Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys perform at O2 Academy Brixton on May 07, 2024. (Photo by Matthew Baker/Getty Images)

Fans react as The Black Keys cancel entire 2024 North America arena tour

The 'International Players Tour' was set to include 31 shows from September to November

by · NME

The Black Keys appear to have cancelled their upcoming North American arena tour which was due to take place from September to November.

The band announced the ‘International Players Tour’ tour last month, which was due to total a run of 31 dates across the US and Canada this autumn, in support of their 12th album ‘Ohio Players’, which came out on April 5.

The duo – comprising Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney – were due to kick off in Tulsa on September 17, with Seattle band The Head And The Heart set to support them at select shows. The full list of shows on the tour can be found here.

Tickets, which had been available here, now show that all of the shows on the tour are cancelled, although the one-off show at Chicago’s Grant Park on July 6 is still listed as going ahead. The band’s own website also has removed all of the shows from the tour, with no explanation given.

NME have contacted the band’s representatives for an official response.

Refunds will be issued automatically at the place of purchase for all ticket holders, via the original method of purchase.

Many Black Keys fans have been left bemused by the news, with one writing: “The Black Keys just canceled their entire North American arena tour for this fall due to extremely poor sales (likely due to exorbitantly priced tickets — most markets were $100+ just to get in the building). Whoever thought booking this band in arenas in 2024 should be fired.”

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The tour was due to follow the duo’s UK and Ireland tour this spring, which featured three nights at the O2 Academy Brixton.

‘Ohio Players’, meanwhile, contained collaborations with the likes of Noel Gallagher and Beck and included the singles ‘Beautiful People (Stay High)’‘I Forgot To Be Your Lover’ and ‘This Is Nowhere’.

In a three-star review of the album, NME wrote: “It feels like it’s about impact over depth, tamping down flyaway elements into a homogenised whole that more closely resembles last year’s ‘Dropout Boogie’ than any of the seven inch singles that got an airing during the writing process. The Black Keys might have a killer record collection but ‘Ohio Players’ is the work of a band who are perhaps too good at being themselves.”