10/30THE ARISTOCRATS RETURN TO JAPAN IN FEBRUARY 2023!
The Aristocrats are excited to announce a February 2023 return to Japan, for their first live shows there since 2016. Japanese audiences starved for some trademark Aristocratic musical mayhem will be treated to a debut of select new material not yet released on any album, as well as a carefully curated collection of fan favorites and deep cuts.
The band had this to say: “Our very first tour anywhere was in Japan eleven years ago, and we’ve loved coming back ever since. So we couldn’t be more excited to bring the DEFROST Tour to Japan and play for our wonderful fans there once again!”
Tickets are available (from Sun Nov 13) here. Stay tuned for more Aristocrats Asia tour dates to be announced in the near future!
10/07New video of Primuz Chamber Orchestra tracking “Last Orders” now online!
Check out this amazing video of the Primuz Chamber Orchestra tracking “Last Orders”. This is an alternate mix that really features the orchestra arrangement of Wojtek Lemański and all of the beautiful harmonic elements that the Primuz brought to the table.
“The Aristocrats With Primuz Chamber Orchestra” is available on CD, Vinyl and Digital Download from our various stores, including Bandcamp and Digger’s Factory. Find all the links here: https://linktr.ee/aristocratsband
9/11The DEFROST Tour’s triumphant finale!
BB here, speaking for the band. The last three shows of the tour – Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Francisco – were simply amazing. Each city blew away its previous attendance record, one after the other. Los Angeles set a new USA crowd record for us…which lasted exactly 24 hours until San Francisco broke it *again*. We are beyond grateful – California, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
But that’s only half the story. There were a series of unforeseen practical and logistical obstacles in the final week of the tour – climaxing in the full closure of the main freeway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the night between those two shows – that required an absolutely HEROIC effort on the part of the crew in order for the shows to happen at all. They rose to the occasion, and made it possible for us to finish the North American leg of the DEFROST tour in grand fashion.
For those who have been following this tour from the beginning, you know that it has been an unusually dramatic affair. The issue with Guthrie’s visa alone almost killed the whole thing before it even started, and there was plenty more. Somehow, miraculously, it all worked out, and I know I speak for the band when I say THANK YOU to everyone on our small but mighty AristoTeam for persevering, and THANK YOU to all of the fans across North America who came out to make our first tour in almost three years such an incredible success.
We want to give special thanks to Congressman Tom Malinowski and his legislative liaison Michael McCurry for their invaluable assistance with the visa issue; Chris Kies and Shawn Hammond from Premier Guitar for their special attention in making the latest Rig Rundown video; and the one and only Rick Beato for shining his uniquely bright spotlight on Guthrie and The Aristocrats at just the right moment. We’re going back into the freezer now, but stay tuned for news about international touring in 2023…and our next studio album.
Once again, on behalf of Marco and Guthrie and myself: T h a n k y o u.
P.S. We were so exhausted at the end of the tour that we forgot to take a band “end of tour” picture! So here’s a shot of the massive crowd from San Francisco instead :)
9/05THE ARISTOCRATS ANNOUNCE UK/EUROPE DATES FOR THE “DEFROST” TOUR IN JUNE 2023
It’s been far too long since our last shows in the UK and Europe, some of which were documented in our live album ‘FREEZE! Live In Europe 2020’ just before the big chill on live shows. So now it’s time for the DEFROST tour to bring us back, and we can’t wait to finally play shows again for our fans who have been waiting patiently for Aristocrats concerts to return!
This first batch of June 2023 dates will be our only shows in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal, Israel and Bulgaria on this tour, but more European dates in additional countries will be announced in the coming months. Full details for all shows, including ticket links as they become available, can be found on our website HERE.
8/11THE ARISTOCRATS to perform first ever LIVESTREAM concert!
We are offering all our fans around the world a livestream of our concert at Reggie’s in Chicago at 9:00pm local time on August 20th, 2022. The show is a part of our DEFROST Tour of North America, currently in progress. Tickets are available at www.zuma.live/event/53 and purchasers can stream the show from live showtime up until 24 hours later.
This is a total first for us; we’re excited about it, and there are a lot of good reasons why we felt as a band that this was the right time. First off, it’s super high quality audio and video, at a venue we know and love – Reggie’s – with Zuma Live who has done many successful high profile livestream shows. Second, we had to cancel our El Paso and Albuquerque shows on this tour due to COVID issues, and other folks couldn’t come to other shows for the same reason, so hopefully everyone affected by this unprecedented situation can check this out and see the actual tour show.
