The touring industry is exploding right now. In a blog post written earlier this year, Lorde astutely noted how basically all of the artists who couldn’t tour during the pandemic are now all hitting the stage all at once. And that massive influx of high-profile concert tours is continuing into 2023. From long-awaited concert tours to anniversary celebrations to high-profile comebacks, these are the most anticipated concert tours of 2023.
Arctic Monkeys
For the first time in nearly ten years, Arctic Monkeys released a new album. The Car, is a cinematic melodrama enacted as debonairly as possible in the way that only Alex Turner and company can. They’re set to make 22 tour stops in North America at the tail end of summer and Dublin’s Fontaines D.C. are opening for them.
Beyoncé
While Beyoncé hasn’t announced any plans to tour in support of Renaissance yet (or release any music videos from it for that matter) she dropped a $20,000 hint that a tour is coming this summer. You see, at the WACO Theater Wearable Art Gala in October, Beyoncé put up an extravagant package for the charity auction. For $20k, the package description included airline tickets and a meet and greet to, “Beyoncé’s Renaissance 2023 tour.” Shout out to the Bey Hive member who sussed out this caper.
Big Thief
In a year that saw them releasing another dynamite album in Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, Big Thief announced an active schedule of concerts across four continents. But they really made waves this past week in laying out a plan to invite teachers and students to their soundchecks along the tour. The band wants to provide young people with opportunities to engage in learning experiences around creativity, music, playing shows, and songwriting. Awesome.
Blink 182
Not only is Blink 182 back, but guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge has rejoined the band making for a full reunion tour. Delonge, drummer Travis barker, and bassist/singer Mark Hoppus are also set to headline a slew of South American festivals, as well as the When We Were Young emo nostalgia fest in Las Vegas. Oh, and a new Blink 182 album is apparently on deck as well.
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band are hitting the road in 2023 for the first time since 2017. Yet when news of the US tour dates hit, Ticketmaster’s flexible pricing model sent some seats soaring in the thousands of dollars range and fans were none too pleased. Springsteen answered the critics essentially saying that the imperfect system is what it is, but, “If there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.” They don’t call him The Boss for nothing.
Death Grips
For the first time in four years, horrorcore trailblazers Death Grips will be going out on tour. The experimental rap trio of Zach Hill, MC Ride, and Andy Morin put on an electric live show, with MC Ride an always visceral presence on the microphone.
Depeche Mode
It was a tough year for Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan and Martin Gore when longtime keyboardist Andy “Fletch” Fletcher died in May at the age of 60. But Depeche Mode are still planning on releasing their new album Memento Mori, this spring. “Fletch would have loved this album,” Gahan said. The Memento Mori World Tour begins in March in the US and only ends in August in Europe.
Ed Sheeran
With albums entitled +, =, ÷, and x Ed Sheeran is bringing the theme full circle with his North America megatour dubbed the Mathematics Tour. He’ll be playing gigantic stadium sets at venues like Houston’s NRG Stadium, Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, and Detroit’s Ford Field. Meanwhile, he has curated a diverse set of tour openers in Khalid, Maisie Peters, Russ, Rosa Linn, Cat Burns, and Dylan.
GloRilla
Hopefully, GloRilla is planning on giving her assistant a raise, because she’s going to be plenty busy with her first-ever headlining tour in 2023. The Anyways, Life’s Great Tour is tabbed as GloRilla “with friends,” so we’ll see who decides to pop up on stage with the Memphis rapper. Could one of those friends be Cardi B at some point? The pair collaborated on the track “Tomorrow 2” which hit the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2022.
Janet Jackson
When Janet Jackson announced the Together Again Tour for 2023, she also promised that “there will be new music.” Not that we really need any, considering how many #hits she’s turned out across the decades, but it definitely adds to the mystique of what the always explosive “That’s The Way Love Goes” singer does on stage. Ludacris is joining her as the opening act, cause why the heck not?
