New York, NY (Top40 Charts) GRAMMY-award winning rock bands The
National and
The War On Drugs announced their 2024 Zen Diagram Tour across North America, marking the first time the two bands have toured together. Produced by Live Nation, the 19-date fall run kicks off on Thursday,
September 12 in Gilford, NH at Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, with stops in New York, Toronto, Chicago, Vancouver, Berkeley, and more before wrapping up with a performance at Mexico City's Palacio De Los Deportes on Thursday, October 10.
The tour also includes a show at the iconic Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Special guest Lucius will be joining across all dates except Mexico City.
Tickets will be available starting with presales beginning Tuesday, February 27 at 10 AM local time. Additional presales will run throughout the week ahead of the general onsale beginning Friday, March 1 at 10 AM local time at livenation.com.
The tour will feature sets packed with great music from both bands, highlighting each group's deep catalog. The Zen Diagram Tour follows The National's solo global run across New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and the UK this year. Additionally,
The War On Drugs has several UK headline performances and
Europe festival dates scheduled for this summer.
THE ZEN DIAGRAM TOUR 2024 DATES:
Thu Sep 12 - Gilford, NH - Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
Fri Sep 13 - New York, NY - Forest Hills Stadium
Sat Sep 14 - Mansfield, MA - Xfinity Center
Mon Sep 16 - Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Tue Sep 17 - Philadelphia, PA - TD Pavilion at the Mann Center for Performing Arts
Thu Sep 19 - Laval, QC - Place Bell
Fri Sep 20 - Toronto, ON - Budweiser Stage
Sat Sep 21 - Cuyahoga Falls, OH - Blossom
Music Center
Tue Sep 24 - Chicago, IL - United Center
Wed Sep 25 - Sterling Heights, MI - Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill
Thu Sep 26 - Madison, WI - Breese
Stevens Field
Sat Sept 28 - Englewood, CO - Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre *
Sun Sep 29 - Salt Lake City, UT - Granary Live *
Tue Oct 01 - Seattle, WA - Climate Pledge Arena
Wed Oct 02 - Vancouver, BC - Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
Thu Oct 03 - Portland, OR - Moda Center
Sun Oct 06 - Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre *
Mon Oct 07 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl
Thu Oct 10 - Mexico City, MX - Palacio De Los Deportes ^
* Non-Live Nation Date
^ Without Lucius.
Formed in 1999, The
National have established themselves as mainstays of arenas and festivals with sold-out performances and headlining slots around the world. The band has scored five top 10 albums on The Billboard 200, multiple Grammy nominations with 2017's Sleep Well Beastearning the award for Best Alternative Album.
The
National dropped not one but two new albums in 2023. First Two Pages of Frankenstein was released in April, followed by a surprise album Laugh Track in September, both on 4AD. Across two albums worth of new material they were joined by Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift, Roseanne Cash,
Bon Iver and Sufjian Stevens. 2023 was their best live year yet, selling out shows in North
America and Europe, including Madison
Square Garden, LA's Greek Theatre and
Alexandra Palace in London.
Named one of their "Best Albums of 2023", Rolling Stone called First Two Pages of Frankenstein "…a remarkable reassertion of their potency and shared commitment…Nine albums deep, the
National found new energy by conjuring not just a great, suffocating fog but also the far light that guides the way out."
They were also named Forbes's "Band of the Year", with the article stating, "All The
National did in 2023 was release two superb albums … have a brilliant sold-out tour, deliver the festival set of the year with their riveting performance at BottleRock and collaborated with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Swift and Sufjan Stevens. The
National are so consistently great it becomes easy to take for granted they will be at the top of their game. But even by their lofty standards this was an incredible year."
And The New Yorker's
Amanda Petrusich named it as one of her favorites of the year, saying if you already like "what the
National has been doing for the past two-plus decades - making brooding, fraught, atmospheric rock and roll, marked by careful, resonant production and a ribbon of debauched humor—you are likely to also savor First Two Pages of Frankenstein, a heady encapsulation of the band's entire gestalt."
The
National is Matt Berninger (vocals) fronting two pairs of brothers:
Aaron (guitar, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano), and Scott (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).
The War on Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this century's great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making records that wrestle a fractured past into a unified and engrossing present. Led by Adam Granduciel, The New Yorker called them "the best American 'rock' band of this decade" in support of their album, A Deeper Understanding, for which they won the 2018 Grammy for Best Rock Album and were nominated for a BRIT Award for International Group of the Year.
2020 saw the release of LIVE DRUGS featuring live interpretations of songs throughout their career, including off their 2014 breakthrough, Lost In The Dream. Co-produced by Granduciel and Shawn Everett, their fifth studio album, I Don't Live Here Anymore, chips away some of their hazier edges in favor of sharper melodies, broadening the borders of the meticulous yet joyously simple sound [Granduciel] has perfected" (Pitchfork, Best New Music).
It landed on numerous 2021 best albums of the year lists and garnered a second GRAMMY Award nomination (Best Rock Song) and BRIT Award nomination. The band headlined Madison
Square Garden in support of its release.
Acclaimed indie band Lucius has been turning heads since the start thanks to their irrepressibly catchy songs, explosive harmonies, and bold aesthetic. Formed by Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the Los Angeles group got rolling with their 2013 debut album Wildewoman — featuring long-standing hits like "Two of Us on the Run". Rolling Stone hailed the record for "an updated '60s girl-group sound at once fresh and thrilling."
Lucius shifted towards a folk rock sound with 2016's Good Grief before taking a break from the studio to join
Roger Waters on his Us + Them Tour in 2017-18. Lucius returned to the studio in 2022 with the dance-ready collection Second Nature, which features singles "Next to Normal", one of NPR Music's top songs of the year and "Dance Around It" the pulsing song with
Sheryl Crow and Brandi Carlile.
In addition to their own work, the GRAMMY-nominated Wolfe and Laessig are singers in demand: their voices have graced songs by a host of other artists, including Carlile, The War on Drugs, John Legend, Harry Styles,
Jeff Tweedy and Ozzy Osbourne.
