Oh man, what a day yesterday! We got back from a nice extended weekend and BAM! Tour announcements EVERYWHERE! Let’s pour through our favorites, shall we?
Foo Fighters will celebrate their 25th anniversary with a North American tour on which the band will hit some of the same cities it visited during its first trek, back in 1995.
The 2020 Van Tour will launch on April 12th in Phoenix and wind down on May 20th in Hamilton, Ontario — with more shows to potentially be added, possibly at small venues like the ones the band played in 1995.
In a press release, the band teased, “Aside from many of those clubs on that 1995 trek having since ceased to exist, squeezing a 2020 FF show into the few that are still around would just be too insane . . . or would it? Stay tuned for the answer to that question.”
Drummer Taylor Hawkins told us a while back why smaller shows are sometimes better than arena gigs: “There’s such a different feeling you get when you play something like that, as opposed to playing the sort of, you know, the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in front of, you know, 15,000 people. I mean, that’s a big, giant thing, you know, and that’s a big, over-the-top show. But when they’re right there in your face, you can’t get that in front of 20,000 people.”
Along with the Foos’ show itself, each stop on the tour will feature a preview of Dave Grohl’s new documentary, What Drives Us. The film finds Grohl exploring what compels musicians to leave behind everything and spend several months touring the country in a tiny van.
Tickets for the 2020 Van Tour go on sale Friday (February 21st) at 10:00 a.m. local time.
Korn and Faith No More have announced a co-headlining North American tour. The coast-to-coast 26-city outing will kick off on August 7th in Denver and make stops in Irvine, Phoenix, Dallas, Brooklyn, Toronto and more, before wrapping up with a performance in St. Louis on September 17th.
The trek will follow up the two acts’ two-day stand at Banc Of California stadium in Los Angeles on May 22nd and 23rd. Those two days will also feature co-headliner System Of A Down and opening acts Helmet and Russian Circles, while the Korn/Faith run will include System guitarist Daron Malakian‘s Scars On Broadway, Helmet, Spotlights and ’68 on select dates.
Tickets go on sale this Friday (February 21st) to the general public, with pre-sales already underway.
Hellyeah has announced the “Perseverance” tour of the U.S. with All That Remains, Butcher Babies, Saul and Deepfall. The trek kicks off on April 18th in Las Vegas and will include both headlining dates and festival shows before wrapping up on May 23rd at Rocklahoma in Pryor, Oklahoma. Tickets will go on sale Friday (February 21st) at 10:00 a.m. local time. Hellyeah is touring in support of its sixth album, Welcome Home.
Dirty Honey has added a slew of North American dates to its spring itinerary, mixing radio festival appearances with headlining shows.
The band is also heading to Australia and Japan for its first live dates in those countries. While in Australia in early April, the band will head to Byron Bay to record new music with producer Nick DiDia, who produced the group’s self-titled EP there.
Singer Marc LaBelle told us that recording in Australia was actually less expensive than doing it right in the band’s home base of Los Angeles: “You start crunching numbers and you realize, like, flights to Australia and AirBNB and it’s not that expensive, compared to, like, renting NRG Studios or Capitol in L.A. Like, your two-day budget covers you for a three-week period in Australia.”
Pearl Jam has fired off a letter to New Jersey congressional representatives Bill Pascrell and Frank Pallone Jr. asking them to reject a new bill that is supposed to curb predatory ticketing practices and scalping, but which the band nevertheless feels has flaws in it that may not alleviate the issues.
In their letter, the group outlined the issues they see with the legislation, writing, “H.R. 3248 has been presented as a protection for concertgoers to get access to live concerts. Instead, we believe that it primarily, if not entirely, benefits professional ticket resellers using the so-called ‘secondary market.’ We urge you to stand with us and our fans to reject this flawed legislation.”
The band expresses concern that the new bill would block non-transferrable ticketing, saying, “Consumers need artists to limit scalping and ticket fraud to use ensure that tickets go to fans instead of profit seekers; transfer restrictions make that possible. Over the last decade of selling concert tickets, we have seen this become an important tool to ensure our fans get to see us at a reasonable price.”
The band points out other issues with the bill as well as some aspects that they are in favor of, concluding, “While H.R. 3248 as it is currently written would ultimately hurt our fans, we do think it contains some reforms that would benefit both consumers and touring artists . . . but we believe H.R. 3248 in its entirety strengthens mass resellers and does not protect the consumer. Please join us in opposing H.R. 3248.”
Pearl Jam is addressing the issue as the band prepares to hit the road in support of its upcoming album Gigaton. The North American leg of the group’s word tour starts March 18th in Toronto. The band has just released a new song from the LP called “Superblood Wolfmoon.”
EAT ME#OrdinaryMan #Ozzy pic.twitter.com/T25qmN3TmE
— Ozzy Osbourne (@OzzyOsbourne) February 17, 2020
Ozzy Osbourne‘s new album Ordinary Man features a second collaboration with Post Malone, following Ozzy’s joint appearance with the rapper on the song “Take What You Want.”
The pair have also recorded a track called “It’s A Raid,” which is the second-to-last song on Ordinary Man, with “Take What You Want” serving as the LP’s closer. Ordinary Man is out this Friday (February 21st) and Ozzy has posted samples of several songs online, including “All My Life,” “Goodbye” and “Eat Me.”
Ordinary Man was produced by Andrew Watt, who has also produced Malone and brought the two artists together. Watt also played guitar on Ozzy’s new LP, co-writing and performing the music with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
Meanwhile, Ozzy’s wife and manager Sharon has commented on her husband’s cancellation of his 2020 tour plans in order to head overseas for treatment of his Parkinson’s disease and other health issues. Ozzy also ceased all live activity in 2019 while battling illness and injuries.
Asked what the fans’ reaction has been like to the latest cancellation, Sharon responded on The Talk, “I went online and I thought, ‘Oh, lord. He’s gonna get so much flak for doing this again and again and again.’ And those fans are behind him.”
Dinosaur Pile-Up has released an animated music video for the song “Round The Bend.” The track is taken from the band’s 2019 album Celebrity Mansions, which also featured the Top Five rock track “Back Foot.” The British act has also unveiled a new set of North American tour dates that kick off on April 16th in Cape Coral, Florida, and end on May 24th in Dallas.
Rob Zombie will provide a commentary track on the upcoming Blu-ray edition of Munster, Go Home!, the 1966 feature film spin-off of the classic TV series The Munsters. Zombie, a longtime Munsters fan, will be joined on the track by actor Butch Patrick, who played little Eddie Munster on the series and in the movie. The film will make its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Scream Factory on March 31st.
Finally we want to wish a Happy Birthday to the LEGEND Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, along with Skillet guitarist Seth Morrison and Asking Alexandria bassist Sam Bettley! Have a great day!
