Blue Heron Announce Inaugural European Tour
It’s the end of the week. It’s mid-August. Dead of summer. If I go outside, I drown in humidity. The days are eternal and the horrors are multidimensional. A bit of good news goes a long way.
So I’m happy for New Mexican desert rockers Blue Heron, who’ll head to Europe for their first bit of on-the-continent touring this October. They’re set to appear in Munich at Keep it Low (would go) and Desertfest Belgium (would go) with club dates in Germany and the Netherlands between, including shows with High Desert Queen and riffy troublemakers Gnome, as well as the speed rock magnates Tankzilla, which is sure to be a hell of a show.
They go in support of their 2024 LP, Everything Fades (review here), which came out through Blues Funeral Recordings, which is helmed by Blue Heron vocalist Jadd Shickler. The band will also take part in the upcoming Nine Inch Nails redux on Shickler‘s other label, Magnetic Eye, as noted below in the PR wire info:
Desert stoner metallers BLUE HERON announce fall European tour and festival appearances; new album out on Blues Funeral Recordings!
New Mexico, US stoner metal merchants BLUE HERON have announced their first-ever European tour in support of their latest album “Everything Fades”, released last fall on Blues Funeral Recordings.
Riding high on the success of their 2024 sophomore album “Everything Fades”, Blue Heron has announced a string of European tour dates this October, including performances at two key scene festivals. With nine shows alongside the likes of Gnome, Mephistofeles and High Desert Queen, the band will bring their blistering desert rock to stages across Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium for the first time ever.
Along with announcing their first live appearance in Europe, Blue Heron has also been revealed to be taking part in Magnetic Eye Records’ latest Redux Series installment, paying homage to industrial rock crossover icons Nine Inch Nails. Magnetic Eye has launched a Kickstarter in support of the project, with other initial artist reveals including Black Tusk, Daevar, Abrams, Grayceon and IAH. More info on the NIN Redux project and Kickstarter can be found at this location: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magneticeye/the-downward-spiral-redux-and-best-of-nine-inch-nails-redux
Blue Heron European tour 2025
Oct 10 – Karlsruhe (DE) Alte Hackerei w/ High Desert Queen
Oct 11 – Munich (DE) Keep It Low Festival
Oct 12 – Arnstadt (DE) Rockjungfer
Oct 13 – Bamberg (DE) Live Club w/ Submarin On Mars
Oct 14 – Hagen (DE) Werkhof Hohenlimburg w/ Stargo
Oct 15 – Rotterdam (NL) Roodkapje w/ Mephistofeles, High Desert Queen
Oct 16 – Tilburg (NL) Little Devil w/ Gnome, Tankzilla
Oct 17 – Trier (DE) Rothaus
Oct 19 – Antwerp (BE) Desertfest Belgium
Surrounded by endless horizons, Blue Heron formed in 2018 out of a compulsion to fill the vastness with massive volume, saturating their piece of desert with rolling, thunderous riffs, drums that pummel and swing, deep, thrumming tones and vocals that rip and roar.
Their guitarist and singer were founding members of Spiritu, possibly Albuquerque, New Mexico’s first desert rock band, whose brief burn in the early aughts included a Jack Endino-produced LP, a European tour with Clutch, Spiritual Beggars and Dozer, and a compilation appearance alongside Entombed and Mastodon. Their debut LP “Ephemeral” arrived in May of 2022 via Kozmik Artifactz in Europe and Seeing Red Records in the USA. Substantial appreciation in the underground led to performances at Ripplefest Texas and Monolith on the Mesa and opening slots for The Well, Elder, Black Mountain, Ruby the Hatchet, Howling Giant, Heavy Temple and The Obsessed, along with a swath of positive reviews throughout the heavy media.
In May 2023, Blue Heron dropped three new tracks on a split LP with friends and fellow southwestern riff-purveyors High Desert Queen for Ripple Music’s Turned to Stone series, with cover art by award-winning comic and poster artist Johnny Dombrowski. The bands embarked on a short tour in August 2023, before they set to work on their next full-length.
Released in the fall of 2024, “Everything Fades” expands on their unyielding desert sound with a new slab of propulsive, sun-scorched riff-heaviness. Balanced between laid-back, meditative atmospherics and heavier, more aggressive lunges, Blue Heron’s cruising jams and gritty stoner romps call to mind echoes of Kyuss, Clutch and Monster Magnet, as well as modern contemporaries Valley of the Sun and Greenleaf. “Everything Fades” is available now through Blues Funeral Recordings.
BLUE HERON is
Mike Chavez – Guitars
Ricardo Sanchez – Drums
Steve Schmidlapp – Bass
Jadd Shickler – Vocals
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bluesfuneral.com
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