Ratboys do not make small records, and they do not play small shows. The Chicago four-piece pulls into Higher Ground on Thursday, June 18, riding Singin’ to an Empty Chair — the album that critics spent the early part of 2026 calling one of the best things the band has ever done. If you have been waiting for an excuse to make the drive up to South Burlington, this is a good one.
Doors at 7:30 PM, music at 8:00. Brooklyn’s Shallowater opens.
About Ratboys
Ratboys are Julia Steiner (vocals, guitar), Dave Sagan (guitar), Sean Neumann (bass), and Marcus Nuccio (drums). They live in the seam between indie rock and Americana — twangy, hook-forward, and built around Steiner’s writing, which has a way of landing harder than its plainspoken surface lets on. The reputation has been a slow build over a decade, and the live show is where it cashes out.
The When the Sun Explodes Tour supports Singin’ to an Empty Chair, the band’s sixth studio album, out February 6, 2026 on New West Records. Ratboys reunited with producer Chris Walla — formerly of Death Cab for Cutie, and the man behind their 2023 record The Window — and the two of them chased an expansive, analog-live sound, tracking part of it in a high-ceilinged Wisconsin cabin before regrouping at Chicago’s Electrical Audio. The reviews bore it out: the album landed at “universal acclaim” on Metacritic, an 85 across more than a dozen critics. These are songs about estrangement and slow grief, and they hit differently in a room.
The Venue
The show is in the Ballroom at Higher Ground, 1214 Williston Rd in South Burlington — the room that keeps landing the right touring bills and the kind of all-ages standing-room space where a band like Ratboys has room to open up. It is a haul from most of upstate New York, but Higher Ground has earned its reputation as one of the better mid-size rooms in the Northeast. Plan to roll in by 7:30 so you are settled before Shallowater takes the stage.
Tickets
All ages. Doors 7:30 PM, show at 8:00. Tickets are on sale now, and dates on this tour have been selling out — grab yours before this one goes.