Matt Berninger has announced a series of intimate UK solo shows and Q&A events set for this spring.
The National frontman will perform three stripped-back shows, joined by producer Sean O’Brien and Julia Laws (Ronboy), both of whom feature on his upcoming record, ‘Get Sunk’, which was previewed earlier this month with new single ‘Bonnet Of Pins’.
The performances mark the first opportunity for UK audiences to hear material from the new record, which arrives on 30th May via Concord/Book Records, and marks the second solo album from Berninger, following on from his 2020 debut ‘Serpentine Prison’.
Visit here to pre-order the new album, and here to order tickets, which go on sale Wednesday (March 26) at 10am.
Alongside the intimate shows, Berninger will also take part in several Q&A sessions, with these included events at Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club with BBC Radio 6’s Chris Hawkins, London’s KEF Music Gallery with Huw Stephens, and Union Chapel with Matt Everitt.
Following these April dates, Berninger will embark on a tour across North America, the UK, and Europe.
These kick off with a series of North American stops this spring, commencing in Seattle on May 19. Other shows include stops in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and more. From there, the artist picks up the remainder of the tour this summer, making stops in Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester and London in August.
The shows wrap up with a series of European dates, including gigs in Antwerp, Paris, Berlin, Oslo, Copenhagen and more. Visit here to buy tickets to US and EU shows, and here for UK dates.
Matt Berninger’s 2025 solo tour dates are:
MAY
19 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
20 – San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s 365 Club
21 – Los Angeles, CA – Palace Theatre
23 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
24 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
26 – Toronto, ON – Concert Hall
28 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
29 – Washington, DC – Lincoln Theatre
30 – New York, NY – Webster Hall
AUGUST
23 – Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street
25 – Glasgow, UK – SWG3 Galvanizers
26 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall
27 – London, UK – Troxy
28-31 – Nr Tolland Royal, Wiltshire, UK – End Of The Road Festival
31 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Tivoli Vredenburg
SEPTEMBER
1 – Antwerp, Belgium – Olt Rivierenhof
2 – Paris, France – Elysee Montmartre
4 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys
5 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega
6 – Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller Music Hall
Speaking about going solo back in 2020, Berninger told NME: “Most of my songs are love songs to myself or that champion me. They’re cheerleading songs for my own soul. I’m writing things that I suspect Carin would like to say to me. You know, ‘I hope my daughter understands me’, ‘My mother will know this is about her’. They’re not just about me; they’re about the people that made me… me.”
Then, in September 2023, NME spoke to Berninger again, this time about his writing process and its interaction with his mental health. “I don’t believe in ghosts,” he said, “but I believe in the power of the belief in ghosts. It’s the same thing with God. I don’t really believe in it, but I believe in its power.”
Speaking about the difficulty of the lockdown period and the absence of touring, Berninger added: “I was coming out of a long period where I’d just dried up and was in a depression. I just couldn’t write and that triggered a panic of never being able to go back and do this thing. It’s the thing I love to do and I’m better at it than anything else. When I couldn’t do that, it was pretty terrifying.”
“I tried to reboot myself physically, mentally and everything. Everything burned down. My brain burned to the ashes and I had to slowly rebuild it up again somehow,” he added. “It was sobering to realise how fragile I was. Looking back, I was sick as hell. It was a whole physical thing triggered by real things and mental things. It was a total emotional and physical paralysis. I’ve learned to just respect it and respect how fragile everyone is.”
Watch that interview in full above.
