Morrissey
The Smiths' voice, complicated as ever — when he shows, nothing else sounds like it, and the songbook remains untouchable.
Darker Waves 2026 Lineup
New wave, post-punk and goth lined up on the sand for one November Saturday — Morrissey and the Pumpkins over a bill deep in Buzzcocks, Soft Cell and Gary Numan.
About Darker Waves 2026
Darker Waves is a single Saturday on Huntington State Beach dedicated almost entirely to the 1980s — new wave, post-punk, goth and synth-pop, played on the sand as the sun goes down. Morrissey and The Smashing Pumpkins headline. Beneath them sit Simple Minds, Bad Religion, Adam Ant, The Psychedelic Furs and Soft Cell, which is a fair summary of the whole proposition.
The depth is what makes it work: The Damned, Gary Numan, Buzzcocks, Circle Jerks, Modern English, Missing Persons, The Motels, Marky Ramone and Mariachi El Bronx all appear, and the bottom of the bill leans contemporary darkwave — Cold Cave, TR/ST, Prayers, RIKI, Choir Boy and Twin Tribes-adjacent newer acts. One day, one beach, thirty-nine bands.
Expect punk, new-wave, synth-pop and alt-rock across 39 acts.
The headliners
- Morrissey — The Smiths' voice, complicated as ever — when he shows, nothing else sounds like it, and the songbook remains untouchable.
- The Smashing Pumpkins — Chicago's alt-rock monument — Mellon Collie-scale guitars at home in Grant Park, Corgan drama at full wingspan.
Up-and-comers to catch early
- Choir Boy — Salt Lake City's sax-flecked 80s pastiche, delivered completely sincerely.
- RIKI — Icy minimal-synth pop with a distinctly European chill.
- Prayers — San Diego's self-coined cholo goth — genuinely menacing live.
- Benches — One of the newer names filling out the undercard.
- Casket Cassette — Deep on the bill and worth showing up early for.
- Past Self — Another early-slot booking from the current darkwave wave.
Other acts worth planning around
- The Smashing Pumpkins — Co-headlining a bill otherwise built around British new wave.
- Morrissey — Topping the bill on the beach.
- Soft Cell — Marc Almond's cabaret melodrama, still fully intact.
- Gary Numan — The synth pioneer, now decades into a harder industrial second act.
- The Damned — First UK punk single, then a hard left into goth — both eras get played.
- Buzzcocks — Every hook still perfect, forty-odd years on.
- Circle Jerks — The hardcore counterweight to an otherwise synth-heavy day.
The lineup by day
- Saturday, November 14: Morrissey, The Smashing Pumpkins, Simple Minds, Bad Religion, Adam Ant, The Psychedelic Furs + 33 more
Darker Waves 2026 lineup FAQ
When is Darker Waves 2026?
Saturday, November 14, 2026 — a single day.
Where is Darker Waves held?
Huntington State Beach in Huntington Beach, California.
Who is headlining?
Morrissey and The Smashing Pumpkins.
How many acts are playing?
39 acts across one day.
What kind of music is it?
Almost entirely 80s and 90s new wave, post-punk, goth and synth-pop, plus a contemporary darkwave undercard.
How do I work out which acts I'd like?
Type a few bands you already love into the search at the top of this page and you'll get ranked matches from this lineup, with reasons.
More festival lineups
Lollapalooza lineup →Hopscotch lineup →The Fest lineup →Rebellion lineup →III Points lineup →Lost Lands lineup →Louder Than Life lineup →All Points East lineup →Aftershock lineup →End of the Road lineup →ARC lineup →Warped Tour Orlando lineup →Austin City Limits lineup →Reading & Leeds lineup →EDC Orlando lineup →Bourbon & Beyond lineup →Riot Fest lineup →Outside Lands lineup →Green Man lineup →HARD Summer lineup →Osheaga lineup →Bass Canyon lineup →Hulaween lineup →Honcho Campout lineup →Portola lineup →Furnace Fest lineup →Shaky Knees lineup →Sick New World Texas lineup →Hinterland lineup →All Things Go DMV lineup →Raleigh Wide Open lineup →Oceans Calling lineup →Bumbershoot lineup →Ohana lineup →Sea.Hear.Now lineup →Iron Blossom lineup →All Things Go NYC lineup →
Going to Darker Waves 2026? Get tickets ↗
▸ Browse the full lineup (39 acts)▾ Hide full lineup
Darker Waves full lineup
The Smashing Pumpkins
Chicago's alt-rock monument — Mellon Collie-scale guitars at home in Grant Park, Corgan drama at full wingspan.
