Here are some shows taking place in Jacksonville and nearby cities, for the month of October 2026 (part 2 of 2): • The Cadets at The Walrus (October 10, 2026) • Toadies at FIVE (Oct 14, 2026) • GWAR at FIVE (Oct 29, 2026)
The Cadets at The Walrus (October 10, 2026)
October 10, 2026 Saturday The Cadets at the Walrus thewalrusjax.com
Jacksonville’s The Cadets is one of four bands sharing the name “the Cadets”. According to last.fm, Cadets’ frontman Chuck Smyth’s singing style is described as, “a throttled cat” and “tone-deaf Neil Young on amphetamines.”
Their not-so-secret origin story is that the band met after a Man or Astro-Man? in 1995. They had their time in the sun, touring across America and Japan (I heard everything’s big in Japan)… but kind of disappeared in 2007. Nearly 20 years later, they announced that they’ve signed a record deal with Bar/None Records and will be releasing Exile In Marginalia Vol 4.
To celebrate the album’s release (on October 2), the band will do a Rocktober tour. They’re playing their hometown show at The Walrus on October 10th. I did check the venue’s website, there’s no listing for the event, so I don’t know if there are cover charges, drinks minimum (or hotdog minimum)s, or any other details… but be there or be square.
Tour Dates
10/09 Nobby’s, St Augustine, FL
10/10 The Walrus, Jacksonville, FL
10/11 926 Bar, Tallahassee, FL
10/12 The Pinhook, Durham, NC
10/13 Flat Iron, Greensboro, NC
10/14 Nowhere Bar, Athens, GA
10/15 Northside Grill, Richmond, VA
10/16 Manny’s, State College, PA
10/17 Fuzzy Needle, Wilmington, NC
Toadies at FIVE (Oct 14, 2026)
October 14, 2026 Wednesday Toadies at FIVE fivejax.com
Toadies is on the last leg of their tour – stopping by FIVE, in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 14, 2026. The band recently announced the first ever vinyl release of their 2001 album Hell Below/Stars Above. As a recent phonograph convert, I’m happy to see more music being released on this century-old technology.
Toadies at First Avenue 2026-06-02
We saw Toadies in June 2026 and wrote, “Toadies took the stage over with the instrumental “Ash’s Theme” (from the new record), but Toadies leader Vaden Todd Lewis promised “lots of songs you can sing along to for the rest of the night” — starting with Rubberneck‘s “I Come from the Water”. And while 1994’s alt-rock classics ran shoulder-to-shoulder with new stuff (2026’s Charmer) and fan-service deep cuts (a song from that abandoned 2000 album Feeler, plus three from the actual 2001 followup Hell Below/Stars Above), the eras blurred together, as they frequently do. Lewis is 60 now, and the deranged edge he lent to “Possum Kingdom”‘s haunting refrain (“do you want to die?”) is a little lower and more craggy, but Toadies’ vision of hard-rock-with-dark-themes shines through. We got 10 songs from the new album, and they sound just as urgent and compelling live as they do on the record. (That’s no coincidence: it was one of the last projects that audio vérité legend Steve Albini recorded before his 2024 death.) The new stuff is plenty weird — there are just as many crooked corners and 7/8 surprises, but the sophisticated progressions and maturity of the songwriting hide tricks. And there’s old fashioned amplification: “Get Out of Your Head” hit 109 decibels where I was standing, and caused my hearing protection to glitch on me. “Normal” got a short but earnest introduction, framing the new album as Lewis’s statement about depression, self-harm, and suicide, urging people to get help. He also assured folks to be less afraid of what treatment and recovery really look like: “I’m here today because I got help, and I’m still weird as fuck. It’s just that the ‘fuck you’ voice in my head got a little quieter.” They left the stage after “Tyler”, but you know what it means when, as the band leaves, the lights dim, and the roadies come on stage, crack open fresh beers, leaving them by newly tuned guitars. There would be more. ”
Local H and Emily Wolfe to open.
Tour Dates
Sept 18 Columbia, MO – The Blue Note =
Sept 19 Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi Annex ^=
Sept 20 Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life
Sept 21 St. Louis, MO – The Pageant ^=
Sept 23 Kansas City, MO – The Truman ^=
Sept 24 Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom ^=
Sept 25 Amarillo, TX – The Lumberyard^=
Sept 26 Santa Fe, NM – The Bridge^=
Sept 29 Flagstaff, AZ – Orpheum Theater^= Oct 02 Las Vegas, NV – Brooklyn Bowl^=
Oct 03 Ventura, CA – Ventura Theatre^=
Oct 04 Sacramento, CA – Aftershock
Oct 05 – Menlo Park, CA – The Guild Theater
Oct 06 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s^
Oct 08 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre^#
Oct 09 El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace^#
Oct 10 – Dallas, TX – State Fair Of Texas
Oct 14 Jacksonville, FL – Five^#
Oct 15 Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution Live^#
Oct 16 Orlando, FL – House of Blues^#
Oct 17 St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live^#
With ^ Local H
=Olive Vox
#Emily Wolfe
GWAR at FIVE (Oct 29, 2026)
October 8, 2026 Thursday GWAR with Mac Sabbath, Midnight and X-COPS at FIVE fivejax.com
Mac Sabbath is doing some headlining shows right before joining GWAR on their national tour. This should be a fun show, especially so close to Halloween… where you bet people are going to dress up for the occasion.
In recent Weekend Gamer news, GWAR was unveiled as a future DLC (downloadable content) for the game Mutant Football League 2 at PAX West (September 4-7).
GWAR at Milwaukee Metal Fest (May 18, 2025)
We last saw Gwar in May 2025 and wrote, “GWAR, celebrating their 40th Anniversary, ended the festival as GWAR does, with a not to be missed show that soaked the crowd with green slime and awesomeness. Happily, watched as puppets that may or may not have been Putin, Taylor Swift and the POTUS get gutted, all in good fun. So many that I’ve talked to as well I now have a personal declaration of vowing to be at every show from this point forward if I should hear it, so to speak.”
Mac Sabbath, Midnight and X-COPS to open.
GWAR’s Gor Gor Must Die! Tour
10/27 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Jefferson Theater * 10/28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Heaven) * 10/29 – Jacksonville, FL @ FIVE * 11/04 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution * 11/05 – Orlando, FL @ The Beacham * 11/06 – Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues * 11/07 – Winston-Salem, NC @ The Ramkat * 11/08 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl * 11/09 – Little Rock, AR @ The Hall * 11/10 – Dallas, TX @ AM/FM * 11/12 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre + 11/13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Rockwell at The Complex + 11/14 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl + 11/15 – Reno, NV @ Cargo Concert Hall + 11/17 – Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee + 11/18 – Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues + 11/19 – Berkeley, CA @ The UC Theatre + 11/20 – Chico, CA @ Senator Theatre + 11/21 – Bend, OR @ Midtown Ballroom + 11/23 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo + 11/24 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory + 11/25 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre + 11/27 – Edmonton, AB @ Midway Music Hall + 11/28 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall + 11/30 – Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre + 12/02 – Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theatre + 12/03 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave * 12/04 – Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot Ballroom * 12/05 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues * 12/06 – McKees Rocks, PA @ Roxian Theatre * 12/08 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club * 12/09 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium * 12/10 – New York, NY @ The Palladium Times Square * 12/11 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia * 12/12 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa *
* = w/ Mac Sabbath, Midnight and X-COPS
+ = w/ Mac Sabbath, Midnight Atomic Rule
