Soundgarden kicks off its first full-fledged tour in 14 years this Saturday (July 2nd) in Toronto, with the trek scheduled to wrap up nearly a month later on the 30th in George, Washington. The band has played only a handful of dates since reuniting in early 2010, and drummer Matt Cameron told us he hopes to dig deep into their catalog on this run of shows: "I think that'd be great, to be able to play a large variety of songs from our catalog, you know, 'cause some of my favorite songs are like kind of the '80s era of Soundgarden, kind of the earlier, kind of New Wavier stuff. I really like that era of the group, so hopefully, you know, we can delve even farther into it."
Opening acts on various dates will be Coheed And Cambria, Queens Of The Stone Age, Mastodon, the Meat Puppets and The Mars Volta.
Soundgarden reunited last year and issued its first concert set in March, titled Live On I5. The disc was recorded on a West Coast tour shortly before the group disbanded in 1997.
The group has also been recording its first new studio album since 1996's Down On The Upside, which is expected out in 2012.
Asked by Australia's Beat magazine how the new material might compare to Soundgarden's previous records, singer Chris Cornell said, "What we do always feels new. We never repeated ourselves, ever. If anything was too reminiscent of something else we'd done, we wouldn't bother spending time on it."
Confirmed Soundgarden tour dates (subject to change):
July 2 - Toronto, ON - Molson Canadian Amphitheater
July 3 - London, ON - John Labatt Centre
July 5 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Blues Fest
July 6 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
July 8 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
July 9 - Wantagh, NY - Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre
July 10 - Mansfield, MA - Comcast Center for the Performing Arts
July 12 - Fairfax, VA - Patriot Center
July 13 - Philadelphia, PA - Festival Pier at Penn's Landing
July 14 - Atlantic City, NJ - Borgata Spa & Resort Event Center
July 16 - Chicago, IL - UICPavilion
July 18 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater
July 21 - San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
July 22 - Inglewood, CA - The Forum
July 23 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
July 29 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena
July 30 - George, WA - The Gorge Amphitheater
A Perfect Circle kicked off its summer tour -- the band's first full-length trek since 2004 -- in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday night (June 29th) and debuted a new song reportedly called "By And Down." According to Antiquiet, guitarist Billy Howerdel held up a set list confirming the name of the track, which closed out the band's 18-song performance. Footage of the song has already been posted on YouTube.
Howerdel recently said that the group was close to finishing up a new song which it would play on the current North American tour.
These are the band's first live dates since a mini-tour they did last fall, in which they played each of their three studio albums over the course of three nights in five cities.
Howerdel told us that A Perfect Circle's return last fall after a six-year absence all came down to singer Maynard James Keenan: "You know, it just kind of softly fell into place. Maynard did give me a call and said, 'Look, I'm working on a schedule that's gonna look to the future, you know, for a year or two and are you available to work here?' And I go, 'Yeah, absolutely.' So it's just, you know, finding holes really within his schedule. I mean, he's got three bands and a winery, he's quite a busy fella. I've got two kids, so I'm busy in a different way (laughs)."
Although A Perfect Circle does intend to record some new material, a full-length album is less likely to surface. They will be at PNC Pavilion on August 8th
Staind has set September 13th as the release date for its seventh studio album, simply titled Staind. The band's first all-new set in three years has been described by singer Aaron Lewis in recent interviews as their heaviest effort in more than a decade. Guitarist Mike Mushok told us that he can't help but agree: "I swore I was never gonna say, 'This is the heaviest thing we've ever done,' 'cause every band in the world says that. I know I can't help it though, 'cause I mean, it pretty much is the way to describe it. I don't know, it's cool, I mean, it's definitely back to where we started from, and I think it's a little bit, you know, more of a modern twist on it, you know."
A new song from the album, "Eyes Wide Open," has been posted online at www.staind.com
The first official single from the disc, called "Not Again," will be sent to rock radio stations in mid-July.
The disc is the first without founding drummer Jon Wysocki, who exited in May. Staind recently enlisted Evanescence drummer Will Hunt to fill in on some festival shows but has yet to announce a permanent new drummer.
Staind will perform at Southern California's Epicenter Festival in September, with full tour plans yet to be announced.