Photo by Alex Culbreth

Pigeons Playing Ping Pong have officially made keyboardist Jon Brady a member of their band. The Baltimore, MD-based group asked Brady, who has already spent much of the year touring with the quartet, to join their ensemble during their Domefest event in New River Gorge, WV, offering a surprise onstage proposal during their Saturday headlining spot. The weekend-long festival also boasted the debut of two new originals, a 12-plus-year cover bust out and an appearance by the Domefest All-Stars, among other surprises.

Throughout Domefest, which was held at the ACE Adventure Resort for the second year in a row, Pigeons offered six sets of music. On Thursday, they nodded to their geographic setting with a dancey instrumental mash-up of John Denver’s West Virgina-referencing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Hell Yeah” and offered their first live reading of both Miike Snow’s 2009 hit “Animal” and the new original “Lava.” Then, on Friday, they debuted another new tune, “Lane Change,” and leaned into the day’s “I Love The ‘90s” theme with mix of first-time covers—Seal’s “Crazy,” Ace of Base’s “Beautiful Life,” The Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony” and Cher’s “Believe.” Though a weather delay temporarily interrupted their twist on the Rugrats theme mid-song, PPPP picked right back up where they left off when the music resumed, eventually weaving through “Doug Theme” and back into “Julia” to kick off the weekend’s longest, and latest-running, set.

Friday also included the band’s biggest bust out in their 17-year history. During the night’s encore, PPPP lighting designer Manny Newman stepped out from behind the rig to handle lead vocals on The Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch,” marking his first time singing with the band. PPPP had not performed the song since December 31, 2013.The Big Blitz horns also augmented Pigeons Playing Ping Pong on “Hell Yeah,” “Feed The Fire,” “Fantasy” and “F.U.” at various points throughout the multi-day gathering.

However, Pigeons kept the weekend’s biggest surprise for their Saturday finale. While playing “Horizon,” the band turned its attention to Brady and offered a playful mid-song “proposal,” which he quickly accepted.

In addition, PPPP and members of their extended musical community offered a special segment billed as The Domefest All-Stars. The seven-song All-Stars set brought together members of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, TAUK, Kendall Street Company, Squeaky Feet, Elf Machine, Puremotion, Seven Teller and Big Blitz in a series of rotating configurations. The collective worked through Kool & The Gang’s “Hollywood Swinging,”  Tomoyasu Hotei’s “Battle Without Honor or Humanity,” the Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias,” Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime,” Phish’s “Wolfman’s Brother” and Neil Young’s “Down By The River,” along with a particularly Domefest-appropriate rendition of The Beatles’ “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road,” rewritten for the occasion as “Why don’t we do it in the dome.”

Up next, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong will perform at Marengo, OH’s Secret Dreams Festival from September 4-6.

Here’s a look at Pigeons Playing Ping Pong’s Domefest setlists

 August 6, 2026 — Domefest Night 1: “Almost Heaven / Hell Yeah” — New River Gorge, WV

Set I: Underworld, Walk Outside, Melting Lights > Lost In Line, Right Track, Hell Yeah > Run Like Hell > Hell Yeah, Lava, Fun In Funk
Set II: Overrun, Bad For You, Psycho Killer > Fox And Toad, Feed The Fire, The Liquid
Encore: My Own Way > Take Me Home, Country Roads > My Own Way

Notes: “Right Track” featured a “Heaven” tease [Los Lonely Boys]; first time played. “Hell Yeah” and “Feed The Fire” featured Big Blitz horns. “Lava” original debut. “Overrun” last played 1/19/24. “The Liquid” jammed for the first time. “Country Roads” instrumental; last played 8/7/25.

