over 25 years, The Mystery of the Curse of the Chin Ho! Mystery Curse released on Pacific Records. Built from decades of unfinished demos, cassette recordings, and newly written material spanning the band’s entire history, the album serves as both a rediscovery and a resurrection. Now, Chin Ho! return to Higher Ground in support of the release, bringing one of Vermont’s most beloved and mythologized indie bands full circle on the very stage that helped spark their unlikely comeback.
