What Anberlin delivered at Capital City Musical Hall in Harrisburg wasn’t a nostalgia exercise – it was a reminder of exactly why they mattered in the first place. A band this far into their catalogue, playing a room this size, with a stand-in vocalist no less, had every reason to coast. They didn’t.
Matty Mullins stepping in for Stephen Christian on touring hiatus is the kind of swap that could have turned a show into a question mark. Instead it became one of the night’s most interesting dynamics. Mullins doesn’t mimic – he interprets. He leans into the harder edges, gives tracks like Godspeed and Audrey, Start the Revolution! a raw urgency that works particularly well in a compressed space, and respects the melodic architecture of Christian’s originals without becoming a tribute act. The crowd accepted him fully inside the first song.
The setlist was built for momentum and never surrendered it. From Paperthin Hymn through Never Take Friendship Personal, Symphony of Blasé, A Day Late, The Runaways and Time & Confusion, the band kept things taut and propulsive – Nathan Young’s drumming doing the real structural work underneath while Joseph Milligan and Christian McAlhaney wove those delay-rich guitar textures that defined the mid-2000s rise. Deon Rexroat’s bass was punchy enough to feel physical. For a room that size, the arrangements felt wide and cinematic, which is no small achievement.
Two songs cut through the adrenaline and landed somewhere deeper. Dance, Dance Christa Päffgen arrived like a cold breath in a hot room – understated and genuinely affecting. A Heavy Hearted Work of Staggering Genius gave Mullins the emotional canvas he was built for, and he didn’t oversell it. The Feel Good Drag mid-set was the collective moment everyone knew was coming; the crowd didn’t just sing it, they claimed it.
The back end closed out the way it had to: The Resistance, High Stakes, Impossible, and Godspeed hitting like practiced knockout blows while the room jumped and waved and sang in unison.
Anberlin in 2026 isn’t coasting. They’re a band fully comfortable in their own skin, delivering anthemic shows with the kind of genuine crowd connection that has nothing to do with trends and everything to do with songs that meant something and still do.
Anberlin Tour
