Our new series Touring Radar takes a look at newly announced upcoming live tours that caught our attention, not because they're headline grabbers but because they say something interesting about where live music is and where it's heading.
Whether it's long-awaited returns, unexpected genre pivots, or ambitious residencies, we're tracking who's on the move, and what's moving audiences.
These are six tour announcements that we're excited about.
1. Mike D Steps Into His Own Spotlight
For decades, Mike D has been inseparable from the Beastie Boys. That's what makes his newly expanded solo tour so compelling. Rather than treating it as a one-off project, he's continuing to add North American and European dates, suggesting there's genuine appetite to see one-third of one of hip-hop's most influential groups on his own terms. For longtime fans, it's another chapter in a legendary career. For the live industry, it's a reminder that legacy artists don't always need reunions to fill rooms — they can build excitement around entirely new creative identities.
2. Rebecca Black's Reinvention Keeps Growing
Few artists have rewritten their public narrative as successfully as Rebecca Black. Fifteen years after becoming synonymous with one of the internet's earliest viral sensations, she's quietly built a respected career in experimental pop and electronic music. But her latest North American headline tour is not riding nostalgia at all — it's capitalizing on years of steady artistic evolution. It's one of the more remarkable reinvention stories in modern touring.
3. Phoebe Bridgers Turns a Live Moment Into a New Chapter
Rather than simply announcing another run of dates, Phoebe Bridgers used the momentum of a high-profile Madison Square Garden performance and the debut of new material to launch the next phase of her touring calendar. It's an increasingly common strategy among major artists: let the live show generate excitement first, then immediately convert that attention into ticket sales.
4. Sienna Spiro Makes the Leap From Buzz to Box Office
Every year there are a handful of artists who make the transition from streaming playlists to real-world ticket pushers. Sienna Spiro's debut album tour feels like one of those moments. Headlining a first major run is always a milestone because it asks a different question than streaming success: will listeners actually leave the house? Touring remains one of the clearest indicators that an emerging artist is building a genuine audience.
5. Jack White Keeps Choosing the Long Road
Some artists disappear between album cycles. Jack White has built a reputation for doing the opposite. His latest round of tour dates continues a career defined by relentless live performance, whether that's intimate club shows or larger theater stops. At a time when many artists treat touring as a campaign surrounding an album release, White continues to treat it as an ongoing creative practice — a philosophy that's become increasingly rare.
6. Tricky Returns With Something to Say
Legacy tours often lean heavily on nostalgia, but Tricky's latest North American run stands apart because it arrives alongside new music. More than three decades after helping define trip-hop, he's returning not simply to revisit the past, but to continue an evolving artistic career. It's a reminder that longevity doesn't have to mean becoming a heritage act; for some artists, touring remains a platform for continued experimentation.
The One We'll Be Watching: Rebecca Black
Every Touring Radar could end with one artist who represents a larger industry shift.
This week, that's Rebecca Black.
People will always associate Black with where she started, but how she got to where she's at now will always be the more interesting story. Black transformed internet notoriety — and a narrative that wasn't entirely her own to shape originally — into artistic credibility over the course of more than a decade. This latest headline run suggests audiences are responding to who she is now, and rallying behind the feminist figure she's come to represent. It's one of the clearest examples of reinvention translating into a sustainable live career, and becoming a role model.
