Cartel

Cartel play Summit Music Hall on Saturday, November 21, as part of their Around the World and Back Again Tour. They're not coming alone: State Champs and Taylor Acorn open the bill.

If you've lost track of the name, Cartel is the Georgia pop-punk band that broke through in the mid-2000s. Their 2005 album Chroma debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and gave them the Gold-certified single "Honestly." That record put them on Warped Tour, TRL, and Epic Records, and it's still cited as one of the era's best pop-punk albums. The lineup from those days—vocalist and guitarist Will Pugh, guitarists Joseph Pepper and Nic Hudson, and drummer Kevin Sanders—is the same one that followed up with Cartel in 2007, Cycles in 2009, and the self-released Collider in 2013.

They've stayed active since then, too. In 2022 they put out new music with 17 and The End, and spent time on the road supporting Dashboard Confessional and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness on the Hello Gone Days tour. Pugh has also produced for New Found Glory, and the band keeps touring with dates like Warped Rewind at Sea and Emo's Not Dead Cruise. This Denver stop is one of the dates on the Around the World and Back Again run.

Doors open at 6 PM and the show starts at 7 PM. State Champs and Taylor Acorn set the stage before Cartel takes over.