I Set My Friends on Fire Return to The Masquerade's Purgatory

Matt Mehana's long-running post-hardcore project plays Atlanta, its most frequent stop in our records, on Wednesday, Nov 18, with Set To Stun and Current Comfort.

In 2008, two teenagers with a laptop posted a punk cover of "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" to MySpace, and it went far enough to launch a band. Almost two decades later, I Set My Friends on Fire is still at it, and on Wednesday, Nov 18, it's back in the city it plays more than any other in our records.

I Set My Friends on Fire plays The Masquerade (Purgatory) on Wednesday, Nov 18, 2026, at 6pm, with Set To Stun and Current Comfort. Tickets are $30.55 through Ticketmaster.

The band is from Miami, formed in 2007 by Matt Mehana and Nabil Moo, who had played together before in a local band called We Are the Cavalry. The name came from a lyric from that earlier band. That viral cover put them on the map, and the debut album that followed, *You Can't Spell Slaughter Without Laughter*, came out on Epitaph in 2008. A second record, *Astral Rejection*, arrived on June 21, 2011. A third album, *Caterpillar Sex*, was announced in 2013 and has never been released, which has become its own piece of band lore.

The lineup has shifted over the years. Drummer Chris Lent joined in 2009, Moo left during the *Astral Rejection* cycle, and Mehana has carried on as the only original member. In December 2016 the band signed with Tragic Hero Records after a year as an independent act. Descriptions of the sound vary depending on who's writing: post-hardcore, experimental, electronic-leaning. Our records file it under EDM, punk and metal, which is about as close as a single label gets.

A MySpace-era band still drawing crowds is its own kind of staying power.

2026 has been an active year. The band was added to the 2026 Vans Warped Tour lineup in February, and this run of headline dates keeps it on the road into late fall: the Florida Panhandle on Nov 15 and Nashville on Nov 17 before Atlanta, then Birmingham on Nov 19 and Dallas on Nov 20 after.

Set To Stun and Current Comfort fill out the bill, which makes this a three-band night, and with a 6pm start it's an early one. If you're coming from work, don't plan on lingering over dinner first.

The Masquerade is a fitting home for this one. Purgatory is the room in the complex hosting the show, and the venue's own page for the band is the best place to check door times, age policy and any updates before Wednesday.

For a lot of people in that room, this band is a direct line back to a very specific era of the internet and of heavy music, and there's no shame in that. For anyone newer, it's a chance to see what a project born on MySpace sounds like after nearly twenty years on the road. Either way, get there early, because the night starts at six.

Sources: I Set My Friends on Fire — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org); Kendall Band I Set My Friends on Fire Makes It Big the MySpace Way (Miami New Times) (miaminewtimes.com); Why they're called I Set My Friends on Fire (SPIN) (spinmagazine.com); I Set My Friends On Fire — bio (Epitaph) (epitaph.com); I Set My Friends On Fire, Sleep Theory added to 2026 Vans Warped Tour (Lambgoat) (lambgoat.com); I Set My Friends On Fire (The Masquerade) (masqueradeatlanta.com); I Set My Friends on Fire — Atlanta (Ticketmaster) (ticketmaster.evyy.net); I Set My Friends on Fire at The Masquerade (Purgatory) (JamBase) (jambase.com)