Radiohead to tour North American theatres in June

Radiohead will play two nights in each of nine North American cities in June. The rooms are theatres and amphitheatres smaller than the band usually play, with the staging and lighting scaled down to match. The only single night is their headline slot at Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee, on Saturday 17 June.

The setlists will lean on the songs the band have been working on in recent months, for an album that has no title, no record label and no release planned for this year. A band spokesperson told MTV News the dates are a chance to road-test them, and that Radiohead have been making the record with the producer Mark “Spike” Stent since August 2005. They are out of their EMI contract, and Thom Yorke has said they will not sign a new deal until the album is finished.

The last time the band played America they were headlining Coachella in Indio, on 1 May 2004. The June run follows the May shows in Europe and Britain, and MTV says tickets for some of the theatre nights go on sale on Friday 5 May through radiohead.com.

The Black Keys, the duo from Akron, Ohio, open six of the nights, and Deerhoof the six in California. Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys says Obviously, we're blown away⁶, and Billboard reports that Radiohead have been fans of the duo for years, with Jonny Greenwood seen at the side of the stage for their Coachella set in 2004.

The June dates