The Mountain Goats open their six-night Fillmore residency with "Openers"

John Darnielle's band starts a themed San Francisco run next Sunday, Nov 15, three months after their 24th album, Days.

Every Mountain Goats fan has an argument ready about the best opening song. Next Sunday at the Fillmore, the band settles it their own way: a whole night built from them.

The Mountain Goats play The Fillmore on Sunday, Nov 15, at 8pm, the first of six nights at the Geary Blvd room. Tickets are through Ticketmaster, which bills this one as "Night One: Openers." The residency continues Nov 16 and Nov 18–21.

Each night has its own theme, and the band has said the setlist will shift throughout the run. In order, per the announcement coverage in Stereogum and JamBase: "Openers," "Alpha," "Stump the Band," "Six Long Songs," "Cast of Thousands" and "Closers." Read the titles and you can start guessing. "Openers" and "Closers" bookend the run with first tracks and last tracks; "Six Long Songs" promises the patience-rewarding side of the catalog; "Stump the Band" sounds like the night when the crowd gets a say. For a catalog this deep, it's an excuse to hear songs that rarely make a standard set.

Six nights, six themes, and a catalog deep enough to fill every one.

The residency was announced on June 10 alongside "Shallow Grave," the first taste of *Days*, the band's 24th album. *Days* came out Aug. 7 on the band's own Cadmean Dawn Records via Thirty Tigers, so by the time the run starts, the new songs will have had a few months to settle in with fans and on stage. The fall routing also took the band through Dublin, Glasgow, London and Bristol in October before this West Coast stand.

The Mountain Goats aren't a San Francisco band, but San Francisco has treated them like one. In our show records the city is their most-played market, with 35 dates, more than anywhere else, and committing six nights to one room here is a statement about how deep that audience runs. The Fillmore, at around 1,315 capacity, is the right size for it: big enough to hold a crowd that sings every word, small enough that the quieter songs still land.

A residency like this changes how you go to shows. Plenty of people will try to catch more than one night, and the themes give each a reason to exist on its own. If you're only picking one, "Openers" has the advantage of being first: a clean start, a crowd that hasn't heard any of the run yet and the chance to walk out with a story before the rest of the week begins.

Bring the friend who has a ranked list of opening tracks, and be ready to lose the argument.

Sources: The Mountain Goats — Night One: Openers, The Fillmore, Nov 15, 2026 — Ticketmaster (ticketmaster.com); The Mountain Goats unearth 'Shallow Grave' & plot ambitious San Francisco residency — JamBase (jambase.com); Mountain Goats share "Shallow Grave," announce San Francisco residency — Stereogum (stereogum.com); The Mountain Goats release new song "Shallow Grave" — Under the Radar (undertheradarmag.com); The Mountain Goats announce new album Days — Northern Transmissions (northerntransmissions.com); The Mountain Goats at Vicar Street, October 2026 — Foggy Notions (foggynotions.ie)