I'll Choose My Own: A Comprehensive Coverage of The Rumble 2026

(Photo / Kyle Bergfors)

In a bar right off the Ashland green line stop, Cobra Lounge, housed the hardcore event of the year – The Rumble. Despite it being a place, I’ve frequented a few times, there was a noticeable change in atmosphere. At noon when I made my way inside, familiar faces trickled in. Faces of pivotal bands in the now of Chicago’s hardcore scene popped into the front doors. Pure Hatred, Kartika 55, Constant Pain – these were all bands I’d seen at least once on stage, but in this space we shared the same role with an equal excitement of what was to come this weekend. Among the strangers to me, there were many people with intricate, traditional tattoos patchworked on their body. Camo shorts were abundant as per usual. To my excitement, I could guess at least 15% of the attendants on the first day were wearing All Out War shirts. It felt like a weight taken off of my shoulders seeing a community that I could connect with through music. Though the unique palpable excitement was unlike what I’ve experienced before in Cobra Lounge, the decor did not change.

As I reluctantly – and awkwardly – asked for a piece of pen and paper from a staff member that I knew I should have prepped beforehand, I truly started to take in the unique environment. The backlight of the bar illuminated with a red glow, a motorcycle hanging above my head as I wrote, an oil painting of a skeleton smoking lit by a single green par. A Mortal Kombat movie was playing on the projector; it made me recall the first metal concert I went to – which was coincidentally at Cobra Lounge. The movie playing on that day was one of the Austin Powers ones. Something about that particular feature of the place seemed more personable than most venues. Movies that played later in the weekend were films such as Rambo and Inglorious Basterds.

Exploring more throughout the building led me to a table selling zines, one of which I bought detailed the history and faces behind The Rumble: Welcome to Chicago: A Visual History of the Rumble by Kyle Bergfors. It’s one of the most important things I’ve collected at shows so far. Behind that table was a large selection of hardcore merch resold for prices that were refreshing compared to the dreaded Depop resellers that plague the market. I was so enthralled in everything I saw; it took me a moment to register Sick Joke’s set kicking off the festival’s day. Hastily making my way out of the bar to the lot where the festival was held instilled a new sense of curiosity – along with a feeling of dread for being out in the extreme weather conditions. That day, Friday, June 17th, had the perfect storm of smoke and ash of a distant wildfire, sweltering heat, and an unforgiving sun. There was a constant, nagging burn in my lungs from Friday well into the morning of Saturday. Even before the music began, towels were packed under people’s caps, a horseshoe of people huddled under tents and trees. Some brought fans, some ditched their shirts altogether.

Sick Joke was a familiar band to me. I recall talking to the drummer briefly at a Subterranean benefit show in February where the Springfield straight edge band Prevention headlined. I could guess I’d seen them once or twice, and they were just as good as the times before. Seeing bands play on a stage of such an important hardcore event when I saw them at smaller places before gave me a feeling of pride. Not for me, but for the bands. I couldn’t imagine how satisfying and overwhelming it would feel to be in that position and I am proud of all the hard work these bands have put in to make it happen. Additional bands I’ve seen before at smaller places (shoutout Casa Cafe) included Absent Soul and xACHEx.

Moving onto the broader perspective of the festival moving forward, the large array of bands playing that weekend was of widely different categories. Bands like No Idols, Hold My Own, Negative Force, and WMD leaned towards more of a traditional hardcore sound. Mosh callouts were just as invigorating as you can think of compared to beatdown bands, the vocalist of WMD dropping “Dance hard, or fucking die. Ruin someone’s day!” Another mosh callout I really liked was the vocalist of No Cure saying, “I need you to get them.” Get who? It’s up to you.

On the other hand, looking at bands like Anhedonia and Jerome focused on dodgeball sounding snares and guttural vocals, still getting people moving. Bands that particularly got people going were Outta Pocket, Age of Apocalypse, Fatal Realm, D-Bloc, and of course the two headliners of each day, Hatebreed and 100 Demons. Age of Apocalypse I think was the only band that had any singing for the whole weekend, and people were shredding each other in the pit. It was a pleasant surprise. I’ll recall a few notable events throughout the weekend in no particular order.

