The Cult Announce North American Tour Dates, Against Me! to Support

The Cult will hit the pavement hard this summer with the first leg of its 2012 North American tour. The 20-date trek is set to kick off on Friday, May 25 in San Diego, Calif., bringing the band's incendiary rock energy to major and secondary markets across the continent. In addition, the tour will include headline dates at the Great Canadian Beaverfest in Windsor, ON, and at Buffalo, N.Y.'s Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf Concert Series (see itinerary below). For most of the dates, The Cult will be supported by Against Me! and The Icarus Line. Ticket on-sales begin later this week; log on here for all details and to purchase tickets.

"This is going to be a very intense, high-energy tour," said The Cult's vocalist, Ian Astbury. "We are really looking forward to the time we spend on stage connected to our music and our audience. That's our purpose."

The Cult is touring in support of Choice of Weapon, the band's first new studio album in five years, due out May 22. The album was produced by Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age) and Bob Rock (Metallica, Bush), recorded in New York City, Los Angeles, the California high desert and the band's Witch Mountain studio between July and December 2011, and written by Astbury and Duffy.

"When we were writing and recording Choice of Weapon," explained Astbury, "we had no agenda, there was no particular destination, no place to be, and no chart position to aim for. We took our time, we went in, we grabbed the jewels, and stayed focused on keeping everything as fresh and as raw as possible. The new songs are a sharpened and heightened extension of everything we have ever done."

Confirmed dates for The Cult's 2012 North American tour are as follows:

MAY

25 San Diego, CA - Humphreys By the Bay

26 Las Vegas, NV - M Resort

27 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore

30 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre

JUNE

1 Chicago, IL - Congress Theatre

2 Windsor, ON - Great Canadian Beaverfest, Riverfront Festival Plaza

3 Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE - Indoor Stage

5 Boston, MA - House of Blues

7 Buffalo, NY - Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf

8 New York, NY - Terminal 5

9 Hampton Beach, NH - Ballroom

10 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory

12 Washington, D.C. - The Fillmore

13 Norfolk, VA - The Norva

15 Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues

16 Orlando, FL - House of Blues

17 Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle

19 Houston, TX - House of Blues

20 Dallas, TX - House of Blues

22 Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre