20 Touring Bands You Need To See This Summer

JEFF the Brotherhood
Emily Quirk
Emily Quirk

Every year, people stare out the window at the improving weather and tell themselves, “I’m gonna go to a million concerts this summer." And then they sit back down on the couch and keep skipping songs on their phone into fall. This year, we’ve made it even easier to stop shucking that vow to have a kickass summer and pulled together bands on tour across the US that you cannot miss when they roll into your town. Plug in your headphones, folks.

Alabama Shakes
Brantley Gutierrez

Alabama Shakes

Coming to you from: Athens, AL
Stick this in your ear: "Don't Wanna Fight"
Alabama Shakes’ songs sound like closing the bar at the end of the best night ever. Brittany Howard is a true blue rocker who’s got a voice busting with talent and good ear feels -- something you may well already know from their 2012 hit "Hold On." Their latest album, Sound & Color dropped in April, bringing the same rock goodness you jammed out to, plus some new experimental sounds that show just how far Howard's vocal talents can stretch. Grab a cold one and kick back at one of their concerts showcasing the new material, then thank us later when you have a new album to blast driving to work or the beach all summer long.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Twin Peaks
Pooneh Ghana

Twin Peaks

Coming to you from: Chicago, IL
Stick this in your ear: "I Found A New Way"
Some bands can take you back to being a teenager in the summer -- in the good way of course, not the “getting sweaty palms during summer driving school” sort of way. Anyway, Twin Peaks is definitely bringing back the former feeling, with songs like “I Found A New Way.”
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Joywave
David O'Donahue

Joywave

Coming to you from: Rochester, NY
Stick this in your ear: "Somebody New"
Joywave’s latest album is titled How Do You Feel Now -- the answer to which, after a few tracks, could only be “GREAT” or “Don’t ask me anything right now, I’m trying to listen to this thing." The electronic sounding indie band has been making the rounds on a whole host of late night shows, and now it’s making the rounds of the States promoting their new tunes.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Haim
Courtesy of HAIM

Haim

Coming to you from: Los Angeles, CA
Stick this in your ear: "The Wire"
HAIM is a band made up of one camera-shy drummer and three sisters who were totally the coolest girls you simultaneously admired and crushed on in high school. Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim deliver a soft rock sound from the ’70s that you would have to be certifiably insane not to love. They don’t cotton to the comparison, but if you’re a fan of Fleetwood Mac, you’re going to settle really easily into HAIM’s tunes. Days Are Gone is still their only studio album, but since their second album is currently being recorded, this tour may be your chance to hear some of their new material.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Tuxedo
Piper Ferguson

Tuxedo

Coming to you from: Los Angeles, CA
Stick this in your ear: "Do It"
Funk is having a bit of a revival right now -- thanks Bruno -- and if you’re still craving the sound but maybe not specifically “Uptown Funk” for the gazillionth time this summer, check out this funk duo of Mayer Hawthorne and Jake One. To quote their latest single… “do it."
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Twin Sister
Tan Camera/Kimi Selfridge

Mr Twin Sister

Coming to you from: Long Island, NY
Stick this in your ear: "Blush"
Sometimes summer is about going hard, blasting powerful party beats, and just plain rocking out. And sometimes there's a place for smooth, mellow tracks like those of Mr Twin Sister. Andrea Estella leads on vocals with something so chill and airy, you just want to sink into it at an outdoor concert. Mr Twin Sister is the new name of the band-formerly-known-as-Twin Sister, and their self-titled album dropped last year introducing the new moniker. However, the band is not resting on that still fresh music -- they just dropped a new track to accompany their summer tour.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Bully
Daniel Topete

Bully

Coming to you from: Nashville, TN
Stick this in your ear: "Milkman"
Bully plays music that sounds like grunge’s younger sibling, with the same good gritty sound that brings to mind songs like “Malibu” by Hole. They’ve been crushing it this year, and music blogs are singing their praises in a mighty chorus -- so this might be a good time to jump on seeing them before they really blow up.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

BØRNS
Nick Walker

BØRNS

Coming to you from: Los Angeles, CA
Stick this in your ear: "Electric Love"
If you’ve been longing to fill the mellow, poppy space that MGMT left behind, here’s the source of that upbeat “Candy” song you might have heard playing… seemingly everywhere lately. It’s Michigan-børn BØRNS, whose debut EP dropped in late 2014, and whose dreamy songs translate into trippy concerts, like the one in Culver City where BØRNS M&Ms were distributed among the audience in prescription pill bottles -- and that was just the start of the spectacle, making BØRNS the new act you can't miss this summer.
Here’s where and when you can catch him.

