Here is your Wednesday night plan for the end of September: Empire Underground on Pearl Street in Albany, 6:30 PM, Stop.Drop.Rewind. The prog-punk trio from Valparaiso, Indiana, is swinging through on their Fall Tour 2026, and there is a good reason Albany made the list of new East Coast markets they are hitting for the first time this fall.
About the Show
Stop.Drop.Rewind has been at it since 2009, built on the musical partnership of Kris Lohn (vocals and bass) and DJ Cranston (guitars and vocals), who have been playing together since 2000. Drummer Andy Sutton rounds out the three-piece. Their own description of the band is hard to beat: “what happens when emo kids grow up and get jazz degrees.” They call the sound “prog-punk” — jazz-trained instincts under pop-punk energy, assembled into actual songs that hold up. Their 2019 singles “Words in Scary Stories” and “Floating Stone” earned regional radio play across Chicagoland; the “Space Force” video crossed over 100,000 views on Facebook.
The anchor for Fall Tour 2026 is Polarity, their 2016 EP, which turns 10 this year. They are playing it front to back on this run — “Bottomless,” “Guts,” and “Quicksand” among others — plus additional material. If you have not seen them before, this is about as strong an entry point as you are going to get. If you already know the record, you know why it is worth blocking off a Wednesday night.
This is a band that has logged 283-plus documented shows across 13 US states, made multiple runs to SXSW, and shared stages with Real Friends, Hawthorne Heights, The Misfits, and Secondhand Serenade. Albany is a new market on this run. That tends to mean the room fills with people who went out of their way to be there — which makes for a pretty good crowd.
Venue & Logistics
Empire Underground is the downstairs room at the Empire Live complex — 93 N Pearl St in downtown Albany / Capital District. A 500-capacity club built for high-energy, up-close shows. Doors are at 6:30 PM. Get there when they open if you want to stake out your spot — this is a floor-standing room and position matters.
Tickets
Grab tickets through Ticketmaster. Early-week club shows at rooms like this move faster than you would expect when a band is bringing a dedicated following into new territory. Worth booking now rather than checking back later.