The Aristocrats Plot 2025 North American Duck Tour

12-03-2024

(HGM) After a wildly successful romp across North America in 2024, the world's most raucous rock/fusion instrumental trio is set to return to the United States in Spring of 2025. The Aristocrats - Guthrie Govan/guitar, Bryan Beller/bass, Marco Minnemann/drums - will bring their trademark musical virtuosity and inherent absurdity back to stages across North America, where they'll be playing a sizable chunk of their new concept album DUCK as well as classic cuts from their five-album catalogue. The tour will take the band to some favorite places missed on the first leg, as well as some brand new cities in Aristocrats touring history. The dates kick off with the band's debut on the high seas: the "Cruise To The Edge" progressive rock music cruise.

"We had a blast on the Duck tour across North America in 2024," the band said in a unified voice, "but sometimes you just can't get to everywhere you need to be in only eight weeks. So we're going to make sure we bring the DUCK show to everywhere we can in the States with these additional shows. Plus, we're incredibly excited to do "Cruise To The Edge" for the very first time! It's fitting that the DUCK tour sees some water, don't you think?"

DUCK is, quite improbably, an instrumental concept album about an Antarctic duck fleeing a penguin policeman all the way to New York City, where further misadventures and danger await. It was met with rave reviews upon its February, 2024 release. The Progressive Aspect said DUCK was "a humdinger of an album, easy to absorb and highly listenable, yet fiendishly complex, and probably The Aristocrats' best to date." Sea Of Tranquility added, "[DUCK] is hard-hitting, intricate, but most importantly an absolute blast to listen to." Metal Injection declared, "One of the Earth's mightiest virtuoso trios has returned to make you feel terrible about your musical abilities...just an all around fun ride." DUCK is available in both standard and deluxe edition formats as well as 180-gram double vinyl via BOING Music, distributed via Hostile City Distro/MVD in North America, and is available on all streaming services.

Over the past 12 years, The Aristocrats - guitarist Guthrie Govan (Steven Wilson, Hans Zimmer, Asia/GPS), bassist Bryan Beller (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dethklok), and drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, Joe Satriani, Steve Hackett) - have established themselves as one of the most musically original, refreshingly irreverent, and astoundingly entertaining instrumental rock-fusion acts on the planet. Global media have gushed with the UK's Rhythm Magazine declaring them "More fun than fusion has a right to be..." and The San Diego Union Tribune avowing, "If there is a more accomplished, empathetic and versatile all-instrumental trio in rock than The Aristocrats, I've yet to hear them..."

The buzz from their supposedly one-off debut gig at the Anaheim NAMM show in 2011 led to The Aristocrats' self-titled debut album. Tracked in just eight days, THE ARISTOCRATS (2011) was hailed as an instant classic in leading music publications worldwide, appearing on many of that year's top ten lists. The Aristocrats then proceeded to make four more critically acclaimed studio albums over the next decade-plus, two of which landed in the Billboard Top 10 Jazz Chart. (Jazz? Ok, sure.) Four world tours and three live albums later, the band is known on five continents as a must-see whirlwind musical experience.

The Aristocrats U.S.A. 2025 DUCK tour:

APRIL
4-9 Miami, FL CRUISE TO THE EDGE
11 Orlando, FL The Abbey
13 Charleston, SC Music Farm
14 Athens, GA 40 Watt
15 Nashville, TN City Winery
17 Alexandria, VA Birchmere
18 Amityville, NY Amityville Music Hall
19 Fairfield, CT The Warehouse
22 Red Bank, NJ The Vogel
23 Homer, NY Homer PAC
25 Pittsburgh, PA Jergels
26 Cincinnati, OH Ludlow Garage
27 Detroit, MI Magic Bag
29 Columbus, OH Skully's
30 Indianapolis, IN Hi-Fi
MAY
1 Milwaukee, WI Vivarium
3 St. Paul, MN Amsterdam Music Hall
4 Omaha, NE Slowdown
6 Boulder, CO Fox Theatre
7 Fort Collins, CO The Aggie