Simple Minds
Glasgow art-rockers who grew into stadium new wave without ever quite losing the early strangeness — 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' guaranteed.
Bad Religion
Forty-plus years of polysyllabic melodic punk — three-part harmonies over an unwavering political line, still the genre's reigning intellectuals.
Adam Ant
Burundi drums, pirate costumes, and glam swagger — 'Stand and Deliver', 'Prince Charming', and the rest of a hits catalog that defined new wave's dress-up era at its most gleefully theatrical.
The Psychedelic Furs
Richard Butler's sandpaper voice over saxophone-flecked post-punk that keeps finding new generations — 'Pretty in Pink' the eternal gateway.
Soft Cell
Marc Almond's cabaret melodrama over Dave Ball's synths — sleaze and heartbreak in equal parts, 'Tainted Love' eternal.
The Damned
First UK punk single, then a hard left into goth — Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible still at it, 'New Rose' to 'Eloise' in one set.
Manic Street Preachers
Welsh rock built on political fury and literary reference — and the best guitar solos in Britpop, three decades of conviction deep.
Gary Numan
The man who made synthesisers sound alien, then spent his second act making them sound industrial — 'Cars' to Nine Inch Nails gravity, one career.
Silversun Pickups
Fuzz-forward LA alt-rock with Brian Aubert's androgynous yelp cutting through the swirl — 'Lazy Eye' still the slow-burn standard.
Buzzcocks
Manchester punk that invented lovesick pop-punk two decades early — 'Ever Fallen in Love' and a singles run where every hook still lands perfect.
EMF
Baggy-era indie-dance with one inescapable single built on a sample and pure adolescent energy — 'Unbelievable' still does exactly what it says.
Circle Jerks
First-wave California hardcore played at absurd speed — Keith Morris's sneer is the whole genre in one voice, 'Group Sex' still a fourteen-minute masterclass.
Spacehog
Bowie-indebted glam played by Yorkshiremen in New York — one enormous single, plenty of swagger, 'In the Meantime' still soaring.
Marky Ramone
The Ramones' longest-serving drummer, keeping the two-minute blitz alive with a rotating cast — thirty-plus songs an hour, as the law requires.
Mariachi El Bronx
The Bronx's punk band in full mariachi regalia — a bit that became a genuinely accomplished second career, now several albums deep.
Cold Cave
Wesley Eisold's synth project — hardcore roots audible under the cold, enormous hooks, darkwave built by someone who learned intensity the loud way.
TR/ST
Robert Alfons's sepulchral synth-pop — a voice pitched somewhere between seduction and threat, club gloom at its most luxurious.
Gene
Britpop's most openly Smiths-shaped band, and a genuinely great one live — romantic, literate, and better than the revivalist tag ever allowed.
Prayers
Self-coined 'cholo goth' — San Diego darkwave with barrio imagery and genuine menace, a genre of exactly one.
Modern English
4AD post-punks with one immortal single — 'I Melt with You' forever, though the rest of the catalogue runs darker than you'd expect.
The Motels
Martha Davis's smoky torch-song new wave — noir atmosphere on the radio, 'Only the Lonely' still aching.
The Sounds
Swedish new-wave revivalists fronted by Maja Ivarsson, who has never once given less than everything — 'Living in America' still a rocket.
Choir Boy
Adam Klopp's falsetto over sax-flecked '80s pastiche that lands as sincere rather than kitsch — Salt Lake City synth-pop with a choirboy's ache, literally.
Missing Persons
Dale Bozzio's helium delivery over musicians who'd played with Zappa — new wave with chops, 'Words' still doing the talking.
Christian Death
American deathrock's origin point — blasphemy, theatre, and guitars soaked in reverb, carrying the 'Only Theatre of Pain' legacy forward.
Deceits
Past Self
Benches
The Mainliners
RIKI
Niff Nawor's icy minimal-synth pop, delivered with an unmistakably European chill — neon romance in monochrome.
Warfield
Purest Form
Casket Cassette
Migs Whiskey
All The Damn Vampires
