André 3000 shares “New Blue Sun Live” tour dates

André 3000 has announced his first tour behind his 2023 flute album New Blue Sun. Like the record, the shows are scheduled for just a few days after their announcement, kicking off at Brooklyn, New York’s Crown Hill Theatre on Monday, January 29. André and his backing band of Carlos Niño, Nate Mercereau, Surya Botofasina, and Deantoni Parks — all of whom contributed to the album — will then zig-zag from coast to coast for the next two months, finally landing at Los Angeles’ Masonic Lodge for a five-night residency in early March.

New Blue Sun dropped in mid November, just three days after André shared the news of its impending release. Along with the band he’ll be taking on tour with him this week, André had help from Diego Gaeta, Jesse Peterson, Matthewdavid, Mia Doi Todd, and V.C.R to bring the project to fruition. Despite André’s elite status as an MC, the album is purely instrumental — partly a function of his feeling that releasing a rap album at this point in his life would have felt “inauthentic.”

Despite the record’s lack of bars, it still managed to outsell most major rap albums the week of its release, debuting at number 30 on the Billboard 200 chart. Its 12-minute opening track, “I swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time,” entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 90, making it the longest song to ever appear on the chart.

See André 3000’s full “New Blue Sun Live” touring schedule below.