Icelandic experimental rock band Sigur Ros recently announced their full world tour schedule for 2016. The tour starts June 4, with a show in Barcelona, and other shows in cities like Istanbul, Athens, Dublin, London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Budapest and Stockholm.
It also includes appearances in festivals such as Glastonbury festival in the UK, I-days festival in Italy, Electric Castle festival in Romania, Fuji Rock Festival in Japan and Northside festival in Denmark.
The critically acclaimed band, known for their elaborate visual live shows, will also perform a special set of intimate theatrical shows all across North America starting with a show on Sept. 19, 2016, at Vancouver. It will be a special tour for Sigur Ros as they will be playing as a trio, and without the orchestral sections that were common in their live shows in recent times. "Though the scale of the venues and band will be reduced, the live production will be characteristically stunning, [sic]" the band assured fans in a statement on their website.
Another special aspect of this world tour is that the band will perform new material from their upcoming album even before they start recording it. The last time Sigur Ros did this was when they tested new music while on tour before they started recording their 2002 album, "( )."
"There was a time when things were the other way round, when we worked stuff out on the road, and trying to capture lightning in a bottle was a problem for the studio later on. This time, in addition to playing songs you know, we wanted to remember the seat-of-your-pants feeling experienced in the wake of, 'Agætis Byrjun,' when for two years we formed and re-formed the songs that would go on to be the '( )' album, live in front of people, night after night. All we can say right now is it's going to be different, with new unreleased songs, a new show and maybe some other 'new' things. Beyond that, we can only ask you to trust us on this one," explained the band in another statement. The band is also planning to play reinterpreted versions of their old material during the shows.
Sigur Ros will end their world tour with a show at Phoenix, Arizona, Oct. 14, 2016.
Check out the entire world tour schedule here.
