The emo/underground rock-leaning Best Friends Forever festival will return for a second edition Oct. 10-12 at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, featuring performances by Jawbreaker, Minus the Bear (performing Menos El Oso), Rilo Kiley and an as-yet-unnamed headliner, who is listed on the poster with a series of question marks.
The event will also host a farewell show from Mineral, Texas Is the Reason, Cursive (playing Domestica and The Ugly Organ), Pedro the Lion, Superchunk, Rival Schools, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Wednesday, Knapsack, Elliott and a Burning Airlines set performed by that long-defunct group’s frontman, Jawbox’s J. Robbins.
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Jawbreaker reunited in 2017 after a 21-year hiatus and has been relatively active on the road since then. The Blake Schwarzenbach-led group last performed in September 2023. Minus the Bear has not played since 2018, and Rilo Kiley will visit Best Friends Forever as part of their first tour since 2008.
Three-day tickets go on sale tomorrow (Feb. 29) at 10 am PT. Travel packages are also available. New this year, three-day pass-holders will be permitted to come and go at will, while the site itself will benefit from improved viewing areas, reduced beverage prices and upgraded food options.
Best Friends Forever debuted last year with a lineup led by Cap’n Jazz, the Dismemberment Plan, Sunny Day Real Estate, Bright Eyes, Jawbox, Unwound, Pinback, the Jesus Lizard, Built to Spill, American Football, Hot Rod Circuit, Rainer Maria, the Get Up Kids, Braid and Karate. The juxtaposition of this style of music with the party-forward Las Vegas vibe was not lost on the performers, including the Dismemberment Plan’s Travis Morrison, who told SPIN that many friends of his treated the event like a vacation.
“It’s kind of hilarious,” he said. “There’s a pool with a dedicated cabana, and there’s a bar, and then they’re gonna go watch emo howling for three days (laughs). It’s not like you’re going to go see Earth, Wind and Fire or Boz Scaggs. It’s not boomers.”
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