Guitarist and producer Eric Hudson closed his eyes one day in 2013 after joining St. Louis band Foxing.
When he opened them, it was late 2025.
“It's almost like I fell asleep, or I blacked out,” Hudson recalled. “I was like 20, and now I'm waking up, and I'm 33, and it doesn't feel like any of it happened.”
Memories of the past 12 years flooded Hudson’s mind on Dec. 2 as he prepared for the band’s final shows. The high highs, the low lows, like the time the group was in a car accident on tour or when all of the band's stuff was stolen. It’s an information overload.
Despite what has felt like an extended dream, the reality is a lot has happened in the past decade-plus for Foxing.
With its debut album, “The Albatross,” the St. Louis band became a pillar of the Midwest emo revival movement that took off in the early to mid-2010s. Each subsequent album tackled serious topics like faith and heartbreak, while playing with genre and experimenting with form.
The lyrics helped build a devoted fan base that related to each word belted by lead singer Conor Murphy. The band’s DIY approach and experimentation culminated in its 2024 self-titled record, which contained its most tense, chaotic and distorted arrangements to date.
The album felt emblematic of the band more than any other release, and Hudson said it was the culmination of everything he’d learned up to this point in his career.
Then in September, Hudson, Murphy, drummer Jon Hellwig and bassist Brett Torrence announced the band would go on hiatus on Instagram.
“It has become clear to us that in our pursuit of our dreams and making the most honest and genuine art we can, our relationship with music, each other, and our sense of self without the band has eroded,” they wrote. “We have decided to prioritize these things and need to step away from the band to do so.”
The musicians thanked the audience for the years of support and said they would return if or when they have more to give.
“I think that the statement that we put out is very truthful,” Hudson said. “It feels like we've kind of lost ourselves in this — like we don't have an identity away from the band, and I think that there's also a desire from some people in the band to kind of have a more stable lifestyle, which I think is very valid.”
In the statement, they wrote they loved the band but each needed to figure out new things.
“We're all in our mid-30s or early 30s,” Hudson said. “We do make money from it, but it's not lucrative.”
The surprise break came with four other surprises: sold-out final shows in Chicago and St. Louis. The final show on Dec. 6 brought out droves of dedicated fans to the Pageant.
When longtime St. Louis fan Charles Nienaber heard the Foxing news, he immediately reached out to his sister Sarah Nienaber, who flew in from Philadelphia just a few hours before the show. She said the prospect of not having Foxing has been difficult to digest.
“I’m kind of bummed out by it, but I totally get it,” Sarah Nienaber said. “I respect it, and I can't wait to see what happens for the guys, just individually, in their own lives and in music.”
Lindsay Fickas was drawn to the band by the optimism of the 2021 album “Draw Down the Moon.”
“I’ve grown my family to this band,” Fickas said. “They’ve helped me through really hard times, and I’ve always looked forward to whatever they had next and I’m looking forward to revisiting this band over time.”
Hannah Sparks has been a fan since 2016. She’ll miss the band’s annual winter concerts.
“They always have shows in December, and it's a good time for our friends to all get together,” Sparks said.
And for others like Ryan Wasoba, Foxing is family. The engineer recorded the group’s first release and was at their first show. That night, he just wanted to feel that communal experience one last time.
“Seeing how they've impacted other people, and being in the moment, in the room with folks that are being affected by them has always been really powerful to me,” Wasoba said.
The band played through its catalog for almost two hours. At the end, Hudson and Murphy thanked Wasoba, the audience and those who helped bring their music to the world.
“There’s not a single shred of belief that any of us had when we were kids watching bands here that we would get to play on this stage, let alone sell it out,” Murphy said. “So thank you every single one of you for making that dream come true.”
It was an earnest message, something Hudson said has always been at the core of the band’s music along with integrity.
“If any of those things have to be compromised, then we think it's probably better to just walk away from it until we can come back to it feeling fresh,” Hudson said.
The outpouring of love has been at the center of Hudson’s mind as of late. He recalled a conversation with his therapist about the band’s break.
“It's valid to feel a lot of conflicting things, and it's valid to feel negative things, and it's valid to feel sad,” Hudson said. “But what can't get lost in that is like, all the love that people are showing to you. Don't let that get lost and don’t let a negative emotion trample that.”
During that final show, Hudson was the last person to leave the stage, as if he didn’t want to say bye either, looking back at the audience that gave him so much over the years. He threw a guitar pick and setlist into the audience. In return, a fan who had traveled with her mom to St. Louis from Canada handed him stuffed animals that she had made for everyone in the band — thanking them, too.
