Tool, Chance the Rapper, Lorde, Phoenix Lead Governors Ball Lineup
Tool will stage their first New York City gig in 11 years when they headline this year’s Governors Ball music festival alongside artists like Chance the Rapper, Lorde, the Wu-Tang Clan and Phoenix.
Childish Gambino (making a rare 2017 live performance given his other obligations), Cage the Elephant, the Avalanches, Wiz Khalifa, YG, Charli XCX, Rae Sremmurd, Air and an act billed as “Mark Ronson vs. Kevin Parker” will also perform at the three-day fest, scheduled for June 2nd to 4th (weather permitting) at New York’s Randall’s Island.
Tickets for the festival – which also features Danny Brown, the Head and the Heart, A$AP Ferg, Schoolboy Q, Mac Demarco, Franz Ferdinand, Car Seat Headrest and dozens more – go on sale Friday at GovBall.com.
Tool fans are hopeful that the band’s first NYC gig in a dozen years – which Governors Ball organizers promise will feature a “full-length set with complete tour production” – will be accompanied by the release of the band’s long-awaited new album, their first LP since 2006’s 10,000 Days.
In a recent interview, bassist Justin Chancellor revealed Tool is “deep into the writing process” for the band’s new album.
“We’ve narrowed things down to big groups of ideas,” Chancellor said. “For the past few months we’ve been working on one of the newer songs fairly exclusively. We get the gist of it and find the main themes that make up the skeleton between verses and choruses. Then we explore different ways we can depart from that and come back to it and flip it upside down, and take the time to see what else is there. Everyone knows we take our time.”
Tool last performed on New York City soil in May 2006 when they staged a pair of shows at New York City Center. Since then, the band has played sporadic tri-state area shows in East Rutherford and Jersey City, New Jersey and Uniondale, New York, but Governors Ball marks their first official NYC gig in over a dozen years.
Pending further festival lineup announcements, Governors Ball is also Phoenix’s first U.S. gig – or concert of any kind – since the French rockers performed at Los Angeles’ FYF Fest in August 2014 in support of their 2013 LP Bankrupt!
The 2016 Governors Ball canceled the entirety of their Sunday slate, including a headlining set by Kanye West, “due to severe weather and a high likelihood of lightning in the area.” West’s pop-up make-up concert that night in New York City was also canceled after thousands rushed to the city’s Webster Hall.
Check out the complete Governors Ball lineup below: