Queens of the Stone Age have announced a 16-date US tour for May 2027, with Pixies and Wheelchair Sports Camp joining them on every stop. The run forms the first announced leg of the Perfecth World Tour, supporting the band’s ninth studio album, due on 30 October 2026 via Matador Records.

For alternative-rock fans, the pairing is immediately appealing. Queens of the Stone Age’s heavy, groove-driven sound and Pixies’ famously unpredictable dynamics come from different corners of guitar music, but both have influenced generations of bands who followed.

Two influential bands, one tour

The announced concerts begin at San Diego’s Viejas Arena on 1 May 2027 and conclude at Boston’s TD Garden on 24 May. The itinerary includes the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena and Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

Denver’s Wheelchair Sports Camp will open the shows, adding an experimental, genre-crossing dimension to a bill that already stretches the boundaries of what an arena rock concert can sound like.

At the time of writing, these are US dates, not a confirmed UK tour. A second leg is expected to be announced on 2 November, but British fans will need to wait for an official announcement rather than assume a UK leg is coming.

Perfecth arrives on 30 October

The tour supports Perfecth, Queens of the Stone Age’s first studio album since 2023’s In Times New Roman…. Produced by Josh Homme and bassist Michael Shuman, the nine-song record has been previewed by “Easy Street”, “Insignificant Other” and “Where The Goth Girls At?”.

Homme has spoken about the songs approaching love, relationships and their complications from different directions. That breadth is characteristic of a band whose music has long shifted between desert-rock repetition, restless rhythms and unexpectedly melodic hooks.

The group also performed “Where The Goth Girls At?” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ahead of the tour announcement, giving the new material another high-profile outing.

Why the Pixies pairing matters

Pixies’ influence on alternative rock is difficult to overstate. Their abrupt shifts between quiet tension and explosive guitar noise helped shape the vocabulary of modern indie and rock. Queens of the Stone Age approach intensity differently, often building songs around hypnotic repetition and rhythm, but the shared spirit of experimentation makes this more interesting than a routine support booking. That desert-rock influence is also present in newer British music, as we explored in our review of Demob Happy’s The Grown-Ups Are Talking.

It’s a reminder that guitar music’s past and present do not need to be kept in separate boxes. We made a similar point in our Friday Feature on how the music scene has changed: established artists can still create space for discovery, particularly when they bring less familiar acts onto major stages.

That makes Wheelchair Sports Camp’s inclusion significant too. A large arena audience arriving for two famous guitar bands will also encounter something outside the expected alternative-rock template.

Tickets and the possibility of more dates

General sale for the announced US dates begins 29 October at 10am local time, with artist presale scheduled for 28 October. Registration for that presale closes on 25 October at 11:59pm Eastern Time.

The band have indicated that further tour dates will follow. Until then, there is no basis for listing UK venues or ticket prices. With Perfecth arriving this Friday, there is already plenty for fans to focus on before the next leg is revealed.

Sources: Kerrang! tour announcement; Pollstar tour and ticket details.