The Black Crowes tour gets ‘Stuck Inside Utopia’ in 2009

Hard rock veterans The Black Crowes have announced the first leg of dates for their Stuck Inside Utopia Tour. The first block of the band’s jaunt will focus on East Coast markets, and includes nearly 30 dates in both the U.S. and Canada.

The trek kicks off August 25 at the Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA, and is currently booked through October 3 at Chastain Park Amphitheatre in Atlanta, GA. The Crowes will also touch down for gigs on August 27 at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, MA; September 2 at Central Park Summerstage in New York, NY; September 17 at Higher Ground in Burlington, VT; and September 26 at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN, among other dates.

The itinerary includes only two dates in Canada on September 13 at Casino Rama in Rama, ON, and September 13 at Centennial Hall in London, ON. More concert dates are expected to follow, taking the tour straight through the end of the year.

Four of the concerts on the tour — in Baltimore, Rama, Providence and Burlington — are solo engagements billed as “An Evening With” the Crowes. Indie rock act Truth & Salvage Co. will open for most of the remaining dates, with the Levon Helm Band stepping in for the shows in Boston, Atlantic City. Both opening acts will warm up the stage in New York City.

Ticket sales have already started for the first two dates of the late summer tour. The remaining sales will begin June 12 through the venue box offices and Ticketmaster.

The Black Crowes’s tour will coincide with the release of the band’s latest studio album, “Before the Frost, Until the Freeze,” scheduled for release in September 2009. The project, a double album, will be the group’s eighth studio effort.

According to a statement from the band, the upcoming tour will clock in over two hours of music every night. Setlists for the Stuck Inside Utopia venture will draw heavily from the band’s new material, while also featuring other cuts from the Crowes’s nearly 20-year career.

The Black Crowes itinerary:
(Dates are subject to change.)