JID and Smino
Both JID and Smino dropped albums in 2022. JID’s Forever Story places him in the conversation of today’s best, while Smino’s incredibly unique Luv 4 Rent features A-List featured guests like J-Cole and Lil Uzi Vert. Now the Atlanta and St. Louis connection will come to fruition on the 32-date cross-continent Luv Is 4Ever Tour.
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Are King Gizzard the most prolific band in the world right now? The Aussie psycho rockers did just drop five albums in 2022. They’ve certainly become one of the most cultiish live bands on the planet regardless. They’re June 2023 tour begins at The Caverns Underground in Tennessee and ends with a three-hour “marathon set” at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
Metallica
The pioneering metal band from San Francisco have a new album due out on April 14th called 72 Seasons and the corresponding tour will stretch far beyond 2023. Metallica will be hitting the road this year, making stops in both Europe, the US, Canada, while picking it up again for a slew of 2024 dates in Europe and all of North America including Mexico. The shows will feature them playing 2 nights in cities, with no song repeats and an in-the-round staging.
Paramore
Paramore’s much-hyped sixth album, This Is Why, is due out on February 10th and the Hayley Williams-led band have a tour ready to rock for the summertime. Beginning in May, Paramore will be touring all throughout North America and have an illustrious cast of support acts in tow in Bloc Party (whom they cite as a primary influence), Foals, The Linda Lindas, and Genesis Owusu.
The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie
Not only is The Postal Service embarking on a 20th Anniversary Tour for their cult-classic album Give Up, but it’s a double bill with Death Cab For Cutie. Ben Gibbard will be pulling double duty, but he’s the quintessential rockstar on stage and can more than handle it. And as great as Death Cab’s latest album, Asphalt Meadows, is, the vibes will surely be highest as soon as Jenny Lewis joins Gibbard on vocals for Give Up’s opening track, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.”
SZA
Sad hotties rejoice, SZA is going on tour! After an unfathomable number of teasers and delays, SZA’s new album S.O.S. finally dropped last month and she’ll be supporting it on tour with Omar Apollo as the opening act. We got a preview of SZA’s S.O.S. stage setup at Outside Lands festival 2022 in San Francisco this past summer and it’s thematic to the album to say the least.
Taylor Swift
Following the release of Midnights, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour will mark her first stadium performances in five years. By now, you’ve surely heard about how Taylor damn near broke Ticketmaster when tickets went on sale and the tour has already netted over a half billion dollars in sales. This will mark the largest run of US dates for Swift, so do what you have to do to get into the stadium. And if all else fails, maybe her cat can put you on the guest list?
The Walkmen
A decade since The Walkmen went on an “extreme hiatus,” the indie rock staples announced a comeback for 2023 with a limited number of shows in only New York City at first. The tour has since expanded to add multi-night residencies in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington D.C. in addition to New York City. This could potentially mean that Hamilton Leithauser, Peter Bauer, and company might finally have a new album by The Walkmen on the horizon. The plan will surely unfold on this long-awaited slate of live performances which begins in April.
Wizkid
Weeks after dropping his latest album, More Love Less Ego, Wizkid already started teasing a new album called SaiLess. The promise of even more new music from the world-sweeping Afrobeats star will certainly drive the interest North American Tour. Beginning in March, Wizkid will be playing arena-sized venues like Houston’s Kia Center and Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
Zach Bryan
A noted critic of Ticketmaster’s purported monopoly and the exorbitant fees that they tack on concert tickets, Zach Bryan has decided to take matters into his own hands for his upcoming tour. “I’ve decided to play a limited number of headline shows next year to which I’ve done all I can to make prices as cheap as possible and to prove to people tickets don’t have to cost $450 to see a good and honest show,” the country music rising star said on Instagram. The dates have yet to be announced but Bryan has promised them “soon” and you’ve just got to admire the stance he’s taking.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.