Adele belts it out in New York. Photograph: Virginia Sherwood/AP

Adele, Justin Bieber and the 18 other hottest US tours of 2016

This article is more than 8 years old

Dixie Chicks are back on the road for the first time since the controversy that derailed their career, while Adele had 10 million people trying to buy tickets for her shows – but there’s more to the American touring circuit than that

AC/DC

Giant inflatable women? Napoleonic cannons? An animated short depicting guitarist Angus Young as an asteroid? If the US leg of the Dacca’s Rock or Bust tour resembles the European dates, be prepared for all the above. There will be poignancy as well as preposterousness, though. After 43 years, this is the Australians’ first run without founding member Malcolm Young. He retired with dementia last year.

Starts 2 February, Tacoma Dome; finishes 4 April, New York City Madison Square Garden. Details here

Adele

Already the biggest pop star on the planet, 2015 saw Adele become even more stratospheric. First, the Londoner’s third album, 25, became the fastest-selling record ever; then came the announcement of her first US tour in four years. All 750,000 tickets, across 54 dates, sold out in minutes. More than 10 million people tried to buy one. Taylor who?

Starts 5 July, St Paul Xcel Energy Center; finishes 9 November, Houston Toyota Center. Details here

Animal Collective

Psychedelic; sprawling; transcendent. Maryland’s Animal Collective have attracted many adjectives in their 16 years but, with songs regularly weighing in at eight minutes, brief is not one. Until now? Upcoming 10th album Painting With, which this tour supports, has been called “our Ramones record” by guitarist Brian Weitz. “In and out. No long build-ups, no long outros”.

Starts 19 February, Philadelphia Union Transfer; finishes Phoenix McDowell Mountain Music Festival, 11 March. Details here

Courtney Barnett

Described by one Guardian review as a lyricist who can and does “make water marks on the ceiling interesting”, the 25-year-old Melbourne singer-guitarist combines everyday subject material – vegetable shopping, anyone? – with deceptively addictive tunes. On stage, she can seem painfully shy but, with her debut album making many best-of-2015 lists, these three shows promise much.

Starts 26 April, Minneapolis First Avenue; finishes 28 April, Chicago Riviera Theatre. Details here

Beach House

Having spent a decade perusing a singular sound and vision – namely one album of dream-pop administered every two years – Beach House threw a curveball this summer: they dropped two records in five weeks. Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars were, ultimately, stylistically similar to all before – gauzy, sunshiney – but it gives the Baltimore duo plenty of new material to play.

Starts 29 February, Cleveland House of Blues; finishes 18 Marcg, Philadelphia Union Transfer. Details here

Justin Bieber

After two years of arrests, assault charges and one attempt at smuggling a monkey into Germany, the previously clean-cut Canadian seems to be reacquainting himself with The Rails. His November album Purpose showcased a matured sound, while Bieber used a VMA appearance to apologise for past indiscretions. This 58-stop tour should (probably) see the growing up continue.

Starts 9 March, Seattle KeyArena; finishes 18 July, New York City Madison Square Garden. Details here

Big Grams

Fresh from their debut TV performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the unlikely supergroup – Outkast rapper Big Boi with Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter of electronic duo Phantogram – will play a series of festivals. With no guarantee of a follow-up to September’s much-acclaimed self-titled EP, it may be the only chance we get to witness them live.

Starts 29 January, Morrison Red Rock Amphitheatre; finishes 22 May Alabama Hangout Festival. Details here

Dixie Chicks

They’ve won 10 Grammys and sold 30m albums yet the Dallas trio’s legacy remains defined by one onstage comment. Frontwoman Natalie Maines’ 2003 declaration she was ashamed of President George W Bush led to the band being blackballed by country music’s establishment. They stopped releasing material three years later. This will be their first American tour since then. Whether they share their views on Donald Trump remains to be seen.

Starts 1 June, Cincinnati Riverbend Music Center; finishes 10 October, Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl. Details here

Duran Duran

The shoulder pads, white suits and supermodels have (largely) disappeared as Duran Duran have matured from New Romantic playboys into elder statesmen of English pop. Yet hits like Rio and Planet Earth remain almost unreasonably timeless. They’re on the road in support of 14th album Paper Gods but expect the classics – and Simon Le Bon’s sequinned trousers – to be aired.

Starts 25 March, Niagara Falls Avalon Ballroom Theatre; finishes 3 August, Glendale Gila River Arena. Details here

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

While GY!BE have long been considered an acquired taste – acquired mainly by those who like their post-rock with added industrial noise – the Montreal octet’s fifth record, Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, could almost be described as a crossover hit: it reached 129 on the Billboard 200. Don’t be fooled, though. Live, they remain dark, brutal and ultra-intense.

Starts 29 January, Seattle Neumos; finishes February 14, Chicago Thalia Hall. Details here

Lil Reese

Overshadowed by fellow Chicagoan and occasional collaborator Chief Keef, Lil Reese has struggled to establish himself since rapping on 2012 smash I Don’t Like. Nonetheless, his three mixtapes, including this year’s Supa Savage 2, show a 22-year-old capable of contrasting cold-eyed sociopathy with intense introspection. Now’s the time to make good his potential.

Starts 8 January, East St Louis Pop’s Nightclub. Finishes 16 January, Buffalo Broadway Joe’s (more to be announced). Details here

Lil Wayne

Too many extra-curricular activities – prison time, multimillion dollar lawsuits, inter-hip hop feuds – have arguably distracted Lil Wayne from living up to the hype once lavished on him. This year’s Free Weezy Album was brilliant in bursts, inconsistent in the main. Still, at least his unpredictability means the 33-year-old New Orleanian is never anything but interesting live.

Starts 21 January, El Paso County Coliseum; finishes 6 March, Lincoln Pinnacle Bank Arena. Details here

Mumford & Sons

Having swapped tweed waistcoats for leather jackets, and nu-folk for stadium rock, the Londoners return for their first US tour since chart-topping third album Wilder Mind introduced the new identity. Not that they’ve totally abandoned their roots. Despite Winston Marshall recently declaring “I fucking hate the banjo”, their signature instrument will get an outing.

Starts 3 April, Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion; finishes 23 April, Indianapolis Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Details here

Muse

After a Christmas rest, Muse return for the second half of their Drones album tour. Never ones to eschew either the big topics – war and peace, government oppression, supermassive black holes – or potentially ridiculous stagecraft, the first leg saw the English prog-poppers flying actual drones over their audiences. “Vaguely threatening,” noted the LA Times.

Starts 7 January, San Diego Valley View Casino Center; finishes 1 February, Washington DC Verizon Center. Details here

MuteMath

Back in January 2014, electro-experimentalists MuteMath made a resolution to write a song a day. The result is Vitals, the New Orleans outfit’s fourth and, thus far, most poppy album, released last month. Live, they’re famously kaleidoscopic, freewheeling through jazz, punk, funk, gospel and disco with the odd 10-minute drum solo thrown in for good measure.

Starts 11 February, Charlotte Amos’ Southend; finishes 8 April, Englewood Gothic Theatre. Details here

Protomartyr

Three albums in, the urgency that propels the post-punk of Detroit’s Protomartyr shows no sign of slowing. Perhaps that’s because lead singer Joe Casey was already deep into his 30s when he started the band in 2008. Live and in support of 2015’s The Agent Intellect, expect more Joy Division-ist doom distilled through distortion.

Starts 20 January, Columbus Ace of Cups; finishes 13 March, Madison Frequency. Details here

Rihanna

In November 2014, RiRi told Entertainment Weekly her eighth album, Anti, would drop “very soon”. Since then, we’ve had singles, cover art viewings and a launch party. But the actual album? Still to be seen. That might make speculating on an upcoming tour difficult but this is Rihanna. Expect hits, bling, costume changes and raunch.

Starts 26 February, San Diego Viejas Arena; finishes 7 May, Oakland Oracle Arena. Details here

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Bruce Springsteen performs during the World Aids Day (RED) concert in Times Square in New York in December 2014. Photograph: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Known for monumental four-hour shows – even at an age when most of us get tired just watching someone that long – Springsteen returns with a 24-date jaunt celebrating 1980’s seminal album The River. A possible bonus here: when he first toured this record 26 years ago, it was the only time he’s started with the searing Born to Run. Same again, Boss?

Starts 16 January, Pittsburgh Consol Energy Center; finishes 17 March, Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Details here

Titus Andronicus

NOT a band you could accuse of understatement, the New Jersey outfit’s fourth album, The Most Lamentable Tragedy, was a 29-track punk rock opera based on frontman Patrick Stickles’ battle with depression. Their gigs are similarly intense, oscillating between reaching for greatness and collapsing into chaos. Often in the space of a single song.

Starts 29 February, New York City Webster Hall; finishes 27 March, Philadelphia Union Transfer. Details here

Tool

Waiting for new Tool material has long been one of music’s least-rewarding endeavours. After releasing just four records in 16 years, the California metal band’s fifth is still gestating a decade on. Safe to say, guitarist Adam Jones’s November announcement that “things are really flowing” is probably best taken with a pinch of salt. These 17 shows should fill a gap.

Starts 6 January, San Francisco Bill Graham Auditorium; finishes 31 January, New Orleans Smoothie King Arena. Details here

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