Gorillaz are hitting the road after the release of their upcoming Humanz album, due on April 28. The duo fronted by Blur’s Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett announced a series of 17 tour dates Monday morning (Apr. 17), including a slot in this year’s Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas.
For their first North American outing in seven years the animated band will kick things of fin Chicago on July 8 with a show at the Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island, followed by stops in Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia and Quebec, with appearances at the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco, the Meadows Music & Arts Festival in New York and the winding down on Oct. 13-15 at the III Points Festival in Miami, Florida.
Life Is Beautiful is scheduled for Sept. 22-24; pre-sale and full lineup details have yet to be revealed. Tickets for the tour will be available starting Apr. 21 and those purchased online for selected dates will including a choice of either the standard physical or standard digital copy of Humanz.
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The tour announcement follows a recent report about the group’s first North American show in seven years (the Quebec City Summer Festival on July 15), as well as news about their “Spirit House,” an immersive pop-up experience in collaboration with Sonos that features music, visuals, physical installations and projection mapping technology. The “Spirit House” lands in New York (April 21-23), Berlin (April 28-30) and Amsterdam (May 6).
Four new Gorillaz tracks — “Saturnz Barz,” “Andromeda,” “Ascension” and “We Got the Power” — recently debuted on the Hot Rock Songs chart. The band dropped a video for “Saturnz Barz” in March, setting a record for the most successful debut for a virtual reality music video in YouTube’s history.
The Humanz Tour outing will feature Albarn and Hewlett’s animated creations — Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D — joined by live musicians to perform their classic songs as well as new material. A release announcing the tour promises that they will be joined onstage by a group of the artists featured on the new album, including: Jehnny Beth (Savages), Danny Brown, Benjamin Clementine, De La Soul, D.R.A.M., Peven Everett, Anthony Hamilton, Grace Jones, Zebra Katz, Kelela, Mavis Staples, Vince Staples, Popcaan, Pusha T, Jamie Principle and Kali Uchis, among others.
For more information on the tour, check www.gorillaz.com.
Gorillaz Humanz Tour 2017:
July 8 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island +
July 10 – Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre +
July 12 – Boston, MA @ Blue Hills Bank Pavilion +
July 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing +
July 15 – Quebec City, QC @ Quebec City Summer Festival
July 17 – Washington, DC @ Merriweather Post Pavilion +
Aug. 11-13 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival
Sept. 15-17 – New York, NY @ Meadows Music & Arts Festival*
Sept. 18 – Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre +
Sept. 20 – Minneapolis, MN @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium +
Sept. 22 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center +
Sept. 24 – Las Vegas, NV @ Life Is Beautiful
Sept. 26 – Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre +
Sept. 30 – Seattle, WA @ KeyArena at Seattle Center +
Oct. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum +
Oct. 11 – Atlanta, GA @ Infinite Energy Center +
Oct. 13-15 – Miami, FL @ III Points Festival*
+ Ticket/Album Bundle Offered