caterwaul

CATERWAUL: Minneapolis fest announces Mike Watt, Dazzling Killmen, Stress Positions and more for 2026 lineup

Founded in 2020, Minneapolis music festival Caterwaul has established itself as an annual showcase of the noisy, iconoclastic fringes of rock, with past performers including the likes of Chat Pile, Flipper, Pissed Jeans, and Uniform. BrooklynVegan has hailed Caterwaul as “a unique mix of noise rock, punk, metal, post- punk and beyond,” while New Noise Magazine has named it “a gathering of some of the best underground bands existing today.”

In a city still reeling from tragedies connected to the federal government’s heavy-handed immigration efforts, Caterwaul stands as a beacon of independent thought and countercultural action, aiming to celebrate the triumph of the human spirit in the face of of tyranny.

With the fifth edition of Caterwaul confirmed for June 5-7, 2026 at Minneapolis venue Zhora Darling, the festival’s organizers have revealed 10 of this year’s artists. In alphabetical order:

Dazzling Killmen
Didjits
H.E.A.T.
Mike Watt + The Missingmen
Muscle
New Brutalism
Point Line Plane
Season to Risk
Stress Positions
Tongue Party

• Founded in St. Louis in 1990, Dazzling Killmen meld hardcore venom and prog chops into new and challenging configurations that have inspired hordes of younger bands – The Dillinger Escape Plan, notably among them.

• Campy and confrontational, Illinois band Didjits bash out a hard-rocking brand of punk, immortalized on a string of Touch and Go Records releases and the ultimate early-’90s honor, a video on MTV’s Beavis and Butthead.

• Not to be confused with the Swedish heavy metal band wielding the same acronym, Minneapolis’ H.E.A.T. is a new entity making distortion-drenched dance punk.

• A man who needs no introduction, Mike Watt is an icon, blazing his own path since the early 1980s. With a legacy that includes his bands Minutemen and fIREHOSE, and a massive list of collabs (The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder), Watt comes to Caterwaul as Mike Watt + The Missingmen, a trio with guitarist Tom Watson and drummer Raul Morales.

• Baltimore trio Muscle churns out bass-heavy noise-punk bursts, propelled by singer Madison Coan’s fiery vocalizations.

• Guided by the minimalism of the movement from which they take their name, Knoxville’s New Brutalism operates on the knife edge between post-hardcore and noise rock, using aluminum instruments they design and build themselves.

• Bred in the early-2000s electro-punk freak scene populated by the likes of Trans Am and Lightning Bolt, Portland duo Point Line Plane has returned with what SF Weekly once named, “aggro keyboard-core of the highest and most demented order.”

• Kansas City’s Season to Risk enjoyed major label success in the alternative boom of the early ’90s, amidst peers such as Helmet and Quicksand. Active again in recent years, the band’s hard-edged anthems, marked by frontman Steve Tulipana’s rough and yearning vocals, still hit a nerve.

• A ripping hardcore band from Chicago, Stress Positions lays waste via fast drumbeats, rocking guitar leads, and and vocalist Stephanie Brooks’ devastating yelp.

• Minneapolis favorites Tongue Party deliver burly, thrashing, noise rock that keeps adrenaline high and heads banging.

3-day festival passes are on sale now: https://ticketstripe.com/caterwaul2026 Stand by for more lineup announcements, coming soon.

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Caterwaul 2025 is Friday, May 23rd through Monday, May 26th 2025 in Minneapolis, MN

CATERWAUL: annual festival of the noisy and iconoclastic reveals Pissed Jeans, Suckling (member of Scratch Acid), Young Widows and more for 2025 lineup; tickets on sale now

“In a world full of Coachellas, be a Caterwaul.”

With the fourth installment of Caterwaul scheduled for May 23-26th in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the festival’s organizers have revealed ten of this year’s confirmed artists. In alphabetical order:
Big’n
Buildings
The Cell Phones
Deaf Club
Elephant Rifle
Eye Flys
FACS
Fotocrime
In Lieu
Kowloon Walled City
Lung
Miracle Blood
Mr Phylzzz
Open Head
Pinko
Pissed Jeans
Suckling
Unstable Shapes
Upright Forms
Young Widows

The full lineup will be revealed in the upcoming weeks.

Tickets can be purchased now at this location: https://www.ticketstripe.com/caterwaul2025

With such greats as Brainiac, Chat Pile, Flipper, and Oxbow having graced Caterwaul’s stages in years past, the fest has come to serve as a beacon for the heavy, experimental fringes of rock. The 2025 lineup promises to cement Caterwaul’s reputation as an annual destination for the noisy and iconoclastic, with the initial announcement including the following: psychedelic punkers Elephant Rifle; noise rock beast Eye Flys; neo-grungers In Lieu; doom rock stalwarts Kowloon Walled City; cello rockers Lung; the new wave of Amphetamine Reptile, Mr Phylzzz; angular punk innovators Open Head; hardcore punk kings Pissed Jeans; Suckling, led by Brett Bradford of the legendary Scratch Acid; and post-hardcore transcenders Young Widows.

Phase 2 includes: Chicago veterans Big’n; a reunion set by Minneapolis bruisers Buildings; Southern California supergroup Deaf Club, featuring members of The Locust and ACxDC; Chicago’s FACS, who have the distinction of being the final band recorded by the late Steve Albini; Louisville unit Fotocrime, led by Ryan Patterson of Coliseum; Boston howlers Miracle Blood; San Antonio’s Pinko, Chicago eccentrics The Cell Phones; and Unstable Shapes and Upright Forms, both hailing from Minneapolis.

BrooklynVegan has described Caterwaul as a “unique mix of noise rock, punk, metal, post-punk and beyond.” New Noise Magazine has called it “a gathering of some of the best underground bands existing today.”

Beyond the curation, Caterwaul has come to represent a cooperative, familial spirit within the underground. Through their decades of work in the trenches of independent music, serving in the roles of musician, label owner, show booker, podcaster, and more, founders Conan Neutron, Rainer Fronz, and Melanie Thomas are deeply tied to the artists and fans whom Caterwaul pulls together. With its fourth installment approaching, Caterwaul is the epicenter of its own scene – not limited to any one specific genre, but dedicated to uniting all people on the loud and eccentric side of the fence.

Asked to deliver a statement about the fest, Neutron, Fronz, and Thomas offer these nine words: “In a world full of Coachellas, be a Caterwaul.”

Caterwaul 2025 logo, by Whitney Does

Photo of Pissed Jeans, by Ebru Yildiz…