New Shoegaze shows in 2026 – Return of Hum

Slideway Fest just announced the bands performing for their 2026 Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles shows. The lineup consists of some awesome shoegaze and post-hardcore bands that have performed at Slideaway before, like Nothing and Lovesliecrushing, but what makes this festival special is the return of metallic, spacey rock band Hum.

Photo from Hum

Hum is a 90s alternative rock band from Champaign, IL, best known for their 1995 album You’d Prefer An Astronaut and hit song “Stars”. Out of nowhere, in 2020, they released a new record called Inlet, over 20 years since their last released album, and now announced they will be playing a few more shows for the first time since 2019.

A fun fact is that if one of your favorite bands is Deftones, or you are a fan of the album White Pony by Deftones, the leader, Chino Moreno, has actually said that he is a huge fan of Hum. The Deftones frontman has openly credited Hum and the album You'd Prefer An Astronaut as one of the greatest influences on their sound for White Pony and after!

Photo from Hum

Photo from Hum

A double fun fact about me is that I grew up in Champaign-Urbana, IL. To many others, it’s nothing more than a simple college town, and it is, but there have also been some pretty cool rock bands to come out of there, like Midwest emo band American Football, and another being the metallic space-rock band Hum. The lead singer of Hum, Matt Talbott, is actually one of my dad’s friends, so, funny enough, when I was a kid, I would get dragged to Matt Talbott’s house to watch Sunday Football and would always spend the day playing Super Smash Bros Brawl with our family friends. It is one of those moments that you realize is so grand until you’re older. Matt Talbott is such a great person, all the more reason to get excited about their comeback.

Slideway Fest is a fantastic opportunity to hear some 90s shoegaze bands alongside modern post-shoegaze bands, and I'm super excited to get my ticket soon.

Side note: here’s a hilarious video of Hum’s hit song “Stars” in a 2008 Cadillac commercial I found while digging around for this blog. Just a cool deep cut for those who know :)

Thank you for reading my blog!

Caleb G / Industry Insider