Why do we discover new music if not to feel a little spark of recognition, to decide it might be love, to search out the artist’s tour dates and spend a little too much money on tickets; to save the date, maybe entreat a friend to join; and finally to put on a massive winter coat and, when we finally arrive at a familiar local venue, wonder what to do with it as we watch that music brought to life? Below, selected by us here at ALTOSAXO Music Apparel, are some artists and shows where you might find such joy and fellowship in 2025. Prepare for audacious showmanship, borderline offensive stage banter, and very possibly a few punch-ups—or, if you didn’t get Oasis tickets, just having a really nice time at some concerts.
AC/DC
AC/DC continue to strike thunder into venues around the world on the Power Up tour, which brings them to North America this spring for the first time in nearly a decade. Catch the current lineup of Angus Young, Brian Johnson, Stevie Young, Matt Laug, and Chris Chaney at stadiums across the United States in April and May.
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour has been running for two months—and that’s just the beginning. The whopper trek will continue into late July of this year, after Eilish finished her North American leg last month. Following the holiday break, Eilish will pick back up with full force in Brisbane on February 18 and extensively tour Australia, before heading to Europe in April and May, playing in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Krakow, Bologna, Paris, and Barcelona. Her final stretch will take place in the British Isles, with a closing show at Dublin’s 3Arena.
Bright Eyes
Bright Eyes returned to the road behind Five Dice, All Threes this month, after cancelling shows last year citing Conor Oberst’s vocal problems. The lengthy run continues into is set to continue through spring, with shows across North America.
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
The Boss is back on the road, and rumors of his retirement were greatly exaggerated. “We’ve been around for 50 fucking years!” he told a Philadelphia crowd last year. “We ain’t doing no farewell tour bullshit!” Bruce Springsteen wiill be proving it all night in Europe this spring and summer, with dates in England, France, Germany, Czechia, Spain, and Italy.
Charli XCX
Brat Summer may be over, but the Brat era continues. Charli XCX is taking her blockbuster album out for another round in the coming months, visiting Australasia in the spring before an arena tour of North America starting in April. Catch her in Brooklyn, New York; Rosemont, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Austin, Texas, after her Coachella dates that month.
Circuit des Yeux
Circuit des Yeux’s Haley Fohr returned last year with the frenetic new song “God Dick,” and she’s playing the track and more from her catalog in both solo and full band appearances across Europe and North America during a run of shows that continues through spring 2025. Several dates will include a duo performance with fellow guitar experimentalist Bill Nace.
Dead & Company
Dead and Company can’t stop saying goodbye. This spring, they will bring a new show to Las Vegas Sphere with a two-month residency, which, we are once again led to believe, may be the last chance to catch this Grateful Dead postscript before the book finally closes.
Deftones
Fresh off of their fifth annual Dia de los Deftones festival, alt. metal legends Deftones will go on a proper tour this year. The trek launches on February 25, in Portland, Oregon, and continues with shows in Seattle, the band’s hometown of Sacramento, Inglewood, Las Vegas, New York, Philadelphia, and many more. Support acts include the Mars Volta and the Vein.fm side project Fleshwater.
Dua Lipa
Dua Lipa wants to convert the whole world to Radical Optimism. Her ongoing tour, which shares a title with her Future Nostalgia follow-up, spans a calendar year, with the next batch taking her to Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, before she returns to North America in the late summer. Her last two shows—for now—will take place at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on October 15 and 16.
Father John Misty
Father John Misty recently wrapped a handful of West Coast shows, but he’s readying a winter tour to follow Mahashmashana. The jaunt starts February 12 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with performances to follow in Atlanta, Nashville, Columbus, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and more, through March 1. Those dates come with support from Destroyer. Josh Tillman will then cross the pond for gigs in Europe.
Fontaines D.C.
The new era of Fontaines D.C. proceeds apace. The band returned, newly homed at XL Recordings, with the star-marking Romance last year—a stadium-sized record tailored to some of the biggest shows of the Irish group’s career. Catch them while you can on their lengthy North American jaunt this spring—just don’t wear your Oasis T-shirt.
Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand are on tour in support of this month’s The Human Fear—their first studio album in seven years. After a Scottish tour opener and South American stint, they head back east to Europe in February before greeting North American fans in Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and elsewhere.
Friko
Chicago duo Friko released an expanded edition of Where We’ve Been, Where We Go From Here, and they kicked off a tour right before its release. Following their recent shows at the Paris and London editions of Pitchfork Music Festival, Friko will trek across North America, where Niko Kapetan and Bailey Minzenberger played a hometown show in Chicago last month before traversing the continent until late spring.
Gang of Four
Nearly half a century after their formation, Gang of Four are staging a valedictory tour this year. Appropriately called The Long Goodbye, the influential English post-punk band’s last North American tour will kick off in Massachusetts, in mid-April, and run through the end of May. “It’s been wonderful, but all things must end,” they said. “We want to go out with a bang and celebrate with our fans and friends.” Keeping to their word, the remaining members will play two sets each night: a full performance of their landmark 1979 debut album Entertainment!, plus deep cuts and fan favorites from across their catalog.
