A little over a year after wrapping his monumental Us + Them Tour, Roger Waters will return to the road this summer for a North American tour summer dubbed This Is Not a Drill.
He will present an all-new show, this time in the round. The trek, which finds him performing in arenas, kicks off July 8th in Pittsburgh and makes its way west and central before ending in Dallas on October 3rd, exactly a month before Election Day in the U.S.
Tickets for the tour go on sale on January 31st at 10 a.m. local time. For more information on tickets, visit the artist’s website.
Waters discussed the tour in a video announcement that featured him rehearsing “Comfortably Numb,” “Sheep,” his solo song “The Powers That Be” and others with his band.
“As the clock ticks faster and faster and faster down to extinction, it seemed like a good thing to make a fuss about it, so that’s why I’m going on the road,” he said. “To be blunt, we need to change the way we organize ourselves as a human race or die. This tour will be part of a global movement by people who are concerned by others to affect the change that is necessary. That’s why we’re going on the road. That’s why speak to each other in pubs. That’s why this conversation should be on everybody’s lips, constantly, the whole time, because it’s super important. So I hope you’ll all come to the shows. This is not a drill.”
The timing of the tour to Election Day is no accident. Waters’ last trek was politically charged, with imagery mocking Donald Trump and his dangerous rhetoric set to hits he wrote for Pink Floyd. He used songs like “Money” and “Us and Them” to demonstrate the ways he sees the powers that be ripping people apart and reminding fans that people can work together toward an ideal future.
“[The new tour] will be even more political than Us + Them was — political and humane,” Waters told Rolling Stone in 2019. “We were listening to songs and looking at setlists today. We were talking about, what should we call it? I shouldn’t be giving this away, but I don’t give a shit because it will probably all change, but imagine the iconic helicopter that normally comes before ‘Happiest Days’ and ‘Brick 2’ — that noise that we all know and love — and imagine a megaphone, somebody abused this device before, I know — but, ‘This is not a drill.’ I thought that could be a good title for the show: This Is Not a Drill. The ruling class is killing us.”
As for the content of the tour, Waters said it would be something new. “It will be no-holds-barred,” he said. “My work is to think, ‘Well, how can I make rock & roll more interesting or theatrical or exciting or visual or musical or whatever?’ That’s what I’ve spent the last 50 years doing, expressing myself.”
Roger Waters Tour Dates
July 8 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
July 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
July 14 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena
July 17 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
July 21 – Quebec City, QC @ Videotron Centre
July 23 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
July 25 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Center
July 28 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden
July 30 – Washington, DC @ Capitol One Arena
August 1 – Cincinnati, OH @ Heritage Bank Center
August 5 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
August 11 – Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
August 13 – Orlando, FL @ Amway Center
August 15 – Miami, FL @ AmericanAirlines Arena
August 18 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
August 20 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena
August 22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum
August 25 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
August 27 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
August 29 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
September 2 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
September 4 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
September 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ STAPLES Center
September 14 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
September 16 – Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place
September 19 – Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
September 21 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center
September 23 – Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center
September 25 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center
September 30 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Vivint Smart Home Arena
October 3 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
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