20th Anniversary of Never Take Friendship Personal
ANBERLIN
The Almost, Watashi Wa
SUN, 3 AUG 2025 at 07:30PM EDT
Ages: All Ages
Doors Open: 06:30PM
OnSale: Fri, 18 Apr 2025 at 10:00AM EDT
Announcement: Tue, 15 Apr 2025 at 12:00PM EDT
For more than two decades, Anberlin have remained a formidable force in the alt-rock world,
boasting a wildly devoted fanbase who’ve come to rely on the raw cathartic power of their music.
On the massively anticipated Vega—the first album in ten years from vocalist Stephen Christian,
guitarists Joseph Milligan and Christian McAlhaney, bassist Deon Rexroat, and drummer Nathan
Young—the Florida-bred band deliver a body of work forged with an explosive new energy, thanks
in part to the addition of singer Matty Mullins (the Memphis May Fire frontman who’s stepped in as
live vocalist for Anberlin, following Christian’s announcement that he’ll no longer tour full-time).
The latest triumph in an extraordinary career that’s included selling over 1.5 million albums in the
U.S. alone and turning out hits like the No. 1 Alternative Radio smash “Feel Good Drag,” Vega
reveals a band whose creative passion and one-of-a-kind vision have only grown stronger over time.
Arriving on the heels of two back-to-back EPs—2022’s Silverline and 2023’s Convinced—Vega
emerged from a period of unbridled creativity for Anberlin, who parted ways soon after 2014’s
Lowborn and reunited for a series of lockdown-era livestreams. In bringing their new album to life,
the band embraced a deliberately free-flowing and DIY approach, building up songs in McAlhaney’s
garage before self-producing the LP at Tampa’s Feral Sound Studios. “In the past we’d sometimes
limit our sound to some preconceived idea of what Anberlin is supposed to be,” says McAlhaney.
“This time the mantra was, ‘If it feels good, let’s try it.’ Because at the end of the day, Anberlin is
whatever we say it is.” As a result, Vega encompasses everything from the shout-along-ready pop
perfection of “Walk Alone” to the brutally heavy intensity of “Seven” (a shapeshifting and strangely
enthralling epic featuring a savage vocal performance from Mullins). “I think after spending time
apart we came back with a new perspective, where we were all just excited to work together and
create the best songs we can,” says Young. “No one was precious about their ideas; it was all about
making something that feels new and risky and like nothing we’ve ever done before.”
As they get set to embark on the 20 Years of Tears amphitheater tour with Thursday, Hawthorne
Heights, and Saosin—a 56-date run that marks their most extensive tour in a decade—Anberlin look
forward to the pure thrill of performing their new material for their longtime legion of fans. “We’ve
had so many people tell us things like, ‘Your songs got me through a really difficult time in my life,’
or ‘You guys are what made me pick up a guitar and start my own band,’” says Rexroat. “It’s an
incredible feeling to know that we’ve impacted other people on that level—the amount of love
we’ve felt is undeniable, and it’s one of the main reasons we’ve kept going for as long we have.”
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