Geordie Greep
Black Midi may be on the rocks, but frontperson Geordie Greep has assembled a new songbook and a cadre of oddball characters to repopulate his songwriting universe with solo album The New Sound. He teed up the attendant tour with a London residency featuring a rotating band that jammed, thrashed, and jived through eclectic The New Sound tracks like “Holy, Holy,” throwing in semi-improvisations composed on the day for good measure. Expect more of the same—that is, absolutely anything Greep pleases—as he keeps the show on the road with North American and Japanese dates early this year.
The Get Up Kids
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Something to Write Home About, the Get Up Kids toured North America last fall, and the trek resumes this month. Shows will run through the spring, with support from Hot Rod Circuit and the Anniversary.
The Hard Quartet
Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Jim White, and Emmett Kelly are keeping the Hard Quartet rolling into 2025. The indie-rock supergroup is following this month’s Australian leg with a sweep across the continent—in cities including New York, Chicago, Austin, Toronto, Los Angeles, and San Francisco—joined by Evischen and the Lifeguard side-project Sharp Pins.
Jack White
Jack White’s No Name Tour will chug on into 2025 with a hefty North American schedule appended to his modest batch of dates behind No Name in small clubs and ad hoc venues last year. He’ll play multiple nights in most cities on the itinerary, sticking to venues small enough to keep things feeling personable.
Japanese Breakfast
Nearly four (busy) years after her Japanese Breakfast album Jubilee, Michelle Zauner finally has a studio follow-up on the way. After the release of For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) in March, Zauner and her band will play Coachella, right before a major tour of North America and Europe, taking in venues including Brooklyn Paramount and Chicago’s Salt Shed.
Jason Isbell
For the time being, Jason Isbell has unhitched his wagon from the 400 Unit. Early this year, he will play a series of solo shows in theaters and music halls around North America, starting next month in Chicago and wrapping up in late March in Atlanta. Between the two, the run includes multiple nights apiece in New York, Washington, D.C., and Nashville, where he has booked in a four-night residency at the Pinnacle.
Kendrick Lamar and SZA
Many years after the former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates Kendrick Lamar and SZA first went on tour together, they’re joining forces once more for another leg. Cue the Grand National Tour, their upcoming run of live shows in stadiums across North America. The tour begins in Minneapolis on April 19 and lasts on through to June 18, when it will end in Washington, D.C. Along the way, the pair will perform in major cities like Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago. Consider it your best opportunity to hear their old collab “All the Stars.”
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard seemingly never stop touring, and the marathon continues this spring and summer. After a trek across Europe, the Australian oddballs will embark on a U.S. tour including two nights at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium.
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue is hitting the road behind her brand new album Tension II—the sequel to 2023’s Tension. The pop icon will get warmed up in February with several dates in her home country of Australia, before jetting off to cities in Thailand, Japan, and Taiwan. She’ll follow that with a tour of North America in the spring, performing in Toronto, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, Denver, Los Angeles, and more.
Magdalena Bay
Magdalena Bay dropped their debut album, the glittering Mercurial World, back in 2021. The experimental pop artists Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin have since released the pop sci-fi odyssey Imaginal Disk, and the attendant Imaginal Mystery Tour will continue through the first half of the year.
Metallica
Enter the third year of Metallica’s mammoth M72 tour. This spring, the metal greats have invited Pantera, Suicidal Tendencies, Limp Bizkit, and Ice Nine Kills to support select dates, as they play multiple nights apiece in Toronto, Nashville, Philadelphia, and Denver, among others cities.
Mogwai
Mogwai return with a new album, The Bad Fire, this month, a few years after scoring their first UK No. 1 with As the Love Continues. The Scottish post-rock honchos will back the LP with a tour of Europe, Asia, and North America, which keeps them busy through May 2025, wrapping up in time for festival season.
Mount Eerie
Phil Elverum is bringing his Mount Eerie project on the road in support of Night Palace, his first solo album as Mount Eerie in six years. The new tour dates start in Vancouver, British Columbia, on February 13, and bring him across North America in two legs: a winter run and a spring stretch. The tour is set to end on April 20, in Washington, D.C. Opening that first leg of the tour are Ragana, while Hana Stretton and Precious Bane join Elverum for the latter half. Alan Sparhawk will perform at two concerts sandwiched in between.
My Chemical Romance
Nearly 20 years after its release, The Black Parade is getting the anniversary treatment live onstage this summer courtesy of My Chemical Romance. The emo and pop-punk band are playing their third album in full, with all of its concept melodrama and marching band fanfare, in stadiums across North America, from the opening show in Seattle on July 11 on through to the tour closer in Tampa on September 13. A unique slate of openers for each of the 10 dates includes Devo, Pixies, Violent Femmes, Death Cab for Cutie, Idles, and 100 Gecs, among others.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
This spring, for the first time since 2018, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds will tour North America. The majestic stage show behind Wild God comes to Boston in mid-April before winding across the continent’s arenas, theaters, and music halls—including Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and two nights at Chicago’s Salt Shed—and concluding in San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium a month later.
