It’s been 23 years since Jawbreaker released their final album, 1995’s Dear You, and 22 years since the band broke up. There was a special moment for fans of the legendary punk group in 2017, though: They reunited to perform at Riot Fest. That was just the beginning of something greater, since the band just announced a short run of reunion shows for this year. They’ll perform two nights in San Francisco in January, three gigs at Brooklyn Steel in February, and a pair of shows at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles in March.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the band is working on a new album or anything like that, but in a Q&A in September, the band’s Blake Schwarzenbach did say that Jawbreaker is “trying to” write new music, so there’s at least a sliver of hope. At that same Q&A, Schwarzenbach expressed some regret about the band’s break-up, saying that seeing the rise in popularity of pop punk in the late ’90s and early ’00s “was a drag”:
“We felt guilty, like we knew we had done something wrong, a little bit. I had gone back on my word [about not signing to a major label]. I was aware of that. […] It was a little painful the first years I got to New York, to see the band growing in popularity that I had just left, and then to see the kind of pop punk explosion in the late ’90s and early ’00s, seeing people get, like, swimming pools and stuff, for really mediocre like, barbershop quartet shit… [laughs] that was a drag, that was a drag.”
Check out the announced tour dates below. The first five shows will also include support from, in order, Smokers, Composite and Neutrals, Charly Bliss and Emily Flake, Clare O’Kane and special guests, and Kate Willett and special guests. The two Los Angeles dates are set to feature Waxahatchee, along with Upset on the first night and Post Life on the second. Information about tickets can be found here.
1/13 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
1/14 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
2/26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
2/27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
2/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
3/8 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
3/9 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
