Credit: Dean ChalkleySimple Minds launched their lengthiest North American tour in decades on Monday in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and frontman Jim Kerr says “no one’s more excited than us” about his band performing in the U.S. and Canada again.
“It’s been way too long since we went coast to coast in America, embarrassingly long,” the Scottish rocker tells ABC Radio. “But hopefully absence makes the heart grow fonder. It certainly has in our case.”
Simple Minds continue to support their latest album, Walk Between Worlds, which was released in February. Kerr says the group is playing a longer show on the new trek than they did on their recent European and U.K. tours.
“The fact that we haven’t been here for a long time, we owe it to be a bit more expansive with the set,” he explains. “[W]e’re having two sets, with a little nice intermission in between for a wee whiskey, and we’ll play a few more songs than we [did] in the U.K.”
He adds that he hopes the concerts will “give a real sense of the journey the band’s been on.”
Kerr notes that fans coming to the shows “will hear the songs they would expect to hear,” while the band also will be including “a couple of surprises.”
One song that will definitely be included in the sets is the group’s 1985 smash, “Don’t You (Forget About Me).”
“Who would’ve thought [that song] would not only mean so much to that generation, but to even subsequent generations, it seems,” Kerr declares. “It lives on its own planet. And we’re more than happy to play it every night, ’cause it means a lot to so many people.”
Simple Minds’ North American tour continues tonight in Red Bank, New Jersey. Here are all of the band’s upcoming dates:
9/26 — Red Bank, NJ, Count Basie Theatre
9/28 — Montreal, QC, Canada, M Telus
9/29 — London, ON, Canada, Budweiser Gardens
9/30 — Toronto, ON, Canada, Sony Centre
10/2 — New York, NY, Beacon Theatre
10/3 — Boston, MA, Orpheum Theatre
10/5 — Upper Darby, PA, Tower Theater
10/6 — Washington, D.C., 930 Club
10/8 — Atlanta, GA, Tabernacle
10/9 — Nashville, TN, Ryman Auditorium
10/11 — Northfield, OH, Hard Rock Rocksino
10/13 — Milwaukee, WI, Pabst Theater
10/14 — Detroit, MI, The Fillmore
10/15 — Chicago, IL, Chicago Theatre
10/18 — Denver, CO, Paramount Theatre
10/20 — Reno, NV, Grand Sierra
10/21 — Las Vegas, NV, Pearl Theater
10/22 — San Diego, CA, Humphreys Concerts by the Bay
10/24 — Los Angeles, CA, Orpheum Theatre
10/25 — San Francisco, CA, Masonic Auditorium
10/27 — Portland, OR, Roseland Theatre
10/28 — Seattle, WA, Moore Theatre
10/29 — Vancouver, BC, Canada, Orpheum
11/2 — Austin, TX, ACL Live
11/3 — Irving, TX, Toyota Music Factory
11/4 — Houston, TX, Revention Music Center
11/6 — New Orleans, LA, Saenger Theatre
11/8 — Miami Beach, FL, The Fillmore – Jackie Gleason Theater
11/9 — St. Petersburg, FL, Mahaffey Theater
11/11 — Orlando, FL, Hard Rock Live
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