The War on Drugs
Cara Robbins

The War on Drugs

Coming to you from: Philadelphia, PA
Stick this in your ear: "Red Eyes"
After a pretty dark life period for vocalist Adam Granduciel, The War on Drugs’ new album has critics throwing down glowing reviews, and this summer you can throw off the gloom of winter and get Lost in the Dream with them -- their latest album that plays with a quality to step to 2011's Slave Ambient and isn't something to miss live.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Betty Who
Shane McCauley

Betty Who

Coming to you from: New York, NY
Stick this in your ear: "All Of You"
Betty Who came out with “Somebody Loves You” in 2013 and the dance party has been going kind of ever since. Now instead of smacking innocent coworkers (sorry Steve) in the face during one of your killer impromptu dance routines when that song comes on, you can catch Betty Who keeping the pop hits coming off her debut studio album Take Me When You Go while on tour this summer, and spare an innocent.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Milky Chance
Courtesy of Lichtdicht Records

Milky Chance

Coming to you from: Kassel, Germany
Stick this in your ear: "Flashed Junk Mind"
Germany is a pretty okay place to go for music. You got your class acts like Beethoven and Handel -- and then you got your cool acts like Kassel’s Milky Chance, a folk group that mixes reggae and electronic music. You’ll have to decide for yourself how they measure up to good ol’ Ludwig, and since they’re coming to North America this summer, now’s your chance.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Jeff the Brotherhood
Pooneh Ghana

Jeff the Brotherhood

Coming to you from: Nashville, TN
Stick this in your ear: "Black Cherry Pie"
“Black Cherry Pie” is the ultimate “jump in the car and hit the open road” sort of song, but since gas is kind of expensive and you already used up a lot of your vacation days, you can catch Jeff the Brotherhood performing it live, close your eyes, and pretend. JTB recently dropped their eighth (!!) album, after a small degree of label drama, and if the flute (again, !!) in "Black Cherry Pie" is any indication, they took the big money that backed this album and put it to good use.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Merchandise
Aldo Paldaldo

Merchandise

Coming to you from: Tampa, FL
Stick this in your ear: "Green Lady"
Merchandise is a band that claims to be fighting against “the easy categorization reserved for abbreviated biographies” but since this is such a biography, let’s just stick them firmly under “punk” and say if you have a predilection for The Cure, you’ll find yourself bopping along to songs like "Green Lady."
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

White Reaper
Michael Powel

White Reaper

Coming to you from: Louisville, KY
Stick this in your ear: "Make Me Wanna Die"
Punk has been a lot of things lately -- dead, on display in the Met, but most pertinently, hanging out in Louisville under the name of White Reaper, churning out energetic songs that make you want to jump up and maybe throw yourself into a crowd of other people jumping up. And lucky you -- this summer you can.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Lord Huron
Josh Sanseri

Lord Huron

Coming to you from: Los Angeles, CA
Stick this in your ear: "Fool For Love"
This LA-based band’s roots are in Michigan, and if their name wasn’t a dead giveaway, the gentle folk influence in their music will be. And if campfires around Lake Huron aren’t in your immediate future plans, a cool concert happily can be -- they rolled out Strange Trails in April, and you're going to want to hike every one of them with Lord Huron.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

The Shadowboxers
Andrew Thomas Lee

The Shadowboxers

Coming to you from: Atlanta, GA
Stick this in your ear: "Sidewalk"
A little rock, a little bit of Justin Timberlake R&B, a lot of harmony and rhythm -- the Shadowboxers lay down amazing cover songs from Frank Ocean to Paul McCartney, as well as their own original music like "Sidewalk," which is probably going to be stuck in your head after one listen. Good thing most doctors agree an earworm can be easily cured by live music.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Trails and Ways
David Wallace

Trails and Ways

Coming to you from: Oakland, CA
Stick this in your ear: "Terezinha"
Trails and Ways’ music was born at UC Berkley, travelled the world to Brazil and Spain, and then got its act together in Oakland, bringing forth a unique rock-meets-pop-meets-something that maybe there’s only a word for in Portuguese, and now they’re picking up their traveling ways again to bring it across the country with their new album Pathology so they can bring international summer your way if you're staying stateside.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Ryn Weaver
Courtesy of Ryn Weaver

Ryn Weaver

Coming to you from: Los Angeles, CA
Stick this in your ear: "Octahate"
Coming out of the internet’s deep and mysterious abyss, Ryn Weaver burst onto the scene with the addictive, steady pop beat of “OctaHate” in 2014 and is riding the momentum through on tour this summer.  
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Purity Ring
Renata Rakasha

Purity Ring

Coming to you from: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Stick this in your ear: "begin again"
Stop acting like you don’t secretly bump “begin again” as loud as humanly possible in your car when it comes on -- this electronic Canadian group is descending from the frozen north to bring their hyper addictive music off of their newest album Another Eternity to the US this summer, and now you can stop pretending you’re not at work frantically buying tickets right now.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.

Rae Sremmurd
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevincortopassi/16296723628/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kevin Cortopassi/Flickr</a>

Rae Sremmurd

Coming to you from: Tupelo, MS
Stick this in your ear: "No Type"
20th-century Tupelo gave us The King of Rock ‘N Roll, 21st-century Tupelo has made good on its reputation and delivered the Kings of the Summer Anthem, Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd. Their debut album, Sremmlife dropped this past January, collecting their big singles like "Throw Sum Mo" and "No Flex Zone," and bringing all new songs to the public. The time has come to stop bumping "No Type" in your car or at parties, and party with the duo live.
Here’s where and when you can catch them.