The Kinison Set the Stage for Reunion Show 21 Years in the Making
May 25, 2026
On May 29th, 2026, Inland Empire’s The Kinison will reunite after 21 years to bring their unique brand of sometimes melodic sometimes screaming post-hardcore rock ‘n’roll to Pomona’s Glasshouse for an evening of loud and sassy guitar-based music, a rarity nowadays, to see a straightforward 5-piece band, but The Kinison was rare even when they emerged at the turn of the millenium. Presciently, Blink 182’s Travis Barker took them under his wing, signing them to his label, inviting the band to tour, and the rest is history. As a result, The Kinison crafted a niche sound that made them stick out among contemporaries, a sound that still rings fresh today, and readers should not miss their upcoming reunion show.
The Kinison’s first term as a band seems brief yet enduring: they formed in 1999 in Illinois, but relocated to California in 2002, and quickly got signed, and by 2005, it was over. Looking at old concert flyers, which the band has been posting to build up momentum for this reunion show, they played shows with screamo bands like A Static Lullaby, and others of the eyeliner variety, or at least their fans wore eyeliner–this was 2003, and the height of hot topic mall goth era. The current Kinison incarnation, Guy Bub Knight, Mikey Rivera, Aaron James Faller, Christopher Lee Lewis, Michael Rey Villavicencio, to this writer’s knowledge, never donned eyeliner, which always corresponded/correlated with a certain sound. They seemed more appealing to the skate-punk crowd and everyday kids (the types of kids who might today listen to Turnstile), not quite the mall goths. Though on their first EP, Mortgage is Bank (2003), the sound shares elements with bands like Thursday, and though they recorded their first (and only) LP What Are You Listening To? (2004) with the famed Swedish producers Pelle Henricsson and Eskil Lövström (Poison the Well, Refused, Snapcase), there was always something uniquely rhythmic (sexy?) about The Kinison that only shared certain musical aspects such as guitar octaves and screaming with their contemporaries but still resisted what their peers were doing in many obvious ways. As a result, The Kinison was in a league of their own and hard to categorize, and stories abound of disastrous tours and shows, where the mismatchings were apparent and led to unfortunate results.
On top of the external challenges, being in a band has a way of taxing individuals and the collective and this, mounted with internal creative differences, is what led to the initial breakup in 2005, according to drummer Mikey Rivera. He says, “we were all a bit burnt from touring and grinding without much break, along with some creative differences at the time too. In retrospect, if we would have taken a break and came up for air, maybe cooler heads would have prevailed. Who knows, kinda who cares after this many years, haha.”
While the band was on hiatus members Rivera worked on music as Madison Bloodbath, bassist Michael Villavicencio was in Dream Lover, and singer Christopher Lewis released music as LEWIS and solo as Christopher Lee Lewis. Understandably, it takes great effort to get five adults in the same room again after two decades of separation and separate projects, but somehow The Kinison was able to achieve this, and the momentum for the reunion is building, with the show nearly sold out. Plus, not only is What Are You Listening To? finally available on streaming services, it has also been pressed on limited-edition vinyl(!), which will only be available at the Glasshouse show next week. And not so recently (last year), the band released a single titled “Where is Your Art Coming from?” via Sweet Cheetah Records. The song is an outtake from the What Are You Listening To? sessions and it makes sense that it was left off the record, for although it’s a great song it doesn’t quite match the vibe of the others. Still, the band has plenty of material to pull from. If they play “New Way to Dance,” off their first EP, I’m gonna freak the f*ck out; I’m old now, though, so I hope there’s no crowd surfers falling on my neck; thus, I will watch from a safe, yet close distance. Moreover, before breaking up, the band had completed a substantial amount of touring. In addition to arena tours with Blink 182, they played Coachella Festival and Warped Tour and tours with The Bronx, The Bled, Every Time I Die (RIP), and The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower, some of my favorite bands, and the band has played The Glasshouse many times before. The reunion show will feature adjacent bands CNTS and Buddha Trixie. When I asked Rivera why it took so long for them to reunite, he replied, “Chris and I reconnected about trying to get our full length record on streaming platforms back in 2023-24. I had broken my leg pretty badly racing dirt bikes, and was on my ass for months. During that time I was able to help annoy (in the kindest way of course) our old lawyer and eventually we were successful. Along with that task, I came across old hard drives and went down a bit of a rabbit hole finding photos, footage, etc. The record being accessible re-kindled some buzz about the band and people were stoked to have the full length after so long. That led to our song being featured in the Battlefield 6 video game which brought a bit of spotlight back to the band. Needless to say, it's all been really cool.”
After next week, the band remains open to the possibility of more gigs, Rivera says, but it’s all to be determined. He says the show will be high energy and very memorable, like their at-capacity, farewell show in Redlands, CA. The Kinison shared DNA (and stages) with many screamo and post-hardcore bands, but they are also their own separate beast, and here's hoping they don't go away again soon.
See you at the Glasshouse on May 29th, 2026 at 8pm, where they will come back from the dead, and since we don't know if it's only for one night, you don't want to miss out! Tickets here: https://dice.fm/event/k6abm9-the-kinison-29th-may-the-glass-house-pomona-tickets?lng=en
