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Gorillaz Announce North American Tour Dates

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Blur frontman Damon Albarn’s animated group Gorillaz will come to life this fall on a 19-date North American tour. The Brit band will kick off their “Escape to Plastic Beach” trek on October 2 in Montreal, then hit arenas in cities across the U.S., from Boston to Dallas to Seattle. Gorillaz will also drop into New York City for a rock’n’roll right of passage: their first headlining show at Madison Square Garden on October 8. The tour closes out November 3 in Vancouver, BC.

Why should you go? SPIN gave the band’s new album Plastic Beach — a name that came to Albarn while watching people and animals forage through a Malian garbage dump — high marks for its emotional weight and cameos from Lou Reed, Bobby Womack, Mark E. Smith, Mos Def, Snoop Dogg, De La Soul and more.

Previously, many of Beach‘s collaborators have joined the band onstage, including at their festival-closing headlining set at Coachella, where Gorillaz performed as a 15-piece-plus ensemble with members of the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music. Then there’s that semi-Clash reunion. Albarn recruited guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon (who both appear on Beach) to join his band live, marking the duo’s first stretch onstage together in more than 25 years.

According to a band spokesperson, both Jones and Simonon, plus select collaborators from Plastic Beach, are expected to join Gorillaz on tour.

And there’s more! Albarn’s Gorillaz co-conspirator, Tank Girl animator Jamie Hewlett, designs visual narratives to play along with the music on giant screens. He’s also expected to craft new storyboards for the upcoming outing.

Tickets go on sale August 6 via LiveNation.com.

“Escape to Plastic Beach” tour dates:
10/3, Montreal, QC (Bell Centre)
10/5, Wallingford, CT (Oakdale Theatre)
10/6, Boston, MA (Agganis Arena)
10/8, New York, NY (Madison Square Garden)
10/10, Camden, NJ (Susquehanna Bank Center)
10/11, Washington, DC (Patriot Center)
10/13, Detroit, MI (Fox Theatre)
10/14, Toronto, ON (Air Canada Centre)
10/16, Chicago, IL (UIC Pavilion)
10/17, Minneapolis, MN (Target Center)
10/19, Houston, TX (Toyota Center)
10/20, Dallas, TX (Verizon Theatre)
10/22, Austin, TX (Frank Erwin Center)
10/24, Denver, CO (Wells Fargo Theatre)
10/26, Phoenix, AZ (Dodge Theatre)
10/27, Los Angeles, CA (Gibson Amphitheatre)
10/30, Oakland, CA (Oracle Arena)
11/2, Seattle, WA (Key Arena)
11/3, Vancouver, BC (Rogers Arena)