They may be nearly three decades into their career, but Switchfoot is still crossing dreams old and new off their rock star bucket list: namely, playing South by Southwest for the first time this year, and a 2025 single with pioneering blues guitarist Buddy Guy.
“In all the years we’ve been a band, that was not on my bingo card,” drummer Chad Butler says of the collaboration. He and his bandmates jumped at the chance to work with such a renowned musician who Ain’t Done With the Blues, according to the title of his 2025 album. Connected by a mutual friend, the band teamed up with the near-nonagenarian icon for a soulful, anthemic single, “Last Man Standing,” that puts Guy’s signature boisterous spin on the alternative rock group’s West Coast sound. “That’s something I’ll be playing for my grandkids,” says Butler.
Playing SXSW was more or less on the bingo card all along, but somehow slipped through the cracks amid globe-trotting tours and prolific recording. Stepping out of a year in the studio working on album No. 14, Butler says they’re all itching to be back onstage and to bring new music to their audience.
“The live experience is still what keeps us going,” he says. “It feels good to be human and to be with humans and to be part of a magical moment – the song exists in that form only once.”
Staying in the moment onstage and keeping improvisation at the forefront of their set list is what helps the San Diego-based group stay connected to songs from throughout their catalog. In 2023, they re-recorded their breakout album, The Beautiful Letdown, in honor of its 20th birthday. Billboard-topping singles like “Meant to Live” and “Dare You to Move” feel just as prescient with a grownup coat of paint, a matured rasp in singer Jon Foreman’s vocals, and a glossier tone on the pop-punk-inspired guitar riffs.
“Not many bands get the opportunity to revisit a project 20 years later, and have been playing those songs all along,” says Butler. “That record really took us around the world and those songs have evolved as we’ve evolved as people and as musicians.”
The urgent pleading of their youthful releases has grown into a reassured, optimistic insistence. “I think hope deserves an anthem,” says Butler. “I feel like music can really change things in ways that nothing else can.”
That now-confident belief in the power of music and the hard-earned trust in their musicianship propels Switchfoot onto the SXSW stage, just like every other – with ease and an eagerness to improvise.
“As a live band, we embrace the things that go wrong during the show. You break a guitar string, you break a drumstick – those are moments to improvise and to take the song somewhere it’s never been before,” says Butler. “The set list is always just suggestions. It’s up to the moment. The crowd has an equal say in what we end up playing.”
Switchfoot
Friday 13, 11pm, Elysium
This article appears in SXSW 2026 Festival Guide.