Failure at The Bottleneck, Lawrence KS (2026-10-22)

Crash Test Delayed
Saturday Saviour
Sergeant Politeness
Princess
Macaque
Screen Man
Undone
Counterfeit Sky
A Way Down
Solaris
Smoking Umbrellas
The Nurse Who Loved Me
Another Space Song

Encore:
Stuck on You
Heliotropic

Aviator
How to Hold a Knife
snarky
Korg
Paperweight
Sheets
South
Observer
life imitates life

That seems to be the case with longtime Los Angeles alt/space rock band Failure (Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards, and Kelli Scott), out on their 2026 Rising Skyline Tour, in support of their seventh studio album from April, Location Lost. Like they did back in Nov 1996 on their Fantastic Planet Tour, the trio returned to The Bottleneck in Lawrence, to reacquaint themselves with older fans, and bring a new generation of fans into the fold.

The new album’s singles include “The Rising Skyline”, from which the tour is named, (the studio version of which features Hayley Williams of Paramore) and “The Air’s on Fire,” written in the aftermath of singer Andrews’ back surgery. “That song is directly about my surgery and waking up,” he explained in a press release. “I basically coded.”

Thanks to a return to form (literally, it sounds like), the band continue to play head down, volume up, making their wall of sound still feel like floating through space with a few emotional bruises along the way. The crushing guitar tones help build that sheer wall of volume and visually the band, surrounded by mostly dim incandescent lights and not much else, made all seem like a turned-up-to-eleven intergalactic dream, rather than just simple nostalgia from three decades ago.

Live, their modus operandi hasn’t changed much, which is more than alright with the fans- plug in, turn it up, and play, rather than wasting time with idle chit-chat or “are you ready to rock?!” superfluous questions. The new songs fit in pretty seamlessly with the older tracks, including set opener “Crash Test Delayed” and “ A Way Down” and the crowd responded with extra energy early-on, during older favorites like “Saturday Saviour.”

“Undone”, “Solaris,” and “Smoking Umbrellas” brought a welcome show of personal recognition on older fan’s faces, while many younger fans in the crowd nodded along, though there were some signs in the crowd that college-age fans not even born before the band’s ‘90s heyday, were as familiar with the music as those that grew up and lived the actual era.

The band expressed appreciation for selling the venue out (they probably did in 1996 when we saw them here too), mentioning that they recalled always having good shows in Lawrence (“this one too!” someone yelled back, which had the band smiling to concur).

Dense, trippy, no-frills, and at upper volumes- after more than thirty-five years as a band, their sound is still ‘stuck on you’ and it’s still best for Failure to simply do what they do best- rawk.​

The night got underway with a well-received opening set from quannnic, the solo musical project of Nick Quan, a Florida-based young musician based who blends shoegaze, lo-fi, noise rock, electronic bedroom pop, along with the digicore sound that first influenced the project.

2025’s Warbrained was the third album and last year’s release that embraced a heavier, somewhat grungier sound and there’s been a very recent EP as well, M0th3r6or3d, released on the Santa Ana label. We think his live band were also members of Car Underwater, a pop screamo collective formed just last year; and based on the local reception, will be an act worth noting, if they come through again.​​