On Tuesday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Jack Antonoff staged a partial Steel Train regrouping during a show with his popular rock band Bleachers. The ensemble, who were profiled on the cover of Relix a few years ago, first headlined MSG in the fall of 2024 and are now touring in support of their fifth album, Everyone for Ten Minutes. Making the MSG show a true family affair, Antonoff also invited out his father, Rick Antonoff, to play acoustic guitar near the end of the show, much like he did at Jack’s first Garden show almost two years ago.

Soon after, Antonoff brought our Evan Winiker–who played bass and sang in the Bleachers frontman’s breakout band Steel Train from 2002 until their 2013 dissolution–to play baritone guitar on the Everyone for Ten Minutes tune “upstairs at els.” Winiker, a visible presence during Steel Train’s assent through the festival ranks, worked with Antonoff on numerous projects, before shifting his focus to the management side of the music industry. Making it even more of a Steel Train reunion, Steel Train guitarist Daniel Silbert, who also was in Antonoff’s even earlier punk band Outline, is now a professional photographer and was in the wings on stage documenting the moment. Winiker also recently joined Bleachers for the same song at Columbia, MD’s Merriweather Post Pavilion; the entire final Steel Train lineup previously reunited at the 2024 Ally Coalition Talent Show benefit Antonoff producers each year.

Both Antonoff and Winiker have roots in the indie, punk and jamband scenes and those worlds also collided during Wednesday’s opening set for Bleachers on Tuesday. The Asheville, NC-bred group made their arena debut at MSG while supporting Bleachers and played their self-proclaimed country song “Phish Pepsi” at the World’s Most Famous Arena. Included on an early recording that is credited to Wednesday and MJ Lenderman and re-recorded for Wednesday’s breakthrough 2025 LP Bleeds, the song contains a reference to Phish, where singer Karly Hartzman says it was something she wishes “she’d never seen” Noticing Phish’s Baker’s Dozen banner hanging from the arena’s rafters, Hartzmsn clarified that the song recounted a moment when she was 12 and that it was a critique of the situation she was in, not the band itself. She then gave a shoutout to Trey Anastasio while pedal-steel player Xandy Chelmis told the crowd that the band has played MSG the third most times of any band. (The group actually has played their more than anyone besides Billy Joel.)

In other Bleachers news, the band has fleshed out the details for their rescheduled Shadow of the City festival. The event, which will be held at Asbury Park, NJ’s Stone Pony Summer Stage, was moved from Memorial Day weekend to August 28 due to weather. Previously confirmed performers the Toadies and Real Estate will once again join the lineup, with Grace Ives and Bike Routes now rounding out the day-long event.