Alternative Valentine's Event at Growl Records Draws 100+ Punk and Metal Fans

In between a hand-painted, crying heart and the used CDs section of Growl Records, a crowd of more than 100 people moshed and cheered as distorted guitars rang through the speaker stacks during the Bloody Valentine show on Feb. 13, 2026. The hole-in-the-wall Arlington record store filled for a Valentine’s Day eve bill that deliberately traded roses for reverb.

Halfwit headlined the evening, backed by local acts Rekt, Usiris and Cloudvase. Lone Star Sentinel described the bill as playing a mix of grunge, post-metal and self-described sludgegaze; Cloudvase supplied melodic, guitar-driven tones, Rekt cut through with dense riffs that offered breaks from the floor, and Usiris and Halfwit pushed the room into heavier territory that produced mosh pits during their sets.

Halfwit frontman David Groves, who played guitar during the show, framed the choice to mark the holiday with a concert as part reunion and part celebration. “I think it’s fun to do holiday shows because they’re just a really good thing to do,” Groves said. He added, “We started the band up again, got a new lineup going and we were prospecting that we were going to come back in February. And at the time, I was like, ‘Well, if we’re going to come back in February, we should do a Valentine’s Day show.’”

The audience mixed local music fans and college students, with fans in Halfwit T-shirts pushing toward the front rows, headbanging and jumping to the beat. Crowd behavior was energetic but described on site as “respectful moshing,” with cheering and occasional pits rather than reports of injuries or disruptions; the event atmosphere was repeatedly framed as gritty and underground rather than antagonistic.

The Bloody Valentine concert offered a broader civic moment as well: it served as an alternative to mainstream Valentine’s Day activity and underscored the role of independent venues in Arlington’s music ecosystem. National Today framed the event as a demonstration of how independent music venues and grassroots communities can provide an alternative to mainstream entertainment and foster belonging among fans of punk and metal. The Bloody Valentine concert was a one-time event, but Growl Records continues to host regular live music performances and events that support the area’s underground scene.

One account referenced themed merchandise sales at the packed show, though specific details about items or sales were not reported. For now, the night stands as a concrete example of how local bands and a compact venue drew more than 100 people to repurpose a holiday into a distortion-filled celebration of community and sound.