25 Tours We’re Looking Forward To
HT staffers pick their most anticipated live shows for spring and summer 2026.
In place of suggesting a mere Five Songs this week, we decided instead to shower you with the showgoing possibilities of the coming months.
Caroline
In my review of this UK collective’s 2025 album Caroline 2, I expressed some annoyance at the current state of indie-rock touring—specifically, how difficult it seems to be for a band this incredible to plot a U.S. tour without losing tons of money. They didn’t make it to the States at all last year, but they’re finally crossing the pond in May for a handful of American dates before hitting a few European festivals. The New York show even includes an opening set from ambient auteur Claire Rousay, officially making it my Most Anticipated Concert of 2026. –Ryan Dombal
Caroline’s upcoming tour dates
Cole Pulice
If you’re looking for some ambient-jazz renewal following a long winter of frozen bones and punishing headlines, go see Cole Pulice play. If you want to expand your idea of what a tenor saxophone can do, go see Cole Pulice play. If you’re searching for a new-age moment that doesn’t feel compromised by the wellness industrial complex, go see Cole Pulice play. If you need to expand your mind and restore your soul, this is the show for you. –Ryan Dombal
Cole Pulice’s upcoming tour dates
Hudson Freeman
During a recent set at the small, artist-owned club Dada in Ridgewood, Queens, Hudson Freeman sheepishly introduced his viral hit “If You Know Me” by telling the crowd, “Hopefully you’ll want more after this song.” The crowd proceeded to quietly commune with the singer-songwriter’s weary folk lament—I even saw one guy pull out some air guitar during its signature acoustic riff—before erupting into applause when it was done; no one headed for the exit, everyone wanted more.
Freeman dreamed of becoming a proper touring artist for a full decade before his viral moment, so now he’s more than ready to take advantage. Throughout 2026, he’ll bring his deadpan, lo-fi folk sound to arenas opening for his adolescent heroes Mumford and Sons, as well as clubs alongside the like-minded (and equally excellent) indie band Lots of Hands. The experiences should provide some great fodder for Freeman’s next album, which looks to follow in the road-trip tradition of classics like Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois. –Ryan Dombal
Hudson Freeman’s upcoming tour dates
Lambrini Girls
How punk is this British duo? Well, after singer and guitarist Phoebe Lunny recently fractured her neck and suffered an acute brain injury (pretty punk) she went ahead and posted a picture of herself grabbing her asscheek in a hospital gown (also punk) and announced that their upcoming U.S. tour was not cancelled but merely postponed a couple of months (punk to the nth). Basically, nothing can stop Lambrini Girls from bringing their Gen Z riot grrrl anthems about dudes with tiny dicks, nepo babies, and “cuntology” to the masses. I saw them last year at a small club in Brooklyn, which they justly obliterated with riffs, wit, and plenty of expletive-laden banter about finding community and fighting fascism; it was insanely fun. This is a band you can believe in with your whole heart. –Ryan Dombal
Lambrini Girls’ upcoming tour dates
Ninajirachi
Australian producer Ninajirachi’s 2025 album I Love My Computer is a frenetic ode to digital life that makes burrowing into your laptop sound fun again. It’s an instant EDM-meets-hyperpop classic that picks up where Daft Punk, Justice, and Skrillex left off—and I have no doubt that Nina’s songs about regrettable late-night posts and falling asleep on her keyboard sound even better bouncing around a packed room, without a single screen in sight. –Ryan Dombal
Ninajirachi’s upcoming tour dates
Angine de Poitrine
This masked microtonal math-rock duo from Quebec has been making music since 2019, but they blew up this year thanks to a mind-boggling KEXP session full of virtuosic playing, polka-dotted costumes, and a double-necked guitar-bass. People are hungry to see them deliver the goods live—they’re already selling out dates as late as November. If you live in one of the few cities where tickets are still available, snap them up soon. –Andy Cush
Angine de Poitrine’s upcoming tour dates
Kim Gordon
The former Sonic Youth bassist-guitarist and current-day dystopian swag-rap god needs no introduction from me, so I’ll just relay an anecdote. Back in 2022, my band played a days-long festival that also featured Kim Gordon on a much higher poster line than ours. I was feeling a bit under the weather when she was set to play, and still wasn’t sure what to make of No Home Record, her solo debut, so I considered staying at the hotel and getting some rest. But as a diehard SY fan I dragged my ass to the gig. I cried, it was so good. –Andy Cush
Kim Gordon’s upcoming tour dates
Horse Lords
By sheer coincidence—or, let’s be real, as a result of my particular nerdy proclivities—my list of anticipated tours includes not one but two bands that play complicated instrumental rock music on guitars custom modified to play in microtones. No offense to AdP, but the Germany-via-Baltimore quartet Horse Lords are the reigning kings of this admittedly small niche. I’m just bummed that they won’t be playing in New York, a city that surely has a higher-than-average population of microtonal music fans. Road trip to Chatham, anyone? –Andy Cush
Horse Lords’ upcoming tour dates
Frank Hurricane
