Bonus Drop: Two More Tours Worth Your Attention
We just ran a roundup yesterday, but the road doesn’t wait. Two more tours dropped today that deserve their own post: Down’s first proper US headline run in years, and a Metal Church/Armored Saint co-headline that practically designed itself. Here they are.
Down — Strap It Down
with Helmet · Spirit in the Room
Down hasn’t headlined a proper US club run in over a decade. That changes this August. The band has been quietly building back toward something — Kirk Windstein recently confirmed the new album is fully recorded and just needs a mixer, with an October release being the target. They signed to Nuclear Blast last year. This tour feels like the official ramp-up. I saw them last year at The Forum when they opened for Danzig and it kicked off a real renewed appreciation — Down I and II are albums I spin constantly, and live they hit exactly as hard as those records deserve. No Los Angeles date on this leg, which is frustrating, but Aftershock in Sacramento gets them to California in the fall. If you can make it, do it. Side note: I got to meet the band backstage around 2012, and before going in, their tour manager pulled us aside with one rule — don’t bring up boxing with Phil. Still have no idea what that was about. Wasn’t about to ask.
- 08/15 — Atlanta, GA — The Eastern
- 08/16 — Greensboro, NC — Piedmont Hall
- 08/19 — Cleveland, OH — House of Blues
- 08/20 — Pittsburgh, PA — Stage AE
- 08/22 — Royal Oak, MI — Royal Oak Music Theatre
- 08/23 — Toronto, ON — HISTORY
- 08/25 — Montreal, QC — MTELUS
- 08/26 — Worcester, MA — The Palladium
- 08/28 — Scranton, PA — The Pavilion @ Montage Mountain *
- 08/29 — Wantagh, NY — Northwell @ Jones Beach Theater *
- 08/30 — Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore
- 09/01 — Cincinnati, OH — Bogart’s
- 09/02 — Chicago, IL — Ramova Theatre
- 09/04 — Shakopee, MN — Mystic Lake Amphitheater **
- 10/03 — Sacramento, CA — Aftershock Festival
* Berzerkus Festival — no Helmet/Spirit in the Room ** w/ Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Hatebreed
Metal Church / Armored Saint — The Metal Saint Tour
with LiveKill
My first thought when I saw this: of course. Metal Church and Armored Saint feel like they were always going to end up on the same bill — two California heavy metal institutions, both with new albums out this year (Dead To Rights and Emotion Factory Reset respectively), both bands still out here doing it. I’m not the biggest fan of either, but I can’t argue with the booking. What makes this one especially worth flagging: the tour opens November 2nd in San Juan Capistrano, hits Pomona, works its way through the southwest and Pacific northwest, then closes with three straight SoCal dates — Los Angeles at the Whisky on the 19th, San Diego at the Observatory on the 20th, and Agoura Hills at the Canyon Club on the 21st. West coast, best coast.
- 11/02 — San Juan Capistrano, CA — Coach House
- 11/03 — Pomona, CA — The Glass House
- 11/04 — Phoenix, AZ — The Nile
- 11/06 — Albuquerque, NM — Sunshine Theater
- 11/07 — Colorado Springs, CO — Sunshine Studios
- 11/08 — Denver, CO — The Federal
- 11/10 — Boise, ID — Neurolux
- 11/11 — Great Falls, MT — The Newberry
- 11/13 — Portland, OR — Dantes
- 11/14 — Bremerton, WA — Redwood Theater
- 11/15 — Vancouver, BC — Rickshaw Theater
- 11/17 — San Francisco, CA — Great America Music Hall
- 11/18 — Roseville, CA — Goldfield Trading Post
- 11/19 — Los Angeles, CA — The Whisky
- 11/20 — San Diego, CA — Observatory North Park
- 11/21 — Agoura Hills, CA — Canyon Club
Tickets on sale Friday, May 29th.
Two runs worth your time. Pick your shows.