BJ Barham (American Aquarium) confirms string of shows for February 2026

For nearly twenty years, American Aquarium have reveled in that elusive space where raw-boned rock-and-roll meets revelation—and at the center of that artistic charge stands songwriter and frontman BJ Barham. His mission has always been deceptively simple: to make music that hits with the force of an anthem and only later reveals the truth packed into every line. On the band’s tenth studio album, The Fear of Standing Still, Barham pushes that ideal to its furthest edge yet. Recorded live at Sunset Sound with producer Shooter Jennings, the record channels the band’s freight-train live energy into a set of songs that feel as emotionally exposed as they are explosive. Barham digs into Southern identity, generational wounds, aging, fatherhood, sobriety, and the shifting ground beneath American culture—with writing that’s sharper, braver, and more vulnerable than ever. His voice remains the grounding force in the roar: cracked but unwavering, just the way rock-and-roll ought to sound.

Much of The Fear of Standing Still doubles as a testament to Barham’s continuing evolution—not only as a songwriter but as a human being in constant forward motion. His songs wrestle with masculinity in “Crier,” confront the weight of inherited prejudices in “Southern Roots,” and carve out a fierce—and deeply personal—defense of autonomy in “Babies Having Babies.” Elsewhere, moments of reflection strike with quiet power: the childhood memories in “Cherokee Purples,” the emotional toll of aging in “The Curse of Growing Old.” Barham writes like someone who understands that music isn’t just catharsis—it’s communion. That bond with fans, forged through honesty and unguarded storytelling, runs like an electric current through the entire record. American Aquarium may play louder, harder, and bigger than ever, but the heart of it all is still Barham’s insistence that rock-and-roll can make us feel less alone, more connected, and braver about what scares us the most.

And this is exactly what BJ Barham brings to the stage on this freshly announced string of solo shows:

19/02: Dublin, IRL - BelloBar
20/02: Glasgow, UK - The Glad Cafe
21/02: Gateshead, UK - Little Theatre
22/02: London, UK - 100 Club
23/02: Utrecht, NL - TivoliVredenburg