Kanye West, Jay-Z revise dates for Watch the Throne Tour

From early fall to the end of the year, Kanye West and Jay-Z have significantly shifted the timeframe and the routing of their upcoming Watch the Throne Tour.

Dubbing themselves The Throne, the collaborative kings of rap will set out a month later than planned with a revised 22-city routing across North America. The itinerary now opens October 29 at Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA, and concludes almost two months later with a December 18 concert at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC.

The shuffled tour includes stops in many of the same markets as the original autumn itinerary announced last week. For example, a two-night stand at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ, has been shifted from September 27-28 to the new dates of November 5-6.

Two-night stands in a couple other cities have been trimmed to a single night. The Throne will now play December 1 at the United center in Chicago, IL, and December 12 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA, rather than the respective October 6-7 and October 19-20 runs originally planned in those markets.

Cut from the tour entirely are stops in Minneapolis, MN; Denver, CO; Sacramento CA. In their place, new dates are set in Sunrise, FL; Pittsburgh, PA; Kansas City, MO; and New Orleans, LA. The complete updated itinerary, according to an August 3 statement from Live Nation Entertainment, is included below.

Watch the Throne Tour tickets will be available to the public starting August 8, to coincide with the digital release of West and Jay-Z’s collaborative “Watch the Throne” album. According to current presale listings on Ticketmaster.com, ticket face values range from lows around $50 up to $250, not including fees.

The tour rescheduling might be a bit of déjà vu for West. The outspoken artist’s last venture — a planned 2009 co-head with Lady Gaga — was significantly altered and then cancelled entirely after West’s interruption at the MTV Video Music Awards sparked controversy.

This time, however, Live Nation credited the reschedule to overwhelming demand for tickets and the need for additional dates, rather than slow sales caused by a cultural backlash. The old and new itineraries for the Watch the Throne Tour are similar in length, but gaps in the schedule could indicate that more tour dates are on the horizon.

The Throne: Kanye West & Jay-Z itinerary (UPDATED):
(Dates are subject to change.)