From Brownsville, Texas, to an international circuit of clubs, theatres, and festivals, Twin Tribes have become one of contemporary darkwave’s defining success stories. Formed in 2017 by Luis Navarro and Joel Niño, Jr., the duo brought together an affection for post-punk, coldwave, and the electronic music of the 1980s, giving their songs a distinctive balance of melodic immediacy and occult intrigue. Navarro’s low, romantic vocals and bright guitar figures meet Niño’s commanding basslines, with synthesizers and drum machines supplying the architecture. Their music invites you onto the dance floor, then gives you a chorus to carry home.
Their debut album, Shadows, arrived in 2018, establishing the darkwave vocabulary they would develop across Ceremony in 2019 and Pendulum in 2024. Songs such as Shadows, Heart & Feather, Fantasmas, and Monolith explain the appeal: memorable bass and guitar lines, a sure instinct for a hook, and an emotional directness that gives the gothic imagery its human scale. The 2021 remix collection Altars, featuring contributions from She Past Away, Ash Code, Wingtips, and others, also placed their songs in conversation with the wider international scene.
Years of touring across North America, Europe, and Latin America have helped turn those records into a shared language. Twin Tribes’ rise rests on the connection between the songs and the people singing them back, sustained through an independent approach the pair have discussed on Ari’s Take. They have become one of the biggest bands on the international darkwave circuit, with the reach to bring that music before audiences well beyond its usual rooms. Their newly announced place at Coachella 2027 adds another clear marker to that ascent. In San Antonio on November 6, however, the immediate challenge was winning over a room assembled for a considerably heavier evening.
San Antonio-based photographer Chris Stokes was there to document the performance and report from the crowd. His concert and portrait work includes fellow travelers such as Riki, Mareux, and Past Self, as well as Twin Tribes themselves. Below, Stokes recounts the duo’s appearance alongside Acid Bath, Kylesa, and The Atlas Moth at the Boeing Center at Tech Port, followed by his photo gallery from the evening.
Live review and photography by Chris Stokes
On a bill built for sludge, feedback and low-end ruin, Twin Tribes were the strangest guests of the night, and that was the point. The Boeing Center at Tech Port is a big, blunt room, and the evening belonged to heavy music, Louisiana metal legends Acid Bath headlined, with Kylesa and The Atlas Moth rounding out a lineup of swampy, psychedelic, bone-heavy riffs. Into that came a band whose weapons are chorus-washed guitars, a pulsing bassline and a synth that glows like a neon sign in a rainstorm. Opening with “Path to Antares” and sliding into “Another Life,” Twin Tribes made no concession to the other acts around them. They simply played their own songs at full volume.
The sound is what made the mismatch work. In a hall tuned for crushing weight, Twin Tribes offered the opposite, melody with a razor edge, cold and cinematic. “Portal to the Void” and “Heart & Feather” kept the momentum driving, and the bass filled the space with a deep rumble that held its own among the metal faithful. By “Sangre de Oro” and “Upir” the set had found its own gravity. The Spanish titles and the gothic romanticism felt right in San Antonio, a city that has always had a place for dark, beautiful music. Deep into the set, “Cauldron of Thorns” and “Shadows” leaned fully into the band’s synth-driven side, all shimmer and yearning, a world away from the thunder shaking the rest of the bill.
By the time the band reached “Lobo Hombre En Paris” and “Monolith,” the contrast had stopped feeling like a clash. Heads that had been nodding along to the beat were swaying to the synths, and the crowd was settling into another world. Closing with “Fantasmas,” Twin Tribes left the stage the way the best post-punk acts always have, having changed the temperature of a room that wasn’t built for them. Metal and goth have shared a bloodline for decades, and for one night in San Antonio, alongside Acid Bath, Kylesa and The Atlas Moth, the family resemblance was hard to miss
Twin Tribes in San Antonio — photo gallery by Chris Stokes
Explore Chris Stokes’s photographs from Twin Tribes’ November 6 performance below. All photographs by Chris Stokes. Find more of his concert and portrait work at c-stokes.com.
Twin Tribes — Recent Releases and Upcoming Appearances:
The San Antonio appearance follows a busy stretch for the duo, including Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, on September 15, 2026, on a bill with Acid Bath and Ministry, and Sick New World in Fort Worth, Texas, on October 24. On record, Live at Fascination Street received an expanded release in 2026, reaching worldwide streaming services on August 28 alongside vinyl and CD editions. Recorded in Nashville in December 2019 and first issued in May 2020, the performance returns to material from the band’s first two albums. Listen and order here.
Other recent releases include the 2025 singles Ecos and Play Alone, as well as Monolith Remixes: V and their Audiotree Live session. For a closer look at the people behind the records, their Artist Friendly conversation with Joel Madden covers their DIY beginnings, Mexican-American roots, and experiences touring South America.
Next year brings Coachella, where Twin Tribes are billed for Saturday, April 10 and Saturday, April 17, 2027, at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. They are also announced for Ritual Noize Fest, taking place June 5–6, 2027, at ReelWorks in Denver, Colorado. From a Nashville club recording to two weekends in the California desert, the distance offers a useful measure of how far these songs have travelled.
Announced 2027 appearances:
- April 10, 2027 — Indio, California — Coachella, Empire Polo Club — Passes and information
- April 17, 2027 — Indio, California — Coachella, Empire Polo Club — Passes and information
- June 5–6, 2027 — Denver, Colorado — Ritual Noize Fest, ReelWorks — Tickets and information (festival dates)
Check Twin Tribes’ official tour page for further announcements.
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