After a dozen years as Chicago’s lynch-pin for dark wave and industrial festival fans every fall, the Cold Waves team has unveiled a new spring-season event with a decidedly different angle.
A new single-day festival-style event presented by Cold Waves, SPACE ECHO is a specially curated lineup with respect to FAILURE, whose groundbreaking 1996 opus Fantastic Planet reaches its 30 year milestone. Failure’s entire catalog has been an inspiration to countless musicians and fans over the years, including a strong relationship with a Chicago fan-base. To celebrate that relationship, Cold Waves Presents has built an evening of music featuring a plethora of forward-thinking acts with history and sound ties to Failure and the city. BARONESS, AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD, TORCHE and SHINER have all shared enduring bonds with Chicago, while SLOW MASS calls the city home. Rounding out the bill is SPOTLIGHTS (Ipecac Recordings artists and a recent fave of Deftones Chino Moreno) with Austin’s RINGO DEATHSTARR and BLEARY EYED from Philadelphia bringing the bliss. https://coldwaves.net/space-echo/
Heavy and progressive, where shoe-gaze meets metal, and the brown note finds grace in the doom, the inaugural Chicago SPACE ECHO single-day music fest is not to be missed. “We’d been exploring an alternate idea the past couple of years, curating a show around a particular headliner that aligned with our musical passion, and related to the city of Chicago,” says Jason Novak, Cold Waves founder and director. “While our connection to dark wave and industrial music runs decades long, with experiences and relationships that cater to that fan-base, we obviously enjoy and relate to many other styles of music, and wanted a chance to explore that.”
The starting point was simple. “The musical vision born in the 90s is alive and well, and resonates with fans in a profound way,” says Novak. “That decade is hands down the greatest era of true alternative music culture, and something we’ve wanted strongly to explore. Shoe-gaze, post-rock, “heavy” music that progressed beyond “metal”, plus its the time a lot of us spent on the road touring, before the internet, before streaming, etc. Magical memories.” While several acts on the SPACE ECHO lineup started post-nineties, it’s more of a vibe than a structure, says Novak: “There’s a connection among these bands, some have strong Chicago ties, others have direct relationships to Failure, and some just represent an ethos and a style that hit home with us. Similar to the All Tomorrows Parties concept, we wanted to build a curated experience for fans who understood these connections, and would hopefully see this lineup as speaking directly to them; fans of different genres, be it shoegaze, metal, stoner or doom, progressive or experimental rock, that all coalesce.” While the Cold Waves Festival will continue in September 2026 with its 14th installment, the SPACE ECHO spring event aligns with recent expansions the Cold Waves team has made in cities like Los Angeles, Austin and New York.
“We are already having conversations about a 2027 edition and beyond. Exploring different genres and styles, but curated to make a focused fan experience, I believe is key. And just like the Cold Waves Festival itself, we feel strongly about all of our lineups showcasing legacy acts along with many newer, younger performers we want to help expose, with attention to diversity, inclusion, and a charitable donation to those in need.” General on-sale for SPACE ECHO begins Friday, November 14 at 10AM CT at here.
Pre-sale options (on sale Thursday November 13) are available by signing up at https://radius.hive- pages.com/space-echo.
COLD WAVES PRESENTS: SPACE ECHO
Failure • Baroness • And Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead • Torche • Ringo Deathstarr • Shiner • Spotlights • Slow Mass • Bleary Eyed
Door Time 5:00 PM Show Time 6:00 PM Age 17+ Location Radius Chicago Featuring 2 stages, 9 bands, on-site parking, full kitchen, GA and VIP options (with specialty viewing and seated areas), outdoor patio and much more.
