Switchfoot Bring "Forever Now" to Life With Anberlin on Their North American Tour

Switchfoot have spent more than two decades writing songs about the uncertainties of being human. Their latest album, Forever Now, released June 26, takes that approach a step further. Built around the concept of a person's final moments on Earth, the band's fourteenth studio record explores mortality, relationships, and the things that matter when time begins to run out. Despite its heavier premise, the album retains the melodic optimism that has long defined the San Diego rock band.

Supporting the record with an extensive North American tour running from September through November, Switchfoot brought longtime friends Anberlin along for the entire run. The pairing brought together two bands whose music has remained a fixture in alternative rock since the early 2000s, each arriving with new material and a different perspective on its own history.

Anberlin opened the evening with a set that balanced familiar favorites and songs from their forthcoming album, Currency, due November 11. The record marks the band's first full-length release with Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire on vocals, following the departure of longtime frontman Stephen Christian from the touring lineup.

Mullins' arrival has prompted plenty of discussion among longtime listeners, particularly given how closely Christian's voice became associated with Anberlin's sound. Onstage, however, the band approached the material with confidence, moving between songs from its first four albums and newer tracks written with Mullins. The performance gave fans an opportunity to hear how the current lineup handles both sides of the catalog.

The band's upcoming release also features "Trenches," a collaboration with Switchfoot. Although the song wasn't part of the evening's performance, the shared tour offered an interesting connection between the two groups as Anberlin prepares to introduce its next full-length record.

When Switchfoot took the stage, the focus shifted toward Forever Now. Rather than treating the new album as a brief interruption between older hits, the band made it a central part of the evening. Songs from the record sat comfortably alongside material from across their catalog, with audiences already familiar enough with the recent releases to sing along.

Frontman Jon Foreman has always approached live performances with an unusually personal touch. That was apparent early in the set when, during "YFWYA," he left the stage and made his way into the audience. What began as a walk through the crowd turned into an extended stretch of handshakes, embraces, and conversations between lyrics. Foreman eventually reached the back of the venue, sent his guitar crowd-surfing, and finished the song near the soundboard before gradually making his way back.

The moment captured something central to Switchfoot's live identity. Even in larger rooms, Foreman finds ways to break down the separation between the band and the people who have followed its music for years. His interactions rarely feel like a carefully timed part of the production; instead, they give the songs a more immediate, personal dimension.

That relationship with the audience became especially apparent when the band acknowledged a couple celebrating their upcoming wedding. The two had met at the same venue during Switchfoot's The Beautiful Letdown Tour roughly three years earlier and returned for a joint bachelor and bachelorette celebration. One of them had even arrived wearing a wedding dress.

At the couple's request, Switchfoot performed "Needle and Haystack Life," turning a song from 2009's Hello Hurricane into a personal dedication. Although the band couldn't attend the wedding itself, they promised to send flowers.

Elsewhere, the set reached into different corners of Switchfoot's discography, including audience requests for "The Sound" and "Daisy." The latter, a deeper cut from Nothing Is Sound, offered a contrast to the band's more immediate, arena-ready material, while "The Sound" brought a heavier edge to the performance.

Across roughly 90 minutes, the band moved between the introspective themes of Forever Now and the songs that have followed listeners through different stages of their lives. The newer material's focus on mortality gave the older songs an additional layer of context, particularly those concerned with uncertainty, purpose, and the passage of time.

For Switchfoot, hope has never meant ignoring difficult subjects. Much of their catalog begins with doubt, grief, or frustration before searching for something worth holding onto. Forever Now continues that tradition, and the tour places those ideas in a setting where listeners can experience them together.

Between Foreman's trips into the audience, the unexpected song requests, and the wedding dedication, the performance was shaped as much by the people in the room as by the songs on the setlist. It was a fitting approach for a band whose latest record asks what remains important when everything else falls away.