Tearing up stages with their metal-adjacent sound, four-piece “post-Midwest mathcore” band Southpaw shreds without yelling. This instrumental band features dynamic chord changes, rapid tempo changes and riffs for days. Southpaw is often met with a pile of punks prepared to mosh (watch out for pits forming near the stage) with a few brave souls crowd-surfing over the top. Wielding a couple of electric guitars are Nate Pykkonen and Isaac Smith. Calculating some well-timed thrashing is drummer Nate Rendulich, while bassist Dalton Hanson hypes up the crowd. In 2023, their album Finally was awarded Best Album in the Duluth Reader’s annual poll.