Brit pop veterans Blur kick off their first stretch of North American shows in more than four years May 24th in Washington, D.C. The outing, in support of the band's seventh album, Think Tank, released last week, will make at least eleven stops before wrapping up June 21st in Vancouver.

Before they showed up for a secret show at Austin's South by Southwest Music Conference in March, Blur hadn't played in the U.S. since 1999. During that break, frontman Damon Albarn toured and recorded with his animated Gorillaz collective and recorded Mali Music, a collaboration with a group of African musicians he met on a charity trip there in 2000.

Of Think Tank, the follow-up to 1999's 13 and the band's first album without founding guitarist Graham Coxon, Albarn told Rolling Stone, "It's an album about love and politics." The set sold 20,000 copies in its first week of release, according to SoundScan.

Blur tour dates:

5/24: Washington, DC, RFK Stadium
5/25: Mansfield, MA, Tweeter Center
5/26: Camden, NJ, Tweeter Center
6/8: Calverton, NY, Calverton Enterprise Park (Field Day Festival)
6/11: Tempe, AZ, Marquee Theater
6/12: Las Vegas, House of Blues
6/15: San Diego, 91X Radio Show
6/17: San Francisco, Great American Music Hall
6/19: Portland, OR, Roseland Theater
6/20: Seattle, Showbox
6/21: Vancouver, Vogue Theater

AUGUSTIN SEDGEWICK
(May 15, 2003)