In this guide
Some bands you discover. Greta Van Fleet felt more like a band that showed up at your door with a stack of your dad's records and asked to come in. This week they're knocking again: a new album, Palace for the People, lands Friday, October 9, and they've just announced a 59-city tour for 2027. Here's what's coming, and a closer look at the part of their sound I think gets overlooked.
The album and the tour, in plain facts
Palace for the People is the Michigan band's fourth studio album and the follow-up to 2023's Starcatcher. It's out on Republic Records, co-produced by the band and Mike Elizondo, and it was recorded in Tennessee this spring. The title comes from London's Alexandra Palace, the Victorian venue originally called "The Palace of the People," which the band headlined in 2022 (Louder, uDiscover Music). "Saw You Stand" and "Play Your Games" are already out if you want a preview.
Then there's the road. The "Into the Beginning" tour is a 59-city headline run across North America and Europe, from February 3 to July 31, 2027. It opens in Savannah and wraps in Grand Rapids, with stops including Nashville, Chicago, Brooklyn, Fort Worth, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix and Anaheim. Support on select North American dates includes The Kooks, Portugal. The Man and Arc De Soleil. The North American fan presale is Tuesday, October 13 at 9am local time, and the general on-sale is Thursday, October 15 at 10am local (Live Nation). Set an alarm. I've lost enough on-sales to a slow refresh to know better.
Don't sleep on the keys
When people talk about this band, they talk about Jake's Les Pauls and Josh's voice. Fair. But a lot of the size of the Greta Van Fleet sound comes from Sam Kiszka, who covers bass and keys. In Premier Guitar's 2021 Rig Rundown, his keyboard setup included a Nord Stage 3, a Mellotron M4000D, Hammond XPK-200GL bass pedals and a Leslie 122 rotary speaker. That's a player who wants real organ swirl and vintage textures on stage without hauling a museum's worth of gear from city to city. (That rundown is from a few years back, so don't assume the 2027 rig will look the same.)
This is the bit that hits home for me. Back in Minneapolis, my emo-band years were all distortion and no subtlety. Our keyboard player had a cheap synth that made every patch sound like a ringtone. The first time I heard a real drawbar organ pushed through a rotary effect in a rock mix, I realized how much I'd been missing. It's the glue in a lot of '70s-flavored rock, and it's a big part of why these songs feel so wide.
Building a rock rig inspired by that sound
To be clear, this isn't "buy exactly what the band uses." It's what I'd look at if that heavy, organ-laced classic rock sound is the one in your head.
- A do-it-all stage board: The Nord Stage 4 88-Key is the current generation of the Stage line. It packs piano, organ and synth engines in one board. The organ section models B3 tonewheel, B3 Bass, Vox and Farfisa, and you get three synth layers from the Wave 2 engine. The 88-key, fully weighted triple-sensor keybed covers you if piano parts matter as much as organ.
- A lighter, organ-first option: The Nord Electro 6D 73 has physical drawbars and a semi-weighted waterfall keybed built for fast organ playing. It also has three sound sections (Organ, Piano and Sample Synth) you can layer or split, and it weighs about 20 pounds. It's the gig-bag-and-go choice.
- Guitar tone that leans British: The BOSS Katana Artist Gen 3 is a 100-watt combo with a custom 12-inch Waza speaker voiced for classic British stack tone. It has six amp characters, including the new Pushed type. It won't turn you into a stack of vintage Marshalls, but for clubs and rehearsal rooms it gets you a long way toward that cranked-amp feel.
One practical tip: if you're adding keys to a guitar band, give them their own space in the mix. Pull the organ's low end back so it doesn't fight the bass. Let the guitar and organ trade the midrange instead of stacking on top of each other. That's where the "big room" feel comes from.
Where I land
Love them or roll your eyes at the comparisons, Greta Van Fleet keeps getting people excited about guitars, organs and loud rooms. I'm all for that. Spin Palace for the People on Friday, grab tickets on the 15th if they're coming near you, and if the keys or guitar tones get you itching to play, the Nord and BOSS gear above is a solid place to start. We ship from California with next-day delivery across the continental US, so you could have it before the record's had its second spin.
James Albert is one of Frontrow's editorial voices, a character our team writes as to bring a rock and metal perspective to the gear news we cover.
