Today 2x GRAMMY® Award-nominated band Rival Sons release their hugely anticipated new album, DARKFIGHTER, everywhere via Low Country Sound/Atlantic Records.
“It’s a great and accomplished feeling to be able to present to everyone our 8th album: DARKFIGHTER. This is most certainly our most focused and well thought out album. Something I am very proud of on a personal level. From the early writing and recording to the mixing and mastering… and even the artwork… this is something that represents very much where we are and especially how we have grown. We’ve done our best to push the limits on every aspect once again.” – Scott Holiday, lead guitarist.
“This is a new feeling, a new experience to think of DARKFIGHTER being released. This one is a breed apart. The band has never had so much time to create a collection and we’ve certainly never collaborated more deeply on any album in our career. In retrospect, the experience and life lived while writing and recording this one feels dense, like ten years were lived in just those two. Eighth record in I’m thankful we consciously challenged the vocabulary we’ve built together, more for our survival as a band than anything else.” Jay Buchanan, singer.
Rival Sons are marking the arrival of DARKFIGHTER with a truly epic live schedule, including a special guest run on Smashing Pumpkins’ “The World Is a Vampire” Summer 2023 North American Tour, also featuring Stone Temple Pilots and Interpol, getting underway August 1 at Salt Lake City, UT’s USANA Amphitheatre and then continuing through early September.
Tickets for all announced dates are on sale now. For compete details and ticket information, please visit www.rivalsons.com.
In the meantime, Rival Sons have embarked on their own extensive North American headline run, “The DARKFIGHTER Tour,” which rages on tomorrow at Franklin Music Hall in Philadelphia and comes to an end at Ogden Theatre in Denver on June 18th.
Included on this run is a June 6 stop at the London Music Hall and a June 8 performance at The Filmore in downtown Detroit.
Special guests throughout include The Black Angels and The Record Company, with Starcrawler also appearing on select dates.
What’s more, Rival Sons – who only just wrapped a series of arena dates supporting Greta Van Fleet – have slated a number of top-billed festival performances, including Daytona Beach, FL’s Welcome To Rockville (May 20) and Columbus, OH’s Sonic Temple (May 27).
DARKFIGHTER will be accompanied by a stunning companion volume, LIGHTBRINGER, arriving later this year.
Both produced by longtime collaborator and 8x GRAMMY® Award-winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell), the two new LPs marks the first new music from Rival Sons in more than four years, following 2019’s critically acclaimed, GRAMMY® Award-nominated sixth studio album, FERAL ROOTS.
Rival Sons play rock ‘n’ roll in its purest form without apology or pretense.
Instead, they simply plug in, turn up, and rip on a path of their own.
Along the way, they’ve architected a critically acclaimed catalog, including PRESSURE & TIME (2011), HEAD DOWN (2012), GREAT WESTERN VALKYRIE (2014), HOLLOW BONES (2016), and FERAL ROOTS (2019).
Highlighted by the chart-topping lead single, “Do Your Worst,” the latter album stands tall as a creative and critical high watermark for Rival Sons, scoring a GRAMMY® Award nomination for “Best Rock Album,” with the standout track, “Too Bad” receiving a nod in the “Best Rock Performance” category.
In addition, the album’s lead single, “Do Your Worst,” proved the band’s biggest hit to date, ascending to #1 at Rock radio outlets nationwide while tallying north of 60M streams and counting.
Hailed as an electrifying, well-honed live act, Rival Sons have played countless headline shows, shared stages with everyone from Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, and AC/DC to Guns N’ Roses and Lenny Kravitz, and made high profile late night TV appearances including CBS’ The Late Late Show with James Corden.
In 2021, the band launched their own label, Sacred Tongue Recordings distributed by Thirty Tigers.
That same year saw Rival Sons celebrate the 10th anniversary of 2011’s PRESSURE AND TIME, by performing the landmark LP live in its entirety for the first time ever on the sold out “Pressure and Time Tour.”
