Noah Rinker, Cameron Whitcomb
Stubb’s
Austin, TX
October 23, 2026

Photos and Review by Roy Vergara

It was already dark over Red River when Stubb’s started filling up on Friday night, with people of all ages. The Kingdom of Fear Tour, the biggest run of American headline shows Cameron Whitcomb has played so far, had brought him back to Austin with Noah Rinker opening.

The party got started with throwback hits from the ’90s and 2000s, the crowd singing along before anyone was on stage. Rinker went on at 8:00 pm to a crowd that was already warmed up, and by the end of his set he was thanking everyone for singing his songs back to him. He closed at 8:29 pm with “Save My Soul,” the one that went viral for him.

The haze was thick over the stage when Whitcomb came out to greet the crowd at 9:00 pm. He then landed a backflip in the middle of the stage right before he opened with “Hundred Mile High,” from his debut album.

A few songs in, he stopped to tell Austin a story. The first time he was ever in this city was for American Idol, as an 18 year old pipeline worker who had never sung in front of strangers, and he’d done a backflip for the judges that day too. “I thought it was over when I got the first no from Lionel Richie,” he said. Four years later the same city was singing his songs back to him, more than 2,000 people by his count, and he told them all of it was thanks to them. Then he started “You and Me.” A couple of songs later the shirt was off for a cover of Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag,” and he sang a short duet with his lead guitarist, Ian Perry, who was wearing a dress.

Later he slowed it all down to talk about being three years clean and sober, and said it’s the people standing in front of him who keep him there. He’d lost friends along the way, one of them to an overdose, and he said he’d asked himself why he made it and his friend didn’t. “What I do know is that I won’t waste this opportunity,” he said, then asked anyone who knew “End of the Morning” to sing it with him. The singing only got bigger from there. When he asked the yard to sing “The Hard Way” loud, it did, and when he started “Options” alone, the crowd carried it with him while jets of air burst up around the stage.

“Kingdom of Fear” ended the main set at 10:06 pm. Less than a minute later the lights flashed, the speakers shook the stage, and Whitcomb was back for “Medusa.” Near the end of it he climbed the scaffolding at the side of the stage and hung off the truss above the yard, smoke pouring up behind him while hands went up across the yard. It was over at 10:11 pm.

Four years after one judge told him to go work on it, Whitcomb came back to play Stubb’s, a historic Austin venue. Cameron Whitcomb reminded everyone that the people singing along are the ones who carry a song from an audition room in Austin all the way to a Friday night stage on Red River.

Check out the gallery below to relive the night or see what you missed.

Noah Rinker

Cameron Whitcomb