The Church and The Afghan Whigs will team up for a co-headline tour of North America this summer. Tickets for all shows go on sale this Friday, February 9. Special Guest Ed Harcourt supports all dates except Brooklyn where Kristin Hersh will open the show.

The Church will also be offering a limited number of VIP packages on this tour, which will include a show ticket, early venue access, an invitation to the band’s soundcheck, a special meet & greet with the band, exclusive merch items, and watching a portion of the show itself from the side of the stage (where available). The Artist Presale begins Tuesday, February 6 at 1:00 PM Eastern Time for tickets + VIP (presale passcode is available only through our new nightfriends fan community - details below).

In addition, The Church is set to officially release their 27th studio album Eros Zeta And The Perfumed Guitars on March 29. A companion album of sorts to 2023's The Hypnogogue, Eros Zeta was previously only available on their worldwide tour last fall.

Over the course of fifteen tracks, it serves as a continuation of the dystopian storyline. Picking up the loose narrative thread of a failed rockstar (“Eros Zeta”) trying to reclaim his faded glory through the use of a dream extractor, “the Hypnogogue.” The second single from the collection, “A Strange Past,” (out now) follows the initial single “Realm of Minor Angels” which was released last September.

Says Church founder/vocalist/bassist Steve Kilbey enigmatically of the track, “A foolish man who needs to wise up looks back in regretful nostalgia upon a fling he should’ve flung away. The musical genesis of this piece was a while ago via [guitarist Jeffrey Cain], but when the Hypnogogue reared its dystopian but not ugly head we felt 'A Strange Past' had found its true home.”

A companion book, Eros Zeta and The Hypnogogue written by Kilbey in his lyrical and elegant prose, expanding the universe that he created with these two albums, is now available wherever eBooks are sold.

While it’s the first time The Church and The Afghan Whigs are heading out together for a full tour, a lot of history and a lot of love already exists between the two groups.

“The Church and the Afghan Whigs playing some shows together certainly feels like an idea whose time has surely come, “remarked Church lead singer Steve Kilbey. “Get ready for a double blast of the power n glory of rock’n’roll!”

“I was an 18-year-old college freshman lying in bed listening to WVXU late one night when I heard a song that I described later as sounding like David Bowie fronting The Byrds,” commented Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli. “Thankfully they back announced The Unguarded Moment by The Church and I was on my way to buying my first import. Soon after I bought two more after learning of The Blurred Crusade and Seance. It was official. I loved The Church. Three years later, the four kids who were about to become The Afghan Whigs played One Day by The Church in John Curley's living room and we were off and running...”

The Church just launched an online fan community, nightfriends. Named after a song of the same name from their 2002 album After Everything Now, nightfriends will be a members-only club where the band will interact with fans which will feature never-before-seen live show/videos, monthly announcements of previously unreleased tracks, acoustic versions, live versions, demos, etc. Members will receive an exclusive shirt and have access to journal entries from Steve and the band, access to tour presales first, live chats, and more. Register here: https://thechorus.com/thechurch.

For more info, visit www.thechurchband.com or theafghanwhigs.com.

Track listing: