After a long hiatus from live music, there is finally a light at the end of the pandemic postponement tunnel. Between the crowds of ravenous fans and artists eager to return to the stages they were forced to leave behind for the last 18 months, the energy of these long-awaited concerts is sure to be otherworldly. To help navigate the tidal wave of incoming tour date releases, we’ve curated a list of artists—in no particular order—we’re excited to see on tour this fall. Some are heading out for traveling shows for the first time in their careers while others are making highly anticipated returns to the spotlight.
Phoebe Bridgers
Tour begins September 2
In support of her Grammy-nominated sophomore album Punisher, Cultured’s spring issue cover star Phoebe Bridgers is embarking on a tour of performances across North America this fall. “What interests me more than extreme sadness is daily monotony, that drowning-in-your-own-life melancholy,” said the singer songwriter to writer Cassandra Gillig. Honesty shines through Bridgers’s music and we’d expect a live Bridgers experience to foster a similarly intimate environment. The tour includes several festival stops, kicking off on September 2 at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, so why not join Bridgers in Tennessee at the start of her entirely un-monotonous journey?
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Big Thief
Tour begins September 7
Indie rock band Big Thief plans to steal the show yet again on its United States tour this September and October. The Brooklyn group is applauded for striking performances, where a closeness with the crowd reverberates. Lead singer Adrianne Lenker writes deeply personal songs that have earned the close-knit quartet a uniquely devoted following. Big Thief’s folk roots are drawing us to Burlington, Vermont as an ideal place to get the band’s full invigorating effect in person.
Arlo Parks
Tour began August 5
It’s a special time to see a live performance by 20-year-old singer-songwriter and poet Arlo Parks. At a point of rapid ascension in her career, the London-born artist creates visually and audibly pleasing songs around specific moments, made universally translatable. Parks kicked off her first-ever tour on August 5 in the United Kingdom and will continue shows in Europe and across the United States until December 13. The first dates, she shared recently on Instagram, “were the nourishment I’d been looking for for 17 months! Playing shows is soul food, sharing space is soul food.” Parks’s performance for her “angels,” as she calls her fans, on the night of September 22 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn will be one for the books.
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Harry Styles
Tour begins September 4
To say our list would not be complete without Harry Styles, ruler of the pop music zeitgeist, is a grave understatement. In July, Styles posted an Instagram announcement of the new schedule for his previously postponed Love on Tour run. At the time of publication, nearly four million social media users had liked it. The fan anticipation of the singer’s second solo tour since the indefinite hiatus of his former boyband life with One Direction is obvious, and Styles is giving the people what they want: stadium concerts, themed legs and everything in between. For those lucky enough to snag tickets, October 30 and 31’s special “Harryween” shows at Madison Square Garden in New York are sure to generate pinch me moments. Costumes encouraged.
Moses Sumney
Tour begins October 1
The allure of being swept into a Moses Sumney crowd is almost too much to handle. The singer debuted his album “græ” during the year of no tours. He’s now performing it around the United States and is set to hit Austin City Limits Music Festival for the first two weekends in October, where his stageshows can’t be missed. Our summer issue cover star, Sumney is a particularly genreless artist, known for introspective music and his resistance to binaries, subtly and ironically underwritten in his current look of sporting one white and one black eyebrow. We dig it.
Gracie Abrams
Tour begins September 1
21-year-old singer Gracie Abrams has made a name for herself with a delicate, yet powerful voice, the vulnerable sensibility of her songs and her articulation of the all-too-relatable messiness of young love. This September, she’s finally sharing those emotions live with an in-person audience. Set to tour last year, before having to opt for bedroom performances instead, Abrams is embarking on her first run of thirteen shows, including two dates in London and four festival stops. A testament to her vocals and songwriting abilities, her DIY “I’ve missed you, I’m sorry” lyric video boasts 18 million views—no special effects necessary. We’d love to witness the Angeleno sell out the Roxy Theater on October 11, where the show will be just as surreal for Abrams as it will be for us fans.
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