In this guide
I've got a soft spot for tours that put two generations of guitar weirdos on one bill. So when Queens of the Stone Age announced a spring 2027 US arena run with Pixies, I cleared a spot on my calendar before I'd even finished reading the date list. General tickets go on sale today, Thursday, Oct. 29, at 10 a.m. local time, and four of the first five shows are right here in California.
The dates, and the ones that matter out West
The 16-date US leg runs from May 1 in San Diego to May 24 at TD Garden in Boston, with Pixies and Wheelchair Sports Camp opening every US show, per SeatGeek's tour rundown. It kicks off with a California swing:
- May 1: San Diego, Viejas Arena
- May 2: Inglewood, Kia Forum
- May 4: Oakland, Oakland Arena
- May 5: Sacramento, Golden 1 Center
From there it heads up to Seattle and Portland, then through Salt Lake City and Red Rocks before cutting across the Midwest and finishing in Boston, according to Live in Limbo's full listing.
The one I keep staring at is May 14 at Grand Casino Arena in Saint Paul. I grew up in Minneapolis, and my teenage concert diet was mostly sweaty all-ages punk and emo shows where the PA was two speakers on sticks and a prayer. Seeing a band this heavy and this groovy in a real arena back home sounds about right for where my taste ended up.
How to get tickets today
The two artist presales ran Tuesday and Wednesday for fans who registered by Oct. 25. Everyone else gets their shot this morning:
- General on-sale: Thursday, Oct. 29, at 10 a.m. local time through Ticketmaster.
- Remember "local time": 10 a.m. Pacific for the California shows, 10 a.m. Central for Saint Paul, and so on. If you're shopping for a show in another time zone, set your alarm accordingly.
Log in a few minutes early, make sure your payment info is saved, and pick your date and price range before the queue opens. If the first round sells through, check back over the next few days as held seats get released.
The tour backs the band's new album, Perfecth, out tomorrow, Oct. 30, on Matador. "Easy Street," "Insignificant Other" and "Where the Goth Girls At?" are already out. So by the time May rolls around, you'll have had six months to learn the new songs.
Practicing for the pit: a riff-friendly rig
I'm not going to tell you what's on Josh Homme's pedalboard. I don't know, and gear guessing is how internet arguments start. What I can tell you is what I'd look at if I wanted to chase a dry, heavy, slightly off-kilter riff sound at home.
Something to make the low end weird. Octave tones are a cheat code for making one guitar sound like a wall. The BOSS OC-5 Octave has a Vintage mode that recreates the mono sound of the 1982 OC-2, and a Poly mode built for chords, with a Lowest setting that applies the octave to only the bottom note. Add the new octave-up feature and you're working across three octaves. Stack it in front of a dirty amp sound and you'll lose an afternoon.
If you want to go further. The BOSS XS-100 Poly Shifter is the deep end of pitch shifting: an onboard pedal that glides up or down four full octaves, fixed settings for drop tunings and capo effects, a detune function for thick doubling, and 30 memories for your setups. It's handy if the new songs send you into a lower tuning.
A whole rig on the floor. No amp handy? The Zoom G6 chains up to seven effects plus amp modeling at once, with 70 preloaded IRs. It also has a looper that records up to two hours to an SD card, 68 rhythm patterns to jam along to, and USB recording straight into your computer. Loop a riff, play over it, repeat until your neighbors complain.
For demoing your own Perfecth-inspired riffs. When you're ready to record, the Universal Audio Apollo Twin X DUO Gen 2 is a desktop interface with two Unison mic preamps and DUO Core DSP. That means you can record in real time through UAD plug-ins, including emulations of Fender and other classic gear. It connects over Thunderbolt 3 and works with Windows and macOS.
See you in the pit
Set an alarm for 10 a.m., decide which city you're actually going to, and don't get greedy in the queue. If you want to work up some riffs before May, everything above is linked and ships from California, with next-day delivery in the continental US. If I make it to Saint Paul, I'll be the guy near the soundboard, quietly mouthing every Pixies lyric.
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.
