STS20

FOLKS, an announcement! Greater detail in the above video, plus a performance, BUT I wanted to let you know that TOMORROW, Tuesday, Feb. 13, we will be announcing some tour dates: full band, playing Shake the Sheets in its entirety (plus more, obviously).  Now, this is where it gets a little complicated, though - the ANNOUNCEMENT is Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 12 PM HIGH NOON EST; there is a PRESALE that runs from WEDNESDAY, Feb. 14, at 10 AM to Thursday at 10 PM YOUR LOCAL TIME, then tickets go on sale publicly on FRIDAY, Feb. 16, at 10 AM LOCAL TIME, but who cares - this is why I wanted to give you the jump on the presale. So any time BETWEEN Wed & Friday, you can go to the venues' websites or tedleo.com/tour (where all the direct ticket links are), and grab however many, by using the "artist's presale code," STS20, as in the title of this post. I'm going to be announcing this presale code with the dates announcement, too, but I wanted you to at least hear it from me here first. Very VERY excited to be doing the east coast with Ekko Astral, who I don't mind telling you, have an album coming out between now and then that is one of the greatest things I've heard in YEARS. I think they're a beautiful, heavy, punk, and dare I say, important band, and I'm honored that they're joining us for that leg.  You also may have heard me wax on about Diners recently, because they put out a record LAST year that I absolutely loved, and that features two of the greatest power pop songs that I've heard, yes, I'm gonna say it... IN YEARS.  Thrilled to have them join us, as well.

Here are the tour dates:

JUNE 19     ASBURY PARK, NJ at The Stone Pony w/EKKO ASTRAL

JUNE 20    WASHINGTON, DC at the 9:30 Club w/EKKO ASTRAL

JUNE 21     PHILADELPHIA, PA at Union Transfer w/EKKO ASTRAL

JUNE 22    BOSTON, MA at The Paradise w/EKKO ASTRAL

JUNE 23    BROOKLYN, NY at Warsaw w/EKKO ASTRAL

AUG 30      PORTLAND, OR at Revolution Hall w/DINERS

SEPT 13      MINNEAPOLIS, MN at the Fine Line

SEPT 14      CHICAGO, IL at The Metro

NOV 15       SAN FRANCISCO, CA at The Fillmore w/DINERS

NOV 16       LOS ANGELES, CA at The Belasco w/DINERS

NOW, you may be saying... that's not a lot of dates, Ted (if you're talking to your screen), and you're not wrong, but it's what we can manage right now at this point in all our lives. Most of the problem is me, because, to spill some more tea to the Patreon, I have a three-year-old now and I just can't be away that much, but everyone in the band is in a place, doing other things, making other things, working at other things, to a degree that makes it tough for us to tour like we used to*; but for me (and for all of us, I think - and I hope you'll agree if you saw the week we did in the northeast last September) that much more joyful when we CAN get together and make it happen.  There may be some festival dates that will get added to this list, and they'll get announced on their schedules, and it's entirely possible that a small handful of other things might crop up, including solo shows and an end-of-year holiday variety show tour with Aimee Mann on the East Coast this year, but for now, we're psyched to be able to do this series of shows, and i hope the presale thing works out for everyone!

*and when we talk about how we "used to" tour, please remember that for a long time, including the time period Shake The Sheets first landed and was toured on, we toured EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME, so... like... I know that St. Louis, Chattanooga, Houston, Denver, Winnipeg, Santa Fe, etc. exist - I've been there, and I've loved being there, and I dearly hope I'll be there again, just not on this go-around.  Now I'm thinking about all of the many many places we've played over the years and haven't be able to get back to in a long time.  Maybe a fun thing to do for some writing posts would be ask you to ask me about a town, yours or not.  Maybe I have memories of it that are worth relaying! Drop a comment on this one if you're curious about any of that!

Anyway, Presale: Wed, Feb. 14, 10 AM YOUR LOCAL TIME

Ticket links at tedleo.com/tour

code: STS20

Seems like this post is already too big, so I'll add another with something to download.