Armor for Sleep Pensacola Tickets, The HandleBar, 06 Jul 2026

On sale today

Event is in 2 months

Line-up

Venue

The HandleBar

319 N. Tarragona St., 32502, Pensacola, FL, US

thehandlebar850.com/

Capacity: 350

View upcoming concerts

Additional details

Doors open: 18:30

Concert in your area for Rock, Indie & Alt, and Metal.

Find out more about Rock and Metal.

Armor for Sleep biography

Armor for Sleep (formed in 2001) is an American punk and post-hardcore influenced alternative rock group who rose to recognition following their 2003 debut album “Dream to Make Believe”, hailing from New Jersey, U.S.

Founded by multi-instrumentalist Ben Jorgensen in 2001, lead guitarist PJ DeCicco joined later that year and the pair settled on the name Armor for Sleep. Bassist AJ Resnick and drummer Paul Abrahamian followed shortly afterwards with the band recording a series of demo tapes. Many of the demo’s songs found their way onto the band’s debut album and proved popular in and around New Jersey. The buzz this generated for Armor for Sleep led the group to sign with Equal Vision Records.

In 2003 Armor for Sleep issued their debut album “Dream to Make Believe” marked by the arrival of new bassist Anthony Dilonno and drummer Nash Breen. Earning a string of positive reviews from rock periodicals, the record was produced by Ariel Rechtshaid, and significantly increased the group’s national profile. Two years later followed Armor for Sleep’s sophomore album “What to Do When You Are Dead”. The concept album proved another popular release rising to No.1 on the U.S. Heatseekers Chart and spawning the singles “Car Underwater”, “The Truth About Heaven”, and “Remember to Feel Real”.

Following this success Armor for Sleep signed with the major label Warner Bros./Sire Records to expand their promotion and distribution. Ahead of their third full-length album the band contributed the track “End of the World” to the 2007 “Transformers” soundtrack with added vocals and keyboard effects. In October 2007 Armor for Sleep issued their third full-length album “Smile for Them”. Led by the single “Williamsburg”, the record rose to No. 93 on the Billboard 200, after which the group released the EP “The Way Out is Broken”. The band announced their dissolution in 2009 however returned in 2012 to play the year’s Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey.

Live reviews

Far and away one of the most interesting bands of the mid 2000’s post hardcore boom, Armor For Sleep have been tragically defunct since 2012’s spate of reunion shows. However, the age of the reunion show hasn’t abated yet, and if bands as disparate as Mineral, Outkast, Atreyu and Slowdive can reunite in the last year alone it would be short sighted to rule out the New Jersey emocore mob this early on. So far we can only hope, and hope we do because Armor for Sleep concerts were famous for being utterly unmissable. Their brand of dream-pop infused post-hardcore truly coming alive when played in front of adoring crowds the world over. Which truth be told is to be expected from any band coming from New Jersey’s unbelievably fertile rock scene but AFS went one step beyond, with time and experience teaching them to switch from their progressive early albums to the dark hued pop-rock of their later work with ease and skill. Of course with any cult act, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and if the response to their 2012 reunion shows was anything to go by any later shows would be home to a crowd more devoted than any other band on their level and that could make it worth the price of admission alone. It would be a crime to miss out on being part of that audience, so if the time comes again, joining it is the only option for fans of rock music with as much brain as heaviness.

Report