As you can imagine, I get a lot of emails from music promoters, labels and bands. Maybe 100 a day? Something like that. For the past year they’ve all been hyping new videos or releases by acts that, like the rest of us, have been stuck at home due to COVID-19.

You’ve seen the stories I did in The Reader about venues reopening and local bands returning to local stages. Well today I got the first email (that I’ve opened and read, anyway) announcing a full North American tour taking place this year.

Dinosaur Jr. today announced it’s hitting the road in late summer for a tour that includes more than 40 dates throughout the fall and into winter, starting July 27 at Big Indian, NY, and wrapping up Feb. 26 at Denver’s Ogden Theatre.

The tour includes a Sept. 20 gig at The Waiting Room.

The band will be supporting their forthcoming album, Sweep It Into Space, out April 23 on Jagjaguwar Records. “As is typical, Lou Barlow writes and sings two of the album’s dozen tunes (delivering perhaps his finest Dinosaur contribution in “Garden”) and Murph’s pure-Flinstonian drumming drives the record like a go cart from Hell,” says the press release.

Here’s hoping this is the first of many such tour announcements from bands that will be returning to the road later this year as COVID-19 fades away like a bad dream… I, for one, can’t wait.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2021 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.