The band also presented a very special two-night livestream event, Pair Of Aces, which saw them performing 2009’s debut album, BEFORE THE FIRE, and 2010’s self-titled RIVAL SONS EP in their entirety live from the historic Catalina Casino on Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California.
Rival Sons is: Jay Buchanan (vocals, harmonica, rhythm guitar), Scott Holiday (lead guitar), Mike Miley (drums), and Dave Beste (bass).
2023 Tour Dates:
JUNE
3 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall * #
4 – Albany, NY – Empire Live * #
6 – London, ON – London Music Hall * #
8 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore ^ #
9 – Chicago, IL – Radius ^ #
10 – Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore ^ #
12 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave ^ #
13 – Cedar Rapids, IA – Club 5 ^ #
14 – St. Louis, MO – Pageant ^ #
16 – Omaha, NE – The Admiral ^ #
17 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater ^ #
18 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre ^ #
JULY
21 – Buktafestivalen – Trømso, NO †
22 – Malakoff Rockfestival – Nordfjordeid, NO †
AUGUST
1 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre **
3 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre **
5 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre **
6 – Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater **
7 – Wheatland, CA – Toyota Amphitheatre **
9 – Irvine, CA – FivePoint Amphitheatre **
10 – Chula Vista, CA – North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre **
11 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues **
13 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater ^^
15 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion ^^
16 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP ^^
17 – Huntsville, AL – The Orion Amphitheater ^^
19 – West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre ^^
20 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre ^^
22 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion ^^
24 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center ^^
25 – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion ^^
26 – Montreal, QC – Corona Theatre ^^
27 – Portland, ME – State Theatre ^^
30 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater ^^
31 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live ^^
SEPTEMBER
2 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage ^^
3 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre ^^
6 – Pittsburgh, PA – Roxian Theatre ^^
7 – The Mill & Mine – Knoxville, TN ^^
8 – Franklin, TN – FirstBank Amphitheater ^^
9 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center ^^
24 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life Festival 2023
* w/ Special Guests The Record Company
^ w/ Special Guests The Black Angels
# w/ Special Guests Starcrawler
† Festival Performance
** The Smashing Pumpkins “The World Is a Vampire” North American Tour
w/Special Guests Stone Temple Pilots
^^ The Smashing Pumpkins “The World Is a Vampire” North American Tour
w/ Special Guests Interpol
EUROPEAN TOUR
OCTOBER
13 – London, UK – Roundhouse
14 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK – NX Newcastle
16 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland Ballroom
16 – Birmingham, UK – 02 Academy Birmingham
18 – Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy
20 – Cambridge, UK – Cambridge Corn Exchange
21 – Bristol, UK – 02 Academy Bristol
22 – Southampton, UK – Guildhall Southampton
24 – St. Herblain, France – La Carrière
25 – Lyon, France – Le Radiant
27 – Paris, France – L’Olympia
28 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Les Docks
29 – Milan, Italy – Alcatraz
31 – Vienna, Austria – Gasometer
NOVEMBER
1 – Zurich, Switzerland – X-Tra
2 – Munich, Germany – Theaterfabrik
4 – Prague, Czech Republic – Lucerna Music Bar
5 – Warsaw, Poland – Klub Stodoła
6 – Poznań, Poland – Music Club B17
8 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys New Welt
9 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
10 – Archdiocese Cologne, Germany – Kantine
12 – Brussels, Belgium – Ancienne Belgique
13 – Hamburg, Germany – Grosse Freiheit 36
14 – Copenhagen, Denmark – The Grey Hall
16 – Bergen, Norway – Forum Scene
17 – Oslo, Norway – Sentrum Scene
18 – Östermalm, Sweden – B-K
20 – Helsinki, Finland – House of Culture
21 – Tampere, Finland – Tampere Hall
Photo Credit: Pamela Littky