Tour Announcements: Jack White, David Byrne

On a day where many major tours were announced, Jack White and David Byrne also rolled out their own respective tours, with the former White Stripe frontman playing arenas and festivals in North America as well as a few European dates.

Jack White
Duane Burleson/AP – Jack White
Before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the Detroit Tigers game against the Chicago White Sox in Detroit.

Meanwhile, Byrne is playing performing arts centers and theatres and festivals across the globe, with 70-plus dates on the books. 

Jack White is supporting his new Boarding House Reach solo LP, which drops in March as his third solo album.

Along with headline shows including the April 19 tour opener at Little Caesars Arena in his hometown of Detroit, White is playing major festivals including Governors Ball in New York, Shaky Knees and Boston Calling. 

“We have a record coming out in March, we’re starting to release songs, we’re starting to release videos, we’re starting to offer things to the Jack White fan club,” Robby Fraser, the WME responsible agent for White, told Pollstar.  

Other dates include April 27 & 29 at the Bomb Factory in Dallas; Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica in Cleveland June 6; Budweiser Stage in Toronto June 9, followed by a handful of overseas dates including June 27-28 at Hammersmith Apollo in London and July 3-4 at L’Olympia in Paris. After that he heads back to the U.S. for gigs including 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colo., Aug. 8; Wamu Theatre in Seattle Aug. 13; and the final date, Aug. 23 at The Chelsea @ The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

A presale for Third Man Records Vault members begins Jan. 22 at 10 a.m. local time. Ticketmaster Verified Fan is also hosting a presale, with registration open and running through Jan. 19 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Tickets go on sale to the general public Jan. 26.

Although the final White Stripes album came out in 2007, White has been busy with various solo projects including The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. Most recently as a solo artist, White performed in in 2015, with box office reports submitted to Pollstar including some special one-off shows like Madison Square Garden Jan. 30, with 14,579 tickets sold out and $770,638 grossed for The Bowery Presents.  Other reports include Jan. 28 at Bridgestone Arena, promoted by AEG Presents / Messina Touring Group, which sold out 13,751 tickets and grossed $538,404.

His headlining tour in 2014 had more modestly sized venues, including sellouts at McMenanims Edgefield Amphitheatre, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco (two shows) and Red Rocks Amphiteatre in Denver.

David Byrne also has an album out in March, called American Utopia, but the announcement notes he will be performing classics from his solo catalog as well as from his days in The Talking Heads. The new album’s first single, “Everybody’s Coming To My House,” is co-written by frequent collaborator and noted songwriter/producer Brian Eno.

A 12-piece band will join Byrne for fully choreographed performances, which Byrne calls “the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for “Stop Making Sense,” the seminal concert film of The Talking Heads from 1984. 

Byrne announced the new album release during a presentation of “Reasons To Be Cheerful,” an ongoing series he curates of hopeful writings, photos, music and lectures, given at New York’s New School to a live audience and streamed live via his Facebook page.

Dates on the extensive tour routing kick off March 3 at the Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey, which is sold out. Stops on the routing include March 6 at the NY Center For The Arts in Buffalo, March 9 at the Waterbury Palace Theater, and then South America including Lollapaloozas in Chile and Argentina March 16 &18. Byrne also has gigs in Mexico and appearances at Coachella, as well shows in Tucson, Ariz.; San Diego; Las Vegas and Mesa, Ariz.

From there he plays the Southern U.S., Midwest, Canada, and then he’s off to Europe in June (it really is an extensive tour!).

The tour comes back to the U.S. and back to New Jersey in July, with yet more dates across the continent including Toronto, Boston, Vermont, and back to California to end it, with dates in Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, Santa Barbara and finally Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo., Aug. 28.

Byrne has done mostly festivals here and there in the most recent years, but went on a tour with St. Vincent, with whom he collaborated on the Love This Giant album in 2012.  Box office reports submitted to Pollstar for the pair’s 2013 tour include July 21 at the Fox Theatre in Oakland, which sold out 2,800 tickets and grossed just under $150,00, and July 7 at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Mich, which sold 1,603 tickets and grossed just under $100,000.

Presales for the newly announced European headline shows begin Jan. 18, for fans who register before 5 p.m. UTC on Jan. 17. 

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