August 7, 2026 — Domefest Night 2: “I Love The ’90s” — New River Gorge, WV

Set I: Show Me, Hit The Ground Runnin’ > Time To Ride, Lane Change > Julia > Rugrats Theme
Set II: Rugrats Theme > Doug Theme > Julia, Fantasy, Ocean Flows > Beautiful Life > Ocean Flows, Sunny Day > Bitter Sweet Symphony > Sunny Day, High Wire > Poseidon > Believe > Poseidon, Break Stuff > Miyagi, Schwanthem > Colors of the Wind > Schwanthem
Encore: Go With It > The Bad Touch > Go With It

Notes: “Show Me” featured a “No Diggity” tease [Blackstreet]; first time played. “Lane Change” original debut. “Rugrats Theme” was unfinished due to a weather delay and continued to open Set II; last played 4/15/21. “Doug Theme” last played 2/13/19. “Julia” continued from Set I. “Fantasy” featured Big Blitz horns. “Beautiful Life” [Ace Of Base], “Bitter Sweet Symphony” [The Verve] and “Believe” [Cher] were first-time plays. “Break Stuff” intro fake-out; first time played. “Colors of the Wind” last played 12/5/24. “The Bad Touch” featured PPPP lighting designer Manny Newman on lead vocals; last played 12/31/13.

August 8, 2026 — Domefest Night 3: “Anything But Human” — New River Gorge, WV

Set: Funk E Zekiel > Cantina Band > Funk E Zekiel, Move Like That > Offshoot > Crazy > Offshoot, Bloodshot Rose, X-Files > The Hop > F.U., High As Five > Animal > High As Five, The Labyrinth > Horizon
Encore: Lightning > Zydeko > Jurassic Park > Zydeko

Notes: “Crazy” [Seal] and “Animal” [Miike Snow] were first-time plays. “X-Files” last played 10/25/24. “F.U.” featured Big Blitz horns. “Horizon” featured the band’s proposal to Jon Brady to officially join PPPP (he said yes!). “Lightning” intro fake-out.

DOMEFEST ALL-STARS

August 8, 2026 — New River Gorge, WV

Set: Hollywood Swinging, Battle Without Honor or Humanity, Why Don’t We Do It In The Road, Scarlet Begonias, Life During Wartime, Wolfman’s Brother, Down By The River

Hollywood Swinging: Greg Ormont (PPPP), vocals/guitar; Jeremy Schon (PPPP), guitar; Matt Jalbert (TAUK), guitar; AC Carter (TAUK), keys; Ben Carrey (PPPP), bass; Ryan Wood (Kendall Street Company), drums; Big Blitz horns.

Battle Without Honor or Humanity: Jeremy Schon, Matt Jalbert and Colin Shore (Squeaky Feet), guitars; AC Carter, keys; Charlie Dolan (TAUK), bass; Alex Petropulos (PPPP) and Isaac Teel (TAUK), drums/percussion; Big Blitz horns.

Why Don’t We Do It In The Road: Featured “Why don’t we do it in the dome” lyrics; Greg Ormont and Louis Smith (KSC), vocals; Jeremy Schon, Ben Laderberg (KSC), Matt Jalbert and Isaac Hadden (Elf Machine), guitars; AC Carter and Jon Brady (PPPP), keys; Ben Carrey, bass; Alex Petropulos, drums; Brian Keller (Squeaky Feet), saxophone; Ryan Wood, percussion.

Scarlet Begonias: Louis Smith, vocals; Jeremy Schon, Isaac Hadden, Colin Shore and Ari Lesser (Puremotion), guitars; Jon Brady, keys/vocals; AC Carter, keys; Wyatt Graham (Seven Teller), bass; Kevin D’Angelo (Squeaky Feet), drums; Brian Keller and Jake Vanaman (KSC), saxophones; Mike Healy (Elf Machine), percussion.

Life During Wartime: Louis Smith, vocals; Jeremy Schon, Isaac Hadden, Matt Jalbert and Ben Laderberg, guitars; Jon Brady and AC Carter, keys; Brian Roy (KSC), bass; Ryan Wood, drums; Brian Keller and Jake Vanaman, saxophones.

Wolfman’s Brother: Greg Ormont, vocals/guitar; Jeremy Schon, Ben Laderberg and Greg King (Squeaky Feet), guitars; Jon Brady, keys/vocals; Jimmy Finnegan (Squeaky Feet), bass; Kevin D’Angelo, drums; Brian Keller, saxophone; Big Blitz horns; Mike Healy, percussion.

Down By The River: Featured “Breathe” and “Family Affair” teases; Isaac Hadden, vocals/guitar; Greg Ormont, guitar/vocals; Jeremy Schon and Matt Jalbert, guitars; Jon Brady, keys/vocals; Louis Smith, vocals; Brian Roy, bass; Ryan Wood, drums; Alex Petropulos, percussion.