THE GUNSHY
Schedule
Thu May 14 2026 at 06:00 pm to 10:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
315 East 2nd Street, Davenport, Iowa 52801, United States | Davenport, IA
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Appearing IN PERSON, THE GUNSHY w/very special guests!!!**ABOUT THE GUNSHY ::**
Matt Arbogast has long had the ability to slip a line into a song that punches you in the gut. During his hard touring years, it wasn’t uncommon to see concertgoers in tears after shows from lines like “I’m fucking up my life for rock and roll” or “I know I will die alone.” Arbogast would present the intense vulnerability in his songs through a rough-sounding bark, as if he was trying to purge the demons from within.
Six years ago Arbogast needed a change. His anxiety was through the roof, and so was his drinking. Closing in on 40 years old, his gut was a wreck and there was no easy cure (see the 12+ minute song “Remember When You Used To Want To Die” that was released in 2019).
With the support of his partner and a new child to motivate him, Arbogast quit drinking. He cleaned up his diet, started exercising, and even tried to sing.
Hurricane Umbrellas may be The Gunshy’s seventh full-length album, but to Arbogast it feels more like the first.
“I found great fulfillment in writing these songs, sculpting them, and working to be better at my craft. To me, a great record is like a late night conversation with an old friend. I think Hurricane Umbrellas is the closest I’ve come to achieving that.”
Arbogast has been writing songs under the name The Gunshy since 2002. Hurricane Umbrellas, out on November 14, 2025, was produced by Sean Bonnette from AJJ. Bonnette helped Arbogast bring his characters to life, arranging a veteran ensemble of horns, strings, steel guitars, dog barks, and fingerpicked guitars.
There’s the widower in the first song who daydreams about an afterlife with no fences. The old friends who reminisce about purposefully driving bad on icy roads. The soon-to-be ex who gives his partner her favorite Leonard Cohen record.
You may hear similarities to Cohen, John Prine, David Berman or Jason Molina in Hurricane Umbrellas. Back in 2005, Spin wrote, “If Matt Arbogast’s debut as The Gunshy wasn’t enough to catapult him into the storytelling ranks of Destroyer’s Dan Bejar and Silver Jews’ David Berman — those kings of self-referential literariness — his sophomore LP, Souls, will.”
Arbogast spent the early 2000s driving around, mostly by himself, playing in basements, galleries, and bars. Nearly constant touring brought friendships in DIY communities around the country. He was given the opportunity to play a show with Elliott Smith at the University of Utah thanks to a volunteer at Kilby Court who saw him play on their patio. The college radio station in Lexington, KY, asked him to play with Magnolia Electric Company because the DIY kids in town booked him every time he asked. Steph and JRC in Phoenix offered Arbogast a show at their new space, The Trunk Space. It was an early AJJ show, and they’ve been buddies since.
When not on the road, Arbogast would spend most of his time experimenting in his home studio. He recorded his first album, 2002’s “To Remember/To Forget”, on an eight track he rented from the local music store. A friend in his hometown of Lancaster, PA, Mike Musser, took Arbogast under his wing and showed him how to use studio equipment. Since then, Arbogast has largely recorded The Gunshy’s albums on his own, including the ambitious “There’s No Love In This War”. Released in 2007, the album includes 17 songs, each based on a letter his grandfather wrote his grandmother while serving in WWII. NPR interviewed Arbogast twice about the album, including an hour-long feature.
In recent years, touring has slowed for Arbogast. In the song, “Two Years in Berlin”, he writes, “I’m still making songs. Shows don’t happen much. Empty bars know how to K*ll a man.” Now six years California sober, Arbogast has focused his attention on studio output and his family. He runs a small marketing company out of his Logan Square, Chicago home.
“I love the road, but when I realized it was doing more harm than good to my mental and physical state, I had to make some changes.” With the release of Hurricane Umbrellas, Arbogast is looking forward to touring again, just without the daily hangovers.
In 2024, Arbogast quietly released a collaborative album with Andrew Bryant (Water Liars) under the name Loose Collars. Soon after finishing that album, Arbogast found himself writing songs at an uncommonly quick pace. A majority of the songs on Hurricane Umbrellas were written in a three month period in the summer of 2024. Unbeknownst to Arbogast, his uncle was dealing with serious health issues at the time. A watercolor painter, Uncle Rod was Arbogast’s earliest inspiration to be an artist. Rod Arbogast passed away in August, 2024, and Matt read the poem on the back cover of Hurricane Umbrellas at his memorial. The cover of the album is a painting Rod made of Matt’s childhood dog, and Hurricane Umbrellas is dedicated to him.
Maybe it’s only fitting that Hurricane Umbrellas is the most approachable album of The Gunshy’s catalog. “I can’t help but smile when I get to certain points in the album and hear Max’s guitar, Slo-Mo’s dobro, or another part I could never come up with. I’m fortunate that these friends were willing to share their creativity with these songs.”
Contributors to Hurricane Umbrellas are Sean Bonnette (AJJ), Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner (Magnolia Electric Company, Wild Pink), Mark Glick (AJJ), Kara Eubanks, Ben Grigg (Babe Report), and Max Stern (Signals Midwest). The album was mastered by Greg Obis (MJ Lenderman, Wild Pink, Illuminati Hotties, Cloud Nothings) at Chicago Mastering Service.
SELECT PRESS
“From his moniker alone, it’s clear that The Gunshy’s Matt Arbogast is pretense-phobic. His warts and blemishes aren’t merely part of his music- these shortcomings, failed relationships and social anxieties form the centerpiece of his debut…Essential.” – CMJ
“There’s a modern relevance that Matt Arbogast hits on when he writes, ‘I’ve never fought in a war … and hope to always be able to say that.’” – Chicago Tribune
“Crouched intently over his guitar, singing in a strangled whisper or a pained cry, Arbogast has an intensely vulnerable style.” – Washington Post
“The music is gritty, with a gravel-road country vibe that reflects the violence inherent in the material, but there’s still a soft underbelly, a touch of elegiac horns and elegant strings weaving in and out.” – Gapers Block
“The Gunshy’s wordy-rock has always been moving and intelligent on the surface, but never like this.” – NewCity
“War is hell, states the threadbare adage, and by extension, regardless of the justness of one’s cause. No album drives home that point better than this.” – All Music Guide (4.5 of 5 stars)
“A raspy, smoke-curdled voice reminiscent of latter-day Bob Dylan conveys wartime calamity with heartbreaking authenticity.” – Magnet
“War is an affecting, engrossing listen.” – Onion A/V Club
“Arbogast is now and has long been the kind of song making hero who seems incapable of doing anything less than living the songs he writes.” – F5 Wichita
“His narrative storytelling plays like the guilty pleasure of a long departed pulp novel, a jukebox sympathy that one would picture unfolding from the speakers of a sparse and seedy Irish pub.” – Copper Press
LISTEN to The Gunshy :: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2QRbxf3N67tJNrQySSrKvK?si=uLDE3mvLRfylsQy27ockpg
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Where is it happening?
315 East 2nd Street, Davenport, Iowa 52801, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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