Photo credit: Mick Peek

Riding on a crest of overwhelmingly positive reviews of their new single and video “WHERE ARE YOU?”, UK’s legendary post-punk band THE CHAMELEONS have added another leg of U.S. dates to their current tour celebrating their groundbreaking 1986 album Strange Times.

Currently journeying through the western half of the States (they band are playing Denver, Colorado’s Oriental Theater tonight), the Fall leg of the tour will focus on the Midwest and Southeast dates, kicking off Oct. 18th at Chicago’s Bottom Lounge. They will come to DC’s Black Cat on August 17th

Tour dates are:
Jun 11 Salt Lake City UT Urban Lounge
Jun 12 Denver CO Oriental Theater
Jun 13 Kansas City MO recordBar
Jun 14 Dallas TX Sundown at The Granada
Jun 15 Houston TX Dark Ceremony Festival
Jun 17 El Paso TX Lowbrow Palace
Jun 18 Albuquerque NM Launchpad
Jun 19 Tucson AZ 191 Toole
Jun 20 Phoenix AZ Last Exit Live
Aug 8 Philadelphia PA Underground Arts
Aug 9 New Haven CT Space Ballroom
Aug 10 Boston MA The Sinclair
Aug 12 Montreal QC Theatre Fairmount
Aug 13 Toronto ON Opera House
Aug 14 Buffalo NY Town Ballroom
Aug 15 Pittsburgh PA Spirit Hall
Aug 16 New York NY Webster Hall
Aug 17 Washington DC Black Cat

NEW DATES:
Oct 18 Chicago, IL Bottom Lounge
Oct 19 Detroit, MI Smalls
Oct 20 Columbus, OH Skully’s Music Diner
Oct 22 Nashville, TN Eastside Bowl
Oct 23 Birmingham, AL Saturn
Oct 24 Greenville, SC Radio Room
Oct 25 Winston-Salem, NC The Ramkat
Oct 26 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
Oct 27 Tampa, FL The Orpheum
Oct 28 W. Palm Beach, FL Respectable St.
Oct 30 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
Nov 6 Indianapolis, IN Black Circle

Celebrating their 1986 breakthrough album Strange Times, which spawned the singles “Tears” and the alt-rock club staple “Swamp Thing,” The Chameleons have been playing the album in its entirety, something that vocalist/bassist Mark Burgess ever thought he’d do. “I initially wasn’t a huge fan of album performance tours,” he admits. “I believed instead that they ought to have been confined to one-off, special events.” Marking the difference between the highly personal experience of enjoying an album alone with a “good pair of headphones” versus the collective social coming together at a concert, he muses that, in general, the track listing of an album doesn’t take into account a live show’s needs for crest and drama. “Performing Strange Times changed my mind,” he says. “For one thing, the album marked a significant evolution by the band both in its sound and the maturity of the writing. Secondly, it’s a challenging album to perform live and thus, it’s much more fun to play. When all is said and done, we look forward to recreating this particular album for our North American fans!”

Their new single “Where Are You?”, their first new music in over 20 years, has generated lots of excitement on both sides of the Atlantic. The EP landed the band a spot in the Top Five of UK’s Physical Singles chart – a first ever for the band. “It’s exciting to finally be putting out fresh Chameleons material for the first time in over twenty years, although initially I found it quite daunting,” he admits. Released via Metropolis Records in conjunction with Strange Times Entertainment, the EP was called “gorgeously loud post-punk goodness” by The Big Takeover and “as anthemic and hooky as you might expect…  there’s real electricity in the recording” by Brooklyn Vegan.

Long cited as a hugely influential act, having inspired the likes of (The) Verve, Oasis, White Lies, The Slow Readers Club, Interpol, The Killers and Editors, among countless others and known for their transformative musical catalog and intense and emotionally charged live performances, The Chameleons have created a legacy that extends beyond their four studio albums. Following their debut single “In Shreds” in 1982, the band released three seminal albums: the widely acclaimed Script of the Bridge (1983), cited by many sources as a masterpiece way ahead of its time, its follow-up What Does Anything Mean? Basically!’ (1984), Strange Times (1986), and Why Call It Anything? (2001).

The Chameleons are Reg Smithies (guitar), Mark Burgess (bass, vocals, lyrics), Stephen Rice (guitar), Danny Ashberry (keyboards), and Todd Demma (drums). Where Are You? was produced by Christophe Bride and The Chameleons and mastered by Guy Massey. It was released on May 24, 2024, via Metropolis Records in conjunction with Strange Times Entertainment.

About The Author

Dean Rogers

Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter

I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!

My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.

Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.

As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.

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