Citizen w/ Hotline TNT

Citizen, formed in Toledo, Ohio in 2009 and fronted by vocalist Mat Kerekes, blend emo-pop, post-hardcore, shoegaze and punk into a distinctly Midwestern sound, building a catalog that runs from 2013's Youth through 2023's Calling the Dogs, with a new album, Halcyon Blues, set for release via Run For Cover Records. The band's mix of bombastic hooks and heavier, atmospheric textures has made them a mainstay of the modern emo and post-hardcore scene since their Vans Warped Tour days. Joining them in Cleveland on August 22, 2026 is Hotline TNT, the shoegaze project of Will Anderson, a Wisconsin-raised, New York-based songwriter who built the band's wall-of-sound guitar layering on 2021's Nineteen in Love and expanded it with a full band on 2023's Cartwheel and 2024's Raspberry Moon. The pairing puts two guitar-forward bands from adjacent corners of underground rock on the same bill—Citizen's emo-rooted energy alongside Hotline TNT's dense, distorted melodicism—for a night built around heavy, textured guitar music.