As expected, Bright Eyes will tour this spring backed by a band featuring three members of the Faint plus longtime producer Mike Mogis, Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, Cursive cello player Gretta Cohn, violinist Anton Patnzer and drummer Shane Aspegren. The trek, which will also feature a set by the Faint, will begin April 28 in Kansas City, Mo., and wrap June 10 in San Diego.
In addition to a previously announced May 1 appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., the outing will also play five nights at New York’s Webster Hall and multiple nights in Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Phoenix.
The shows will focus on material from the Conor Oberst-led band’s recent album “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn,” released simultaneously in January with the rootsier “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.” The sets have sold a combined 316,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“It’s kind of a practical thing to do it this way,” Oberst tells Billboard.com of the tour. “It wouldn’t make sense, in terms of equipment and people, to play the songs from both albums at the same time. It’d be a logistical nightmare. So we decided we’d basically go on tour twice and play the same places.”
He added that “there’s going to be a big visual component to the concert. There will be two screens of videos, and that’s something I haven’t done before.”
The Faint will be out behind its 2004 Saddle Creek album “Wet From Birth,” which debuted at No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums tally. A video for album track “Desperate Guys” will be ready around the start of the tour, according to a spokesperson.
For the first portion of the tour, support will come from Mars Black, an Omaha, Neb.-based hip-hop artist signed to Oberst’s label, Team Love. Rock act Airborn Audio will take over beginning May 31 in Atlanta.
Bright Eyes is currently in Australia for headlining shows and a handful of support dates with R.E.M. The group will play tonight (March 28) at the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival in Byron Bay.
Here are Bright Eyes/the Faint tour dates:
April 28: Kansas City, Mo. (Uptown Theatre)
April 29: Denver (Ogden Theatre)
May 1: Indio, Calif. (Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival)
May 4: San Francisco (Concourse Pavilion)
May 6: Portland, Ore. (Crystal Ballroom)
May 7-8: Seattle (Showbox)
May 11: Council Bluffs, Iowa (Mid America Center)
May 12-13: Minneapolis (First Avenue)
May 14-15: Chicago (Riviera)
May 16: Cleveland (Agora)
May 20: Providence, R.I. (Lupo’s)
May 21-25: New York (Webster Hall)
May 26-27: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
May 30-31: Atlanta (Earthlink Live)
June 1: Tampa, Fla. (USF Sundome)
June 2: Orlando, Fla. (Hard Rock Live)
June 3: New Orleans (Twiropa)
June 4: Austin, Texas (Stubbs BBQ)
June 5: Grand Prairie, Texas (Nokia Theatre)
June 8-9: Phoenix (Marquee Theatre)
June 10: San Diego (Soma)