Third, it’s been two years since we’ve been to Europe and six years since we’ve been to Asia or South America. We have a lot of fans around the world and it’s been difficult to get there lately, for obvious reasons. So we wanted to share our live show with them before next year – they’ve waited long enough!
Why did we wait so long to do something like this? Our longstanding belief as a band is that concerts are meant to be enjoyed in the moment, and it’s no secret that Guthrie in particular is averse to ever-present phones and video shot from the crowd. At the same time, the COVID era has kept us off the road for a long time, and present-day touring is still challenging (evidenced by the two cancelled shows). This is a special circumstance, and so we wanted to make this high-quality livestream concert – with multi-track-mixed audio and 4-camera 6K video – a special event to connect with our fans wherever they may live. We’re looking forward to it and hope you can join us!
The Aristocrats DEFROST North American Tour – remaining dates
DATE – VENUE, CITY, STATE
August 11, 2022 – Imperial Bell, Quebec City, QC
August 12, 2022 – Café Campus, Montreal, QC
August 13, 2022 – Café Campus, Montreal, QC
August 14, 2022 – Opera House, Toronto, ON
August 16, 2022 – This Is Red, Pittsburgh, PA
August 17, 2022 – Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland, OH
August 18, 2022 – The Magic Bag, Detroit, MI
August 19, 2022 – Irving Theater, Indianapolis, IN
August 20, 2022 – Reggie’s, Chicago, IL
August 22, 2022 – Amsterdam Bar And Hall, St, Paul, MN
August 23, 2022 – xBk Live, Des Moines, IA
August 24, 2022 – RecordBar, Kansas City, MO
August 26, 2022 – The Black Sheep, Colorado Springs, CO
August 27, 2022 – Marquis Theater, Denver, CO
August 28, 2022 – Mesa Theater, Grand Junction, CO
August 29, 2022 – Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City, UT
August 30, 2022 – The Shredder, Boise, ID
September 1, 2022 – Rickshaw Theatre, Vancouver, BC
September 2, 2022 – Neumos, Seattle, WA
September 3, 2022 – Star Theater, Portland, OR
September 5, 2022 – The Dip, Redding, CA
September 6, 2022 – Harlow’s, Sacramento, CA
September 8, 2022 – 1720, Los Angeles, CA
September 9, 2022 – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
See you on the road (and streaming live) soon!
Guthrie, Bryan and Marco
8/05THE DEFROST TOUR North America – Second Half Starts August 9!
We had a blast on the first half of THE DEFROST TOUR across North America, ending with a sold out show in NYC at Gramercy Theater! But we’ve got plenty to go for the second half, starting August 9 in Boston.
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS to see The Aristocrats first trek across North America since 2019!
DEFROST TOUR – REMAINING DATES
August 9 – Boston – The Middle East
August 11 – Quebec City – Imperial Bell
August 12 – Montreal – Café Campus
August 13 – Montreal – Café Campus
August 14 – Toronto – Opera house
August 16 – Pittsburgh – This Is Red
August 17 – Cleveland – Beachland Ballroom
August 18 – Detroit – Magic Bag
August 19 – Indianapolis – Radio Radio
August 20 – Chicago – Reggie’s
August 22 – St. Paul – Amsterdam Bar & Hall
August 23 – Des Moines IA – xBk Live
August 24 – Kansas City – RecordBar
August 26 – Colorado Springs – The Black Sheep
August 27 – Denver – Marquis Theater
August 28 – Grand Junction – Mesa Theater
August 29 – Salt Lake City – Urban Lounge
August 30 – Boise – The Shredder
September 1 – Vancouver – The Rickshaw
September 2 – Seattle – Neumo’s
September 3 – Portland – Star Theater
September 5 – Redding – The Dip
September 6 – Sacramento – Harlow’s
September 8 – Los Angeles – Club 1720
September 9 – San Francisco – Great American Music Hall
Hope to see you there!
–The Aristocrats
7/06NEW SHOW ADDED TO THE DEFROST TOUR!
We will now be returning to The Dip in Redding, CA on Monday September 5th! Tickets for this new show, along with the rest of the tour, can be found here.
