Dying Van Gogh Records has confirmed that Ed Hale and band will tour as promised in support of his latest Ballad On Third Avenue solo album. Starting on July 23rd 2010 in San Diego and ending in Vancouver, British Colombia five weeks later, the band will also perform shows in Los Angeles, Fresno, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Eureka, Eugene, Portland, Bend, Tacoma, Spokane, and Seattle. Four of the concerts will be at the International Pop Overthrow festival series: Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.
The concerts will feature at least the same five piece lineup Hale has been performing with over the last six months since the new solo album’s release: Hale, seated as he’s been for all of the dates supporting the new album, on acoustic guitar and vocals; accompanied by piano, keyboards, cello, and bass guitar. Drums may or may not find a place on stage with the band this time out. “The last show we did was at the IPO concert in New York and we didn’t have Derek there [drummer], and frankly we all thought it actually sounded better. You could hear more of the subtle intricacies and melodies that all the other more melodic instruments were playing without the pounding of the drums,” Hale commented. “I think it just has to do with the idea of these songs being acoustic, very soft and intimate. We also tend to be able to improvise a lot more without drums… the crowd loves it, it’s trance-like man, and let’s face it, that’s a dream come true for us to be able to just go off like that into these nether worlds of sound whenever we want to and break free from the rhythm completely. We can’t easily do that with drums on board.”
Cities and dates are being posted on ReverbNation.com and on the Ed Hale Page on Facebook so check periodically as more cities are added. No plans yet for Mid West or East Coast have been announced.