Call It Off bring pop-punk to Gabe’s on March 19

A $25 Friday night in a 350-capacity room, with the band coming off its most recent album, ‘Not Another Sad Album.’

Gabe's holds 350 people. For a pop-punk band, that's about the right size: small enough to be packed, loud enough to drown out a singalong, and close enough that the front row ends up singing into the mic.

Call It Off play Gabe's in Iowa City on Friday, March 19, 2027, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 through Eventbrite. The show was announced Oct. 29, and the JamBase listing has the details.

Call It Off are a pop-punk band formed in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, in 2013, according to their Wikipedia entry). Their most recent album, Not Another Sad Album, came out in February 2025. The title is a little joke about a genre that has always run on heartbreak. Pop-punk is mostly upbeat songs about feeling bad, and a band that names its record that way knows exactly which tradition it's working in.

They've also had some fun with the format. Over the past year the band has played a show called Eras Tour Goes Pop-Punk, which reworks Taylor Swift songs in its own style. European city listings in Stuttgart and Salzburg carried dates for it. Pop-punk has always borrowed from pop. Rebuilding the biggest pop catalog of the moment with distorted guitars and double-time drums just makes that explicit.

Pop-punk is mostly upbeat songs about feeling bad.

For Iowa City, the appeal is getting a touring pop-punk band in a club this size. JamBase lists the show as punk, and Gabe's is the kind of room where that energy has nowhere to go but back at the stage. A 7 p.m. start on a Friday means an early night by club standards, so you can catch the whole set and still have the rest of the evening.

The room is a big part of the draw. At 350 capacity, Gabe's has no bad spot. You're never far from the stage, and the sound fills the space without anyone having to fight for it. For a band whose songs are built for crowds singing back, that intimacy makes a difference.

If you're coming in cold, start with Not Another Sad Album to get a feel for the songs. If you're curious about the Swift covers, the Eventbrite listing bills this date as Call It Off Plays Taylor Swift - Eras Tour Goes Poppunk.

Tickets are $25 on Eventbrite. In a room this small, sellouts happen, so don't wait until the week of the show to buy. Mid-March is still cold in Iowa City, and a pop-punk show in a packed club is a good way to warm up.

Sources: Call It Off (band) (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); Call It Off (Stuttgart event calendar) (stuttgart.de); Call It Off – Eras Tour goes Pop-Punk (Salzburg.info) (salzburg.info); Call It Off at Gabe’s (JamBase) (jambase.com); Tickets (Eventbrite) (eventbrite.com); Call It Off Plays Taylor Swift - Eras Tour Goes Poppunk — Eventbrite (eventbrite.com)