Once More, With Feeling: Armchair Cynics Reunite for Rifflandia 2025

There was a time when you couldn’t walk into a Victoria bar without hearing someone talk about the Armchair Cynics. Maybe it was after a sweaty set at Lucky Bar, maybe someone had just burned you a CD with “Bang” on it, or maybe you saw them open for a bigger band and thought: wait, why aren’t they famous?

Formed in the early 2000s, the Armchair Cynics were never trying to chase trends. Their music lived in the cracks between earnest emo, alt-rock grit, and pure pop sensibility—a sound that was ours. They were local, but they didn’t sound small. Their early days were full of that scrappy West Coast energy: hauling gear across town, crashing on couches, making EPs in home studios. When they self-released Coffeeshop Confessions in 2003, it felt like the start of something. And in many ways, it was.

By 2005, they’d caught the attention of Vancouver’s 604 Records and released Killing the Romance, a six-track EP that hit like a left hook to the heart. “Bang” became the anthem. The kind of song that made you want to drive with the windows down or scream along in a basement venue. There was muscle in the guitars, emotion in the lyrics, and just enough polish to imagine them breaking out beyond BC.

Then came Starting Today in 2009—a full-length that was both bigger and more vulnerable. The songs were still catchy, still driving, but you could hear the band growing up in real time. Tracks like “Ablaze” and “Kelly” didn’t just hit hard—they stuck with you. For fans, it wasn’t just about the music—it was about how it made you feel. Like your own messy, electric twenties set to guitar riffs.

And then, almost as quickly as they arrived, the Cynics faded from view. No breakup post, no farewell show—just life moving on. A few members popped up in other projects. Rumours of new material came and went. But for the most part, the band slipped into memory. That one band you loved. That one show you still talk about. That CD that somehow survived four apartment moves.

Now, after more than a decade away, the Armchair Cynics are coming back—and they’re doing it on their own terms. This September, they’ll reunite on home turf as part of the Rifflandia 2025 lineup. It’s the kind of news that makes you double-take, then smile. Because some bands never really leave you, and some shows are more than just music—they’re a homecoming.

Set against the industrial shoreline of Rock Bay on the Matullia Lands, this year’s festival promises something golden, something meaningful. And among the big-name headliners and emerging stars, the Cynics' return feels like a love letter to Victoria’s past—to those nights at Logan’s Pub, those burned CDs, those long-forgotten setlists scrawled on napkins.

No word yet on what they’ll play, or if this reunion hints at more to come. But maybe that’s beside the point. What matters is that they’re coming back, to the city that raised them and the fans who never quite let them go. And if you’re there—whether it’s your first time seeing them or your fifteenth—you’ll be part of something rare: a second chance at the first feeling.

The Armchair Cynics are back. Victoria still remembers. And this September, the amps will hum, the chords will ring out, and we’ll all sing along—once more, with feeling.