Vagrant Announces Anniversary Shows With Dashboard Confessional, Alkaline Trio, Thrice, The Get Up Kids, The Anniversary, & Hot Rod Circuit
Vagrant Records started in Santa Monica in 1996, and by the end of the decade, the label had signed a lot of the biggest emo and pop-punk bands out there. Vagrant did everything in its power to present its roster as a united front, sending its bands out on the road together and putting out well-circulated label compilations. Vagrant got so popular, in fact, that Punk Planet once ran a cover story about how the label was turning the entire scene into major-label cannon fodder.
Eventually, Vagrant’s biggest bands broke up and/or moved on to other labels. BMG Management Group bought Vagrant in 2014, and the label’s current roster has nothing to do with its glory days. But next year, a bunch of classic-era Vagrant acts are getting together for a pair of huge shows that’ll mark the label’s 26th anniversary. (The 25th anniversary didn’t really happen at a time when anyone could play huge shows.)
On May 28, Five Points Amphitheater in Irvine, California will host a whole lot of onetime emo overlords: Dashboard Confessional, Alkaline Trio, Thrice, the Get Up Kids, the Anniversary, and Hot Rod Circuit. On June 11, most of those same bands will play at the Palladium Outdoors in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Alkaline Trio won’t play that show, but Moneen will.) Get ready for some very loud, very nostalgic singalongs.