Nubya Garcia
London jazz artist Nubya Garcia released her sophomore album, Odyssey, last September. She’s been on tour since, and after a string of shows in Asia and Australia, the saxophonist will take her shapeshifting, orchestral songs on the road in Europe and North America.
Oasis
“Not long now kids are we all excited,” Liam Gallagher posted on X at the end of 2024, proving you’re not the only one counting down the days until the very-real Oasis reunion. The perpetually feuding brothers set aside their beef to plot dozens of massive tour dates around the world this summer and extending on into the fall. Beginning with two shows in Cardiff, Wales, on July 4 and 5, Oasis will play stadiums and arenas across the United Kingdom, Ireland, North America, Australia, and South America—their first shows together as a full band since 2009.
Pearl Jam
Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam are sticking it out on the road a year after releasing Dark Matter last year. Stay tuned for one-off treats at the arena shows, such as last year’s surprise rendition of “Rockin’ in the Free World” with Steve Van Zandt, Watt, and Glen Hansard, or their cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “No Surrender” shortly afterwards.
Porridge Radio
Porridge Radio keep their dials set between emotionally forward alt-rock and high-stakes indie-pop on Clouds in the Sky Will Always Be There for Me, a record about “a more frenetic and desperate kind of love” than ever, as they put it in a press release. You can watch it come to life as they tour the United States and Europe in the coming months.
Post Malone
Post Malone’s country era is now in full swing, and he announced his 2025 tour in typically cowboy-ish fashion. Long before the lineup typically launches, he leaked news of an apparent Coachella headline set by listing dates in Indio, California, the weekends of the festival. That was soon confirmed—the festival released its lineup a day later—but if you can’t make it to the desert, you can find Posty, Jelly Roll, and Sierra Ferrell at stadiums around North America right through to the summer.
Scissor Sisters
Jake Shears has spent his time since Scissor Sisters’ heyday performing on Broadway and releasing solo records. Now, he has reconvened the old band (minus co-frontperson Ana Matronic), and will bring along support act Allison Goldfrapp for a tour of the United Kingdom—long home to most of the U.S. band’s biggest fans. “It’s the 20th anniversary of our debut album, so it really feels like the right time to revisit all the intense excitement of that moment,” Shears said in a press release.
Sharon Van Etten
The return of Sharon Van Etten in 2025 is tied to a new project and gothic new-wave direction. Joined by new bandmates under the name Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory, she’s putting out a self-titled album and hitting the road to give songs like “Afterlife” and “Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)” room to breathe onstage. Their North American tour begins on February 1, in Westerly, Rhode Island, and lasts until May 21, where they end their run in Los Angeles. Opening various concerts along the way are She Keeps Bees, Nabihah Iqbal, and Love Spells.
Soccer Mommy
It’s only natural that Soccer Mommy would bring Evergreen, an album exploring loneliness and nature, snaking through the mountains and rivers of North America on tour. Her live shows start on January 22 in Atlanta, Georgia, and will bring Sophie Allison and her band across the United States and Canada through March. On April 26, they land in Lisbon for a European leg of the tour that wraps in Warszaw on May 22.
St. Vincent
St. Vincent began her All Born Screaming Tour last year, and there are plenty more dates to come. After a stint in Mexico and South America that includes a few slots with Olivia Rodrigo, Annie Clark will embark on a North American headline tour, as well as playing a pair of shows in support of Nick Cave.
Tyler Childers
Rustin’ in the rain no more, Tyler Childers is seeing in the spring with an expansive tour of North America that will keep him on the road all through summer. Support on the run—which includes two nights apiece at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium and Nashville’s Geodis Park—comes courtesy of the Hold Steady, Deer Tick, Wynonna, and S.G. Goodman, among others.
Tyler, the Creator
Unless you caught Tyler, the Creator on a shipping container in one of four cities or during his blowout set at his own Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, your first opportunity to see him perform Chromakopia is fast approaching. The boundlessly creative rapper is bringing his show around North America, Europe, and Oceania nearly all year long. From the opening date in St. Paul, Minnesota on February 4 to the final concert in Perth, Australia, on September 4, Tyler, the Creator will be rounding out the shows with openers Lil Yachty and Paris Texas. Whether or not he’ll be feeling “Noid” from all the attention is up in the air.
The Weather Station
On January 17, the Weather Station returns with her first album in three years, Humanhood. Soon after, she’s bringing those songs to life onstage with an extensive, nearly nonstop tour. The Weather Station will begin the tour in England. From there, she performs in major cities across Europe and then makes her way to the United States and Canada, ending her route, in Toronto, on June 6.
Wilco
Wilco have enlisted Waxahatchee for the latest batch of dates on their Sweet and Sour tour, bringing along the Alabama singer-songwriter to support a stint across the American South. A week before they start the jaunt in Fairhope, Alabama—one of a handful of dates not featuring the Katie Crutchfield project—Jeff Tweedy will play two nights at Chicago’s Vic Theater.
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