Mustard Plug's Skaliday show is back at The Intersection on Dec. 26

Grand Rapids' hometown ska band has set its annual holiday show for the Saturday after Christmas, with Flatfoot 56, Wack Trucks and Dance Contraption on the bill.

In Grand Rapids, the week between Christmas and New Year's has a soundtrack, and it has horns. Mustard Plug has put its annual holiday show on the calendar again: Saturday, Dec. 26, at The Intersection.

The venue lists the night as Mustard Plug's Annual Ska-liday Show. Chicago Celtic-punk band Flatfoot 56 is the main support, and Wack Trucks and Dance Contraption round out the bill. Doors open at 6 p.m., the music starts at 7, and the show is all ages. The Intersection lists tickets at $20 in advance and $25 at the door, and they're on sale now through the venue's ticketing partner, Etix.

The date went up in mid-October, so there's no on-sale rush to plan around. The rush is the room. The Intersection's main stage holds about 400 people, and a hometown band with a hometown tradition doesn't leave much spare floor. If you're already picturing the Saturday after Christmas with a ska band, buy now rather than gambling on the door.

A hometown band with a hometown tradition doesn't leave much spare floor.

For anyone new in town: Mustard Plug formed in Grand Rapids in 1991. A Northern Express profile from this August credits Dave Kirchgessner and Colin Clive with starting it. The band was there for ska's third wave and helped push it along on the strength of its live shows. Its first release was a 1992 cassette, *Skapocalypse Now!*, and *Big Daddy Multitude* followed in 1994 on the New York label Moon Records. According to its own bio, the band has since played more than 1,900 shows and released six albums.

The band has been through a forced break too. COVID-19 stopped a 2020 tour of Australia in March, and the band was off the road for about 16 months before returning to stages in fall 2021. The holiday show has stayed fixed through all of it. The band's own tour archive puts last year's edition at The Intersection on Dec. 27, 2025, and Local Spins billed it "Home for the Skalidays" and called it a romp that has run for more than two decades.

That's why the room matters. The Intersection is where this show lives, and the December date is as much reunion as concert: friends back in town for the holidays, kids who were too young for the last one, and people who have been skanking to "Box" since before some of the openers were born. Flatfoot 56 add bagpipes and gang vocals. Dance Contraption have been on this holiday bill before, and Wack Trucks round out the lineup.

The tickets are cheap and it's all ages, which makes it as easy a December night out as Grand Rapids gets. Wear shoes you can dance in. Leave the bulky coat in the car.

Tickets and details are on The Intersection's event page and the band's tour page.

Sources: The Intersection — Events (Section Live) (sectionlive.com); The Intersection — Mustard Plug's Home for the Skalidays (2025) (sectionlive.com); Etix — Mustard Plug's Annual Skaliday Show with Flatfoot 56, Wack Trucks and Dance Contraption (etix.com); Mustard Plug — Tour Dates (mustardplug.com); Northern Express — Mustard Plug's ska-tastic journey (Aug 2026) (northernexpress.com); Local Spins — Mustard Plug, Payton Annabelle and more heat up the holidays (localspins.com); Mustard Plug - Masterpieces: 1991-2002 (punknews.org); Flatfoot 56 - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)