Sing Us Home Festival’s joy gets amplified by perfect weather

Sing Us Home Festival was back in Manayunk over the weekend for its fourth year, and Philadelphia’s own Dave and Tim Hause — who co-organize the festival — brought local bands, out-of-town artists, and music fans of all ages to Venice Island Performance Center to kick off May with a three-day celebration of local and punk rock music.

Festivalgoers were treated to new music debuts, danced to old favorites, and saw surprise sets, keeping everyone on their toes. The 2026 headliners included locally-beloved punk rockers The Menzingers, who brought a big crowd out on Saturday night, and The Mountain Goats, who had the crowd staying til sundown on Sunday.

On Saturday night, as the sun set over the Manayunk Canal, The Menzingers pulled old favorites such as “Telling Lies” from their days writing music in South Philadelphia. They played their new 2026 singles “Chance Encounters” and “Nobody’s Heroes,” which equally got as much love as the original hits. The set spanned their full discography but ended with the crowd favorite “After the Party” before closing it out with their rendition of Green Day’s “When I Come Around” and Rancid’s “Roots Radicals,” which Dave Hause joined in on.

The weekend was so much more than those two bands, however.

Early attendees got to take in sets from Canadian punk rock band The Flatliners, Texas-based rock and roller Emily Wolfe, Nashville singer-songwriter Laney Lebo kicked things off, local favorite Moustapha Noumbissi, and Lancaster-area folk punk group Apes of the State.

On day two, Tim Hause took the stage with his band to perform songs from his 2025 record Pre-Existing Conditions before closing with the crowd favorite “High Hopes.” During the set, Tim Hause also reminisced about growing up in Manayunk.

Dave Hause also popped up on stage all three days. The talented brothers got each day started by performing some songs as an acoustic duo before introducing the day’s first band. Dave Hause and his band The Mermaids got to play their music for fans on nights two and three, too, just before The Menzingers and The Mountain Goats brought the nights to a peak.

Friday night ended in the now-traditional way with the “Hause Family Campfire,” featuring Dave Hause, Ted Leo, Jenny Owen Youngs, and Will Hoge performing “in-the-round” style.

The early night-one crowd got to enjoy sets by Noumbissi, who shared an unreleased tune titled “Adeline” with us all after kicking off the weekend with a full set of both new and old songs. 

After just returning home from a U.K. tour, Apes of the State had the crowd dancing in the circle pit by mid set as they played through their 2016 record This City Isn’t Big Enough.

Eric Bazilian of The Hooters popped up as the night’s surprise addition to the “family campfire” jam session and performed his band’s signature hit “And We Danced.”

To the relief of past festivalgoers, this year’s weather was perfect, allowing everyone to put their weather apps away to fully enjoy the weekend. Jon Stewart even described Sunday as “a cool, crisp fall day” as he played drums in the New Jersey band Church And State™. 

A hurricane could have blown through the area and yet a massive crowd still would have flocked to Venice Island Sunday morning to see The Daily Show host as a punk drummer. A self-proclaimed “baby band,” Church and State™ is a New Jersey outfit consisting of Andy Bova and Justin Bournemann, past and present members of the New Jersey band Dentist, in addition to Stewart taking on the drummer role.

The Sunday morning audience made sure to keep their spots at the barricade as the day’s next set was the highly anticipated reunion of Augustines. The band’s first show in a decade was made up of songs from their 2011 album Rise Ye Sunken Ships.

Statements like “this festival is nuts dude,” could be overheard by the fans in attendance as band after band kept building the momentum all weekend.

The final set of the weekend was filled with full-band songs that spanned The Mountain Goats’ catalog, as well as new songs such as “Shallow Grave.” Midway through, frontman John Darnielle took a moment to play a handful of songs solo, including “Alpha Omega” and “You Were Cool.” When Darnielle got about midway through his solo performance of “Younger,” the band rejoined him, and as the sun began setting over the canal, Matt Douglas brought out the saxophone. Suddenly, his tenor sax solos blended with golden hour, engulfing Venice Island.

The show inevitably came to a close a handful of songs later with their 2005 hit “This Year,” which Dave Hause joined in on. However, the trio making up The Mountain Goats kept things going with a five-song encore before officially signing off with “No Children” off their 2002 album Tallahassee.