A particularly awesome event was the sudden torrential rain that cascaded down on us during Outta Pocket’s set. During their cover of a song by Special Move, around the time that the vocalist of Absent Soul popped on stage for a feature, a small trickle of rain turned into everyone in the lot getting drenched. It was anything but an inconvenience and was actually a relief. It cut through the heat and smoke of the afternoon and got people to mosh and move more. I recall someone slipping (either on purpose or not) and they proceeded to breakdance on the wet concrete. That was pretty cool. Unrelated, but another cool mosh move I saw at the festival was a guy in a Contention shirt doing six consecutive rapid fire spin kicks across the pit.

Another was Turmoil’s set as a whole. Every riff they played felt like I was getting shot in the chest. In a good way. What I recall is that they said they hadn't played Chicago in twenty years, and I am super fortunate I caught them at the festival. They were incredibly good on a technical level and are now one of my favorite bands of all time. I highly suggest listening to their 1999 album “The Process Of…”.

I also have to mention everything that went on regarding Fatal Realm. The second day, people were wearing as many Fatal Realm shirts as there were All Out War shirts the day before, but arguably maybe 5% more. They are a highly regarded band in hardcore as a whole and I’ve tended to bring them up to whoever will listen. During the Friday aftershow where they were anticipated to play before Devourment, word spread quickly through the bar that their flights got delayed and they couldn’t make the set time. This led me, and most of the people attending, to believe that they wouldn’t be playing at all that night. Unfortunately, a lot of people left after that initial knowledge. Miraculously after Devourment’s set, I heard Anchit of Hold My Own try and get other peoples’ attention saying, “Fatal Realm is playing!” I am sure most people didn’t hear, and I thought at first that he meant they’d still be making their set at the festival tomorrow. This left the venue to probably no more than forty people. Turns out, they still showed up and played a set at one in the morning. They set their merch out and everything! Seeing sets of them online moving entire festival crowds to seeing them in such a small room with such a small room with people was one of the sickest things I would have never anticipated. It was a little scary knowing that the smaller number of people in a room, the more likely of a target you are. I’ve gotten burned by being in that environment before; funny enough I was crowdkilled (and subsequently got a concussion) by one of the vocalists that performed that weekend at a smaller show a while back. Regardless, I thankfully survived that aftershow. Their set at the actual Rumble was equally as awesome. Of course, during The Gift, the crowd took the microphone from Mike (vocalist and guitarist) and it eventually went flying, arcing over the entire pit and clipping a tree above some people. One of my favorite bands of all time played two unforgettable sets.

The ending of the weekend, Saturday’s aftershow, was a really nice sendoff to the event. It was late and everyone was exhausted, but I was excited to see Bayway again. I saw them open for Snuffed on Sight at Reggie’s and some things he said on stage really stuck with me. I was able to talk to him after the set briefly and wanted to let him know he was appreciated, and I appreciated what he said.

Caught up in the thrill of gathering the courage to talk to Jayway at the end of the last aftershow, I turned around and left without my detailed notes on stage right of the indoor stage. That I meticulously took. For the entirety of that Saturday. Getting home and into the garage for a celebratory sparkling water, I realized the only thing I left behind was that notebook, which caused me to slowly lay down on the concrete of the floor as I realized most of what I documented was away from my possession for an indefinite amount of time. I got one of those stickers on the cover from Danny Diablo of Crown of Thorns, too. And so, I pieced together what I could throughout my memory and the sets uploaded on YouTube (another shoutout to MWHXC on YouTube for the uploads).

All in all, the community I reunited with made it worth experiencing. The new bands and people I discovered were something I could not replicate again. I appreciate the staff and friendly strangers, and new friends that I was able to connect with in the short amount of time. Although at this time, I’ve only been in the local scene for a little less than a year, it gives me motivation to contribute more – socially and artistically. Here’s to the Rumbles that I’ll attend for the rest of my life.