THE CHURCH and THE AFGHAN WHIGS announce co-headline tour!

THE CHURCH and THE AFGHAN WHIGS announce co-headline tour!

The Church Also Announces Official Release of 27th Album Eros Zeta And The Perfumed Guitars Available Digitally and Physically on March 29th

The Church and The Afghan Whigs have unveiled their plans this morning for a co-headline tour of North America this summer. The two legendary groups will team up for shows starting on June 18th in Glenside, PA and concluding on July 13th in Los Angeles. Tickets for all shows go on sale this Friday, February 9th. Special Guest Ed Harcourt supports all dates except Brooklyn where Kristin Hersh will open the show.

The Church will also be offering a limited number of VIP packages on this tour, which will include a show ticket, early venue access, an invitation to the band’s soundcheck, a special meet & greet with the band, exclusive merch items, and watching a portion of the show itself from the side of the stage (where available). The Artist Presale begins Tuesday, February 6th at 1:00 PM Eastern Time for tickets + VIP (presale passcode is available only through our new nightfriends fan community – details below!).

In addition, The Church is set to officially release their 27th studio album Eros Zeta And The Perfumed Guitars on March 29, 2024. A companion album of sorts to their most recent, critically-hailed album The Hypnogogue (2023), Eros Zeta was previously only available at the merch table on their worldwide tour last fall. Over the course of fifteen tracks, it serves as a continuation of the dystopian storyline. Picking up the loose narrative thread of a failed rockstar (“Eros Zeta”) trying to reclaim his faded glory through the use of a dream extractor, “the Hypnogogue.” The second single from the collection, “A Strange Past,” (out today) follows the initial single “Realm of Minor Angels” which was released last September. Says Church founder/vocalist/bassist Steve Kilbey enigmatically of the track, “A foolish man who needs to wise up looks back in regretful nostalgia upon a fling he should’ve flung away. The musical genesis of this piece was a while ago via [guitarist Jeffrey Cain], but when the Hypnogogue reared its dystopian but not ugly head we felt ‘A Strange Past’ had found its true home.”

A companion book, Eros Zeta and The Hypnogogue written by Kilbey in his lyrical and elegant prose, expanding the universe that he created with these two albums, is now available wherever eBooks are sold.

The Church “A Strange Past”: https://youtu.be/3KKr3c4ef2I

Photo Credit: Hugh Stewart

While it’s the first time The Church and The Afghan Whigs are heading out together for a full tour, a lot of history and a lot of love already exists between the two groups.

“The Church and the Afghan Whigs playing some shows together certainly feels like an idea whose time has surely come, “remarked Church lead singer Steve Kilbey. “Get ready for a double blast of the power n glory of rock’n’roll!”

“I was an 18-year-old college freshman lying in bed listening to WVXU late one night when I heard a song that I described later as sounding like David Bowie fronting The Byrds,” commented Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli. “Thankfully they back announced The Unguarded Moment by The Church and I was on my way to buying my first import. Soon after I bought two more after learning of The Blurred Crusade and Seance. It was official. I loved The Church. Three years later, the four kids who were about to become The Afghan Whigs played One Day by The Church in John Curley’s living room and we were off and running…”

Since their reformation in 2012, The Afghan Whigs have stormed back to life with several world tours, major festival appearances and released three new critically acclaimed albums Do To The Beast (2014), In Spades (2017) and 2022’s How Do You Burn? Said SPIN, “The Afghan Whigs are better now than they’ve ever been. The last decade of the band’s output, 2014’s Do to the Beast and three years later, In Spades, and, now, How Do You Burn?, reflect a streak unmatched by any other period in their storied, 35-year career. Like The Empire Strikes Back, The Afghan Whigs 2.0 is the rare sequel that outshines the original.“

Few bands enter their fifth decade of making music with all the fierce creative energy of their early years. Even fewer bands are like The Church. With an impressive discography approaching 30 albums, the band’s most recent studio offering The Hypnogogue received some of the most fervent critical acclaim of their storied career. SPIN named it one of the year’s best albums, noting that “this 2023 release by The Church might be one of the most underrated and overlooked of the year, a gorgeous neo-psychedelia triumph, taking you on The Church’s signature alt-stargazing journey, though current and uncompromising.” While The Arts STL noted that “there aren’t many artists 40 years and 26 albums into their career as creatively vibrant as The Church are. This isn’t just one of The Church’s best latter-day albums, it’s simply one of their best.“

This week, The Church launched an online fan community, nightfriends. Named after a song of the same name from their 2002 album After Everything Now This, nightfriends will be a members-only club where the band will interact with fans which will feature never-before-seen live show/videos, monthly announcements of previously unreleased tracks, acoustic versions, live versions, demos, etc. Members will receive an exclusive shirt and have access to journal entries from Steve and the band, access to tour presales first, live chats, and more. Register here: https://thechorus.com/thechurch.

For the most up-to-date info on tickets, please visit www.thechurchband.com or theafghanwhigs.com.

THE CHURCH & THE AGHAN WHIGS
Tour Dates
JUNE 18 Glenside, PA at Keswick Theatre
JUNE 20 Brooklyn, NY at Brooklyn Paramount
JUNE 21 Boston, MA at Royale
JUNE 22 Washington, DC at Lincoln Theater
JUNE 24 Toronto, ON at Danforth Music Hall
JUNE 25 Detroit MI at The Majestic
JUNE 27 Indianapolis, IN at HiatFi Annex
JUNE 28 Chicago, IL at The Vic
JUNE 30 Minneapolis, MN at First Avenue
JULY 02 Denver, CO at Ogden Theater
JULY 03 Bellvue, CO at Mishawaka Amp
JULY 05 Seattle, WA at Showbox
JULY 06 Portland, OR at Crystal Ballroom
JULY 09 San Francisco, CA at The Fillmore
JULY 11 San Diego, CA at The Observatory
JULY 12 Anaheim, CA at House Of Blues
JULY 13 Los Angeles, CA at Theatre @ Ace Hotel

Eros Zeta And The Perfumed Guitars

TRACKLISTING
Realm Of Minor Angels
Pleasure
Amanita
2054
Manifesto
The Immediate Future
Sublimated In Song
Song 18
The Weather
Korea
Song From The Machine Age
Sleeping For Miles
Last Melody
A Strange Past
Music From The Ghost Hotel