Midwest Emo Legends American Football Announce Philly Show

PHILADELPHIA — Midwest-emo icons American Football have announced a new world tour, and they will be heading to Philadelphia in the summer.

The band will embark on a four-month run that includes dates across the United States, Europe, UK, and Canada, with more to be announced, marking their first full run of shows since their 2024 LP1 25th Anniversary Tour.

They will perform at Union Transfer in Philadelphia on July 10. Joining them in support is Ian Sweet.

Artist presale and VIP upgrades will begin on Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time. General ticket sales will begin at 10 a.m. online here.

American Football will be partnering with PLUS1 to donate $1 from every ticket sold across the tour to Safe Passage International and The Illinois Coalition for Immigration & Refugee Rights, two organizations defending immigrant rights and supporting deportees, migrants, and refugees.

Before attaining global recognition as a defining pillar of the “Midwest Emo” sub-genre, American Football was a humble University of Illinois-based indie rock band led by Mike Kinsella along with Steve Holmes and Steve Lamos. They were influenced at the time by artists including Steve Reich, Tortoise, and The Sea and Cake.

American Football played no more than a dozen sparsely attended shows before going their separate ways. With college graduation and some variation of adulthood looming, the band’s parting gift would be shared in the form of a self-titled album, released in September of 1999.

What would transpire over the ensuing 15 years is something made of rock and roll legend – where word of mouth meets message boards, and mixtapes, burned CDs, and early file-sharing platforms allowed for the lore of an otherwise unknown band, with a nondescript house on their lone album cover, to grow into something much larger.

In 2014, American Football reunited, adding bassist/multi-instrumentalist and cousin Mike Kinsella's cousin Nate Kinsella. The band has since released two additional self-titled records in 2016 and 2019.

They’ve collaborated with admired peers and fans alike, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, and Ethel Cain, among others.