DANCE GAVIN DANCE
The Fall Of Troy, Wolf & Bear, NOVELISTS
Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 6:30pm
The Rave/Eagles Club
All Ages
Advance tickets start at $45.00. Day Of Show tickets may be higher.
All information subject to change. Please visit www.therave.com/dgd for any changes that may have been made since this listing was created.
(opening acts subject to change without notice)
Purchase tickets at eTix.com, charge by phone at 414-342-7283, or visit our box office at 2401 W. Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee. Box office and charge by phone hours are Mon-Fri 10am-6pm (open later on show nights).
Don't buy from 3rd party sites. Only buy tickets from TheRave.com, ElEaglesLive.com, eTix.com, or links provided by The Rave, ElEaglesLIVE or official band sites.
Dance Gavin Dance
dancegavindanceband.com
www.facebook.com/DanceGavinDance
www.x.com/DGDtheband
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www.tiktok.com/@dgdtheband
www.youtube.com/@DanceGavinDance
The Fall of Troy
www.facebook.com/thefalloftroy
www.instagram.com/thefalloftroy
www.youtube.com/@thefalloftroy2675
Wolf & Bear
www.facebook.com/wolfandbearband
www.x.com/wolfandbearband
www.instagram.com/wolfandbearband
www.youtube.com/@wolfandbearband
Novelists
novelists.store
www.facebook.com/NovelistsFR
www.x.com/novelistsmusic
www.instagram.com/novelists
www.youtube.com/@Novelists
Concert in your area for Metal, Rock, and Indie & Alt.
Dance Gavin Dance formed in 2005 out of a band called Farewell Unknown that had run its course. Lead guitarist Will Swan, drummer Matt Mingus and bassist Eric Lodges recruited screamer Jonathan Mess, and singer Jonny Craig to join the band.
Unsure to this day as to where they got their name from, they booked a show under the name Dance Gavin Dance with the hope of getting around to changing it but it unfortunately didn’t happen in the end and the name stuck. They released their first EP with this line up entitled, “Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean” which was re released when the band signed to Rise Records. It was after the reception of this record that they began to write their debut full length album “Downtown Battle Mountain”
They released their debut full-length album on May 15th 2007, through Rise Records and then began their first national tour with Alesana and A Day to Remember. Unfortunately, counter tenor singer, Jonny Craig quit the band in November of that year, and was not allowed to rejoin when he asked if he could due to large tensions with other members. It was Kurt Travis who would later become their lead singer, who was formerly fronting a band called Five Minute Ride.
They went back into the studio to record their sophomore album, “Dance Gavin Dance” which was released on August 19th 2008, but before it was released, Jonathan Mess and Eric Lodge left the band. Will Swan took the reigns of the band and journeyed on.
All of the drama aside with the numerous line up changes, they have maintained a solid reputation as a Scream/Funk/Soul band with tendencies to be experimental, leaping from genre to genre. Will Swan has developed an instantly recognizable and distinctive style of playing over the years and they also still have original members, Matt Mingus on drums and Jon Mess on what they describe as “unclean vocals”.
The band is a trio consisting of Thomas Erak (guitars, vocals,keyboards), Andrew Forsman (drums, percussion), Tim Ward (bass, screamed vocals)
and Munro, originally forming as The 30 Years War in 2002. During the life of The 30 Years War, two EPs were independently released, entitled “Martyrs Among the Casualties” and “Live at the Paradox.” After Munro left, the band changed its name to "The Fall of Troy" and in 2003 they released their first, self-titled, album with Lujo Records. In addition to the album, they also self-released an EP entitled “Ghostship.”
The band was invited to submit a new demo for Equal Vision, and in 2005 the band re-entered the studio to record their sophomore album. They released “Doppelganger” on 16 April 2005. After its release, the band went on tour for most of early 2006. They released their third album entitled “Manipulator” in late 2006, and the album includes the previously written, "Seattlantis," and mostly all new material, including songs such as, "Problem!?," "Cut Down All the Trees and Name the Streets After Them," and a song with the palindromic title, "A Man. A Plan. A Canal. Panama." The following year the band went out on tour to promote the album with the Deftones. In 2008 The Fall of Troy released another EP entitled “Phantom on the Horizon,” which was played in its entirety on their West Coast and East Coast tours.
On 26 February 2010, The Fall of Troy disbanded after completing a spring US tour; however original lineup of The Fall of Troy reunited for three nights in December 2013 in Austin, Texas with each night being a performance of one of their first three albums.
Depending on your outlook, you’ll probably find the name Dance Gavin Dance either amusing or irritating, but it hasn’t stopped the Sacramento outfit from carving out a near ten year long career at this point, over the course of which they’ve proven no slouches in the recording studio; album number five, Acceptance Speech, dropped last year, and it’s that prodigious work ethic that’s helped them on their way to carving out a dedicated cult fanbase. Their post-hardcore sound isn’t necessarily anything new on the face of it, but it’s the way in which they’ve subtly, carefully weaved experimental aspects into their style over the years that’s really set them apart from some of their peers. Not that they’ve necessarily strived to keep their contemporaries at arm’s length; quite the opposite, in fact, with the band having taken part in the Warped Tour in both 2009 and 2011. Since Acceptance Speech dropped, they’ve toured more frequently in their own right, playing an epic UK tour last May that took in twelve towns - all the usual suspects, plus unusual spots like Rugby and Margate. They’re heading back into the studio late this year, so expect the chance to catch one of their riotous live shows to present itself again at some point in 2015.
It shouldn’t work. When it comes down to it, to watch The Fall Of Troy is to watch three guys play nigh-on impossibly technical music, where the instrumental parts barely have any cohesion with each other on first listen, at brain slaughtering volumes. By all logical reasoning it should only appeal to those who value their subscriptions to Total Guitar more than any social interaction they’ve ever had. However The Fall Of Troy are fundamentally a better band than most mathcore chancers could ever hope to be and to watch them now, after their long awaited reunion last year, is to see a band at the very peak of their considerable powers. It’s an intensely thrilling experience, notable for not only the note perfect renditions of their staggering back catalogue (seriously just watch them pummel through classics like I Just Got This Symphony Goin' and Nobody’s Perfect and marvel…) but also the devotion shown from the crowd. Every gig of theirs is a gig no-one thought they’d see, and the joy is apparent with every screamed lyric and every stage dive. Post-hardcore bands are dime a dozen these days, and while that is a good thing (for most part) the vast majority of them can never hope to match the power, dexterity and chemistry that one of the bands that perfected the genre show to this day. The Fall Of Troy are one of a kind, and if the opportunity rises to see them do what they do best, you won’t see anything else like it for a long time.