Empire Underground goes below street level — basement club, North Pearl Street, downtown Albany. It is the kind of room where a band like Elliott sounds exactly right. And on Wednesday, August 5, that is exactly where they will be.
About Elliott
The Louisville, Kentucky emo and post-hardcore outfit formed in 1995, built out of that city’s hardcore scene. Chris Higdon (guitar, vocals), Jay Palumbo (guitar), Jonathan Mobley (bass), and Kevin Ratterman (drums, piano, samples) spent the better part of a decade developing a sound that moved between melodic punch and slow-building atmosphere — textured, layered, and more patient than the genre had a reputation for being.
False Cathedrals (2000) is the record that still gets passed around. Song in the Air (2003), the band’s final studio album before their breakup in November 2003, reached further into post-rock territory and brought in live string arrangements from Louisville’s Rachel’s. They finished with farewell tours of Europe and the US, and then they were gone.
Nineteen years later, they played Furnace Fest 2022 — their first show since the breakup. That turned into a 13-date headline run in 2025, the band’s first headlining tour in over twenty years. This August, they are back out, and Empire Underground in Albany is on the list.
The Venue
Empire Underground is the basement-level room at 93 North Pearl Street in downtown Albany — a 500-person club space that keeps you close to the stage. Showtime is 8:00 PM.
Tickets & Pricing
Tickets start at $30, available through Ticketmaster. A band this overdue for an upstate New York date is not going to have trouble filling a room this size. Don’t wait.