The peripatetic songwriter, guitarist, and storyteller Frank Hurricane is on tour for the next six months or so, playing a mix of house shows, bars, DIY spots, and the occasional big rock club opening for Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band. I don’t care if you’ve never heard his name or his music. If you have an opportunity to go—and, given the extent of his itinerary, you almost certainly do—just go. I’ve seen him three times already on this run and wish I could have done another show or two before he got too far from New York. –Andy Cush
Frank Hurricane’s upcoming tour dates
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
My pitch for seeing this band is simple: With the rhythm section of drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally, they’re as close as you’ll get to catching Fugazi in 2026. True, they don’t have either of the old singers, but instead they’re fronted by one of the greatest jazz saxophonists working today. Just seems like a no-brainer! –Andy Cush
The Messthetics’ upcoming tour dates
Rosalía
If you’ve seen even a sliver of the footage coming from Rosalía’s Lux tour, this is a gimme: the Spanish visionary and her orchestra are delivering European high art in arena settings, whether she’s en pointe for an exhilarating rendition of “Reliquia,” performing “La Perla” with a set of Lola Falana-inspired hand dancers, or reimagining her Brit Awards “Berghain” rave as a flamenco dance piece complete with opera-style stage blocking. (She’s also Catholicmaxxing, taking confession from a few lucky fans onstage at each show.) But there’s something to be said for avoiding the spoilers and just letting yourself be fully surprised as La Rosi immerses you in her grand world. –Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Judith
Since we last checked in with Judith—the Mexican Honduran Angeleno whose genre-agnostic pop music was so indelible I had to interview her for a 2024 Going Up profile—her output has been consistently delectable, whether through the bubblegum grime of “Diva” or on the “Diva Remix” of Sadye’s kooky party anthem “Hello Kitty Pickup Truck.” I’m so excited to see how the energetic singer translates her catalog, and she wrote on Instagram that this tour is “my absolute dreams coming true wtf..,” so I have no doubt it’ll be one for the books. –Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Snow Tha Product
Snow Tha Product has been killing it lately—the Mexican American rapper and singer’s latest album, Before I Crash Out, was 30 tracks of punchy flow after punchy flow on beats that range from dembow to rhythm & quad to Norteño to gabber. Since that dropped late last year, she’s unleashed a suite of videos that show she’s got a lot on her mind, whether the hypocrisy of hating-ass Christians or the complexities of being semi-bilingual. But what I’m most excited about is seeing how she translates her versatility to a live setting (and, you know, to sing along to “No Traigo Nada” and cry). –Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Snow Tha Product’s upcoming tour dates
Justine Skye
The more I listen to Justine Skye’s latest album, Candy, the more I’m convinced I simply have to blast it at full volume this summer, when the humidity is so gross the sweat is pouring off my face but I don’t care because I’m so zooted on utter joy. Her new direction—Skye’s velvety vocals on blissful, cheeky house and other club delicacies—is made for the cutest dance party. If I bet one thing on this tour, it’s that random showgoers are probably gonna find each other and make out. –Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Justine Skye’s upcoming tour dates
Nia Archives
Though the producer, vocalist, DJ, and neo-junglist Nia Archives has sung from behind the decks, she’s somehow never played a “propa live show”—at least that’s what she wrote in an Instagram post announcing a select few dates she’s calling “Out of Her Shell.” And from listening to her latest song, “Danger,” one gets the feeling she’s gingerly stepping out from behind the decks before dropping a more expansive, vocal-focused project—so if you’re lucky enough to snag tickets for these, you just might be seeing a glimpse of the future. –Julianne Escobedo Shepherd
Nia Archives’ upcoming tour dates
NAHreally / Duncecap & Samurai Banana
Jersey City-via-Boston rapper-producer NAHreally has spent the last decade making amiable, sample-based songs about everything from aging to sociopolitical virtue signaling to the joys of playing with bubble wrap. Duncecap and Samurai Banana, both members of the Karma Kids collective, have worked hard to push rap to its experimental electronic edges and pen wry revealing rhymes while they do it. After spending the last few years building out their Another Rap Show series (one of my personal favorite showcases in New York City), the trio are heading out on a coheadlining tour together for the first time to promote their respective latest albums, NAHreally’s Extra Cheese and Dunce and Banana’s Comfortably Suffering. It’s a short four-date jaunt across the northeast, starting in Philadelphia and Massachusetts before ending in Brooklyn, but if you’re in the mood for tunes in the vein of Eyedea or Death Grips, make sure to tap in. –Dylan Green
NAHreally’s upcoming tour dates
GENA
Liv.e and Karriem Riggins’s debut as a duo, The Pleasure Is Yours, is easily one of my favorite albums of the year so far (they’re also a fantastic interview). Their fusion of jazz, soul, and hip-hop is entrancing and warm enough coming through my headphone speakers, but they’ll be spending most of April touring the United States and all of August touring the United Kingdom. Having seen the two of them open for Earl Sweatshirt on his last tour, you need this sultry funkadelic live show in your life. The tour’s already started in Houston and Miami, but there are plenty opportunities to catch them here and across the pond from now until the end of the summer. –Dylan Green
Big Culture & Arts Festival
