Don Caballero are reuniting for their first performance since 2009, and the line-up responsible for American Don is coming back with them.
The Pittsburgh instrumental rock group will return at Primavera Sound in Barcelona next June. Original drummer Damon Che is being joined by guitarist Ian Williams and bassist Eric Emm, who have not performed together as Don Caballero since 2000.
That trio made the Steve Albini-recorded American Don, an album whose clipped guitar patterns and impossible-looking rhythmic turns remain a reference point for generations of math-rock bands. Williams later formed Battles, while Emm became a member of Tanlines.
SPIN reports that the band is already rehearsing and expects to announce further performances for 2027. Primavera is the only confirmed date at present, so the reunion is larger than a single festival booking without yet becoming a full tour.
Don Caballero formed in the early 1990s and released For Respect in 1993. Don Caballero 2 followed in 1995 and What Burns Never Returns arrived in 1998 before the Williams-Emm line-up culminated in American Don.
Che subsequently led another version of the band through two more albums before Don Caballero stopped performing in 2009. The name has remained present through archival releases and the steady spread of their influence, even while the group itself stayed inactive.
The timing follows Touch and Go’s expanded three-LP reissue of American Don. Its additional material included live-in-studio recordings made with engineer Greg Norman during a break in the album’s original touring cycle. Emm said the tapes caught the band playing faster and harder, with “no one holding back with anything to lose.”
The reunion sits inside the 25th-anniversary Primavera Sound line-up, alongside Turnstile, Fontaines D.C., Hayley Williams, Massive Attack and dozens more. For listeners who learnt to count odd time signatures through Don Caballero records, their name may be the smallest print carrying the most history.
