In this guide
Two big arena rock tours dropped inside a week, and both are coming through California. Nickelback announced its 2027 "Everything Under The Sun" world tour, and Def Leppard announced a 45-date North American run with Goo Goo Dolls and The Struts. General on-sale for both opened yesterday, Friday, October 16. If you got tickets, congratulations. If you didn't, keep reading. Here are the dates, where to look now, and some thoughts on the gear that gets you that big-room sound when your stage is a lot smaller than the Honda Center.
Nickelback: Sacramento and Anaheim in April
Go ahead and make the joke. I made it plenty in 2005, when I was a Minneapolis kid in a too-tight Thursday shirt who thought anything on rock radio was the enemy. Twenty years later I've made peace with it. Nickelback writes big, simple, sticky choruses and plays them in arenas. That's harder than it looks.
According to Blabbermouth, the North American leg starts February 6, 2027 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, with Don Broco as direct support on most dates. The California dates are:
- April 13: Sacramento, Golden 1 Center
- April 18: Anaheim, Honda Center
Tickets are sold through Live Nation. The tour is named after the band's 11th studio album, Everything Under The Sun, which comes out October 30 on Virgin Music Group, so you've got two weeks to learn the new songs. The lead single, "Rattle The Cage," features John 5 on guitar, and Blabbermouth reports it's already No. 1 at U.S. Active Rock radio. My hometown crew gets a March 30 show at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul too, so I may have to fly back for that one.
Def Leppard: Hollywood Bowl, Chase Center and Golden 1 in May
Def Leppard is the other half of this arena rock comeback. Consequence reports 45 shows from March 2 in Allentown, Pennsylvania to July 2 in Indianapolis, with Goo Goo Dolls and The Struts along for the run. The California stops are:
- May 1: Los Angeles, Hollywood Bowl
- May 5: San Francisco, Chase Center
- May 7: Sacramento, Golden 1 Center
Tickets are through Ticketmaster, and $1 from every ticket goes to City of Hope, the cancer research and treatment organization. Sacramento fans get both bands at Golden 1 Center less than a month apart, which is a pretty good spring.
Missed the on-sale?
Don't give up yet. Check Live Nation and Ticketmaster again over the next few days, because seats come back as holds get released. If you go to resale, stick with platforms that guarantee your tickets and compare a few before you buy. And keep an eye on both bands' socials. When demand is strong, second dates have a way of showing up.
What "arena-sized" means for your own rig
Neither band has to worry about filling a room. A local band at a bar or a 300-cap club does, and it's the same goal on a smaller scale. You need guitars that are thick but don't get mushy, and a PA that gets the vocals over the band without turning into a wall of mud. After a lot of years in loud rooms, these are the places I'd start.
An amp head that covers clean to crushing. The BOSS Katana Artist Head Gen 3 is the flagship of the Gen 3 line. It has 100 watts of Class AB power, six amp characters (including the new Pushed type), each with a selectable variation, and five independent effects sections: Booster, Mod, FX, Delay and Reverb. There's also a new Bloom option that changes how the amp feels and responds under your fingers. For a cover band jumping between a clean '80s arpeggio and a drop-tuned 2000s chug in one set, one head that does both saves your back and your setlist. Put it on a 2x12 or 4x12 cab and it'll keep up with a drummer.
A PA that can handle a chorus. Big choruses only land if the room can actually hear the singer. A pair of QSC K12.2 powered speakers gives a small venue or a rehearsal space serious mains: each one has a 2000-watt Class-D amp, factory presets, savable scenes and a digital display for adjusting on the fly. Set your scene once at soundcheck and recall it every gig.
Monitors you can hear yourself in. The same goes for the stage. The QSC K8.2 packs the same 2000-watt amp and scene recall into an 8-inch box that's small enough to work as a floor monitor. When you can hear yourself, you stop oversinging, and your voice lasts the whole set.
Get your tickets, then get your tone
Arena rock in 2027 looks to be loud, catchy and a little cheesy, which is how it should be. If the shows make you want to dust off your own band, the Katana Artist Head and the QSC K.2 speakers linked above are a solid starting point for a rig that sounds bigger than the room. We ship from California, with next-day delivery across the continental US, so your gear can show up long before the tour does.
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.
