Former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg will play his first shows in five years at a series of in-store performances beginning later this month. The solo acoustic shows come in support of the artist’s upcoming Vagrant solo album, “Stereo,” due April 23. The set will come packaged with a new album from Westerberg’s punk-veering side project Grandpaboy, titled “Mono.”
“I’m more prepared to go and actually play music now than I was four years ago, when I was supposed to last time,” Westerberg told Billboard earlier this winter in an exclusive interview. “And, even a year ago, the thought of performing in public would have made me physically ill, but I’ve finally come around to it.”
“There’s no one in the world I would want to hear by themselves for an hour,” he continued. “No one, not Elvis Presley himself. It’s like, I like drums, I guess that’s why I, in the end, made a record that was sort of both sides of my brain, because I can only go so long and listen to so much music that’s considered – ya know, whatever term we wanted to use – folk, or whatever. If I’m gonna stand in front of people, I do like simply to be up there with other musicians, and preferably a drummer.”
A spokesperson says it’s too early to speculate if Westerberg will tour with a full band later this year. “Stereo” and “Mono” are Westerberg’s first albums since 1999’s “Suicane Gratification” (Capitol), which peaked at No. 104 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 52,000 copies in the U.S. to date, according to SoundScan.
Here Are Paul Westerberg’s Performance Dates:
- April 22 – Seattle – Easy Street Records
- April 23 – Portland, Ore. – Music Millennium
- April 24 – San Francisco – Virgin Megastore
- April 25 – Los Angeles – Amoeba Records
- April 28 – New York – Virgin Megastore / Union Square
- April 29 – New York – Late Show With David Letterman
- April 30 – Philadelphia – Tower Records
- May 1 – Boston – Virgin Megastore
- May 2 – Chicago – Virgin Megastore
- May 3 – Austin, Texas – Waterloo Records
- May 4 – Ann Arbor, Mich. – Borders Books & Music