For our readers in Florida (and those who can reasonably get to Florida within the next day or two), you have the chance to see one of the coolest festival lineups happening anywhere this year. Big Culture and Arts Festival is happening in Gainesville this coming weekend, from Friday, April 10 to Sunday, April 12. 136 musical acts across genres, from Earl Sweatshirt and Alchemist to Cleo Reed and Suzi Analog and everyone in between, will be heating up the stages alongside some of the finest artists, vendors, and exhibitors from around the world. Big is a community-driven DIY music festival whose ideals line up neatly with those of Hearing Things, and I can’t recommend it enough. Get tickets here. I also interviewed the festival’s co-founder, Laila Fakhoury, on my Reel Notes podcast, which you can check out here, here, or here to take in the festival’s history. –Dylan Green
By Storm
There was a period of time where I didn’t miss a single show By Storm, formerly known as Injury Reserve, played in the New York area. As life’s progressed, I’ve had to sit out a handful, but few acts are capable of taking the electricity of their albums and transmitting it in rawer more potent ways live than RiTchie with A T and Parker Corey do. Their debut under their new name, My Ghosts Go Ghost, is a singular take on experimental hip-hop, and having already seen them play some of the songs at a roller rink in Brooklyn earlier this year, anyone who attends their upcoming U.S. tour is in for a treat. European readers in Brussels, Copenhagen, Germany, Prague, Budapest, and Spain—you have a few weeks to catch them on the road before they come home. –Dylan Green
By Storm’s upcoming tour dates
Armand Hammer
The first time I ever saw billy woods and Elucid live was as part of Uncommon Nasa’s Yule Prog festival over a decade ago. Seeing them play to bigger and bigger crowds in larger and larger venues has been one of the biggest pleasures in my career as a music journalist, and they’re gearing up for one of their biggest tours yet through the United States, first for a handful of dates in the spring before a larger trek through the East coast, Midwest, and West coast this fall. Between woods’s last album Golliwog, Elucid’s recent Sebb Bash-produced album I Guess U Had To Be There, and their latest Alchemist-produced Armand Hammer record Mercy, there’s plenty of reasons for you to check out two artists at the vanguard of independent rap. –Dylan Green
Armand Hammer’s upcoming tour dates
Paul Simon
Paul Simon’s retirement tour ended with a big concert on September 22, 2018 in his native Queens at Flushing Meadows Corona Park. I remember this date well because it was a few days after my 30th birthday, which I celebrated in Paris and then with a small gathering in Brooklyn that night. Skipping the show made sense—jetlag plus crowds? please kill me—but over the years I’ve come to regret it. I’ve seen almost every living legend on my bucket list otherwise. Thankfully, the 84-year-old Simon regained some of his hearing and started performing live again last year. He’ll zig-zag across America in June and July with a two-act “intimate” show: a full-length performance of his calming 2023 album Seven Psalms, followed by a career-spanning set. I’ve already made arrangements to be blissed out on a picnic blanket when he plays Tanglewood in the Berkshires. –Jill Mapes
Paul Simon’s upcoming tour dates
Water From Your Eyes on a boat
More gig remorse: I’ve never made it to Water From Your Eyes’ annual boat show, wherein the NYC experimental-pop duo and their musical pals perform aboard the Liberty Belle while cruising the East River. I’ll be rectifying that this summer. The voyage sets sail August 5 with legends Deerhoof in tow, though I’m sad to say it’s sold out. WFYE will spend the summer opening for Hayley Williams (with smaller headlining gigs scattered in), and they say the cruise will be their last New York show in a while. See you there, I’ll be the one with the barf bag and the Diet Coke. –Jill Mapes
Water From Your Eyes’ upcoming tour dates
Gelli Haha
Gelli World—the immersive universe of Los Angeleno musician Gelli Haha—is described officially as “somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51.” I’ve written and podcasted positively about Haha’s 2025 album Switcheroo, but each time I’ve come to the conclusion that this new-gen electroclash is best experienced live, where its silliness can shine. I’m left without a piece of Haha’s wacky puzzle, which I’ve supplemented through live clips (like this recent KCRW session). However: Haha and her band of merry weirdos are out on a headlining tour across North America this spring and early summer, so now everyone can experience their primary-color parachute explosion of trampoline choreo and clown props. –Jill Mapes
Gelli Haha’s upcoming tour dates
Lip Critic
Tonight, I am going to see the digital hardcore band Lip Critic perform inside a boxing ring. While this bizarre and delightful experience won’t be replicated on Lip Critic’s upcoming tour, I have faith those shows will be just as sonically pummelling. Why? Because the New York group’s upcoming album Theft World goes so astoundingly hard, you may need to cower in the corner from overstimulation. –Jill Mapes
Lip Critic’s upcoming tour dates
The Breeders
Ever since they reunited in 2013 for the Last Splash 20th anniversary, The Breeders always seem to be touring. This, of course, is good news. The Deal twins’ group, with the OG lineup, remains one of my favorite rock bands to see live, thanks to their high energy and easy chemistry. Catch them live all summer long (including opening for My Chemical Romance?!), but be warned: the last Breeders show I attended, some IPA bros behind me would not shut up. –Jill Mapes
