Show Review, Photos: The Academy Is... Celebrate 20 Years of 'Almost Here' in Sacramento
The Academy Is…
Almost Here 20th Anniversary Tour
Support: Jon Walker
Ace of Spades
Sacramento, CA
May 7th, 2026
Review and Photos by Jared Stossel
Almost Here, the twenty-year-old debut album from Chicago rock act The Academy Is…, has aged like fine wine. The band is well aware of this; they’re currently on the road playing it from start to finish every night for thousands of fans across North America. On Thursday, the captivating four-piece brought their Almost Here anniversary tour to a packed crowd at Sacramento’s tight-knit Ace of Spades in the heart of midtown. This isn’t the first time that The Academy Is… has done an anniversary tour in support of Almost Here; they took to stages around the country for its tenth birthday. There was a promise of new music and tour dates on the horizon, yet months went by, and nothing had materialized. This time around, the band - vocalist William Beckett, guitarist Mike Carden, bassist Adam Siska, and drummer Andy “The Butcher” Mrotek - have released Almost There, their first proper album release since 2008’s Fast Times at Barrington High, and Beckett assured the crowd that this time, the band is back for good.
The Academy Is… have always been an intriguing scene act. They aren’t quite “scene”, not quite “indie”, and not quite “alternative” in the conventional rock radio sense, yet they could fit comfortably on the bill with a show that falls under any of these categories. Regardless of genre nomenclature, The Academy Is… proved throughout their sprawling twenty-one song setlist that they are a full-fledged rock band. They haven’t missed a beat since picking up their instruments and returning to the stage. Beckett is an immaculate frontman; the second he walks out on stage and lifts his microphone stand - adorned with a scarf a la Aerosmith - above his head, you know you’re in capable hands. Almost Here’s opening track quite literally demands your “Attention”. It’s full speed ahead from the moment guitarist Mike Carden strikes the two opening chords on his semi-hollow body guitar.
Shows like this are fun not just because they play on our nostalgic senses, but because they offer surprises. I wasn’t aware until the night before that the show was to be opened by Jon Walker, the former bass player of Panic! At The Disco, during the A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out and Pretty. Odd eras, along with its spin-off band The Young Veins. Armed with a sole electric guitar and pedalboard, Walker played through a handful of tracks from his solo material, along with covers of Panic!’s “Nine In The Afternoon”, The Young Veins’ “Take A Vacation!”, and Fall Out Boy’s “Tell That Mick He Just Made My List Of Things To Do Today”. The latter cover was particularly special; it’s the attention-grabbing first song from Fall Out Boy’s debut album Take This To Your Grave. The rise of Fall Out Boy eventually led to bands like The Academy Is…, Panic! At The Disco, Cobra Starship, The Cab, and countless others exchanging time in their cramped garages for spots on international stages. Without that song, it’s fair to say that none of us would have been standing in a Sacramento club twenty years later, singing every word on Almost Here.
In addition to performing their debut, The Academy Is… included a hanful of tracks from albums like the decadent Santi (“LAX to O’Hare”, “We’ve Got A Big Mess On Our Hands”, “Neighbors”), Fast Times At Barrington High (“About A Girl”, “After The Last Midtown Show”), Almost There (“2005”, “L Train”, “Miracle”) and even a surprise acoustic performance of “New York (Saint In The City)”, a track from their barely-acknowledged Lost In Pacific Time EP. The energy in the room never subsided throughout the duration of the band’s set; they play with more confidence than most arena bands I’ve seen.
By the time the show was over and the final notes of “After The Last Midtown Show” subsided, I began to find it ironic for The Academy Is… to call their new album “almost there”. They’ve definitely arrived.
The Academy Is… Set List
Attention
Season
Slow Down
The Phrase That Pays
Black Mamba
About A Girl
Miracle
Sleeping With Giants (Lifetime)
Skeptics and True Believers
Classifieds
Neighbors
Seed
2005
Checkmarks
New York (Saint In The City)
Down and Out
Almost Here
L Train
LAX to O’Hare
We’ve Got A Big Mess On Our Hands
After The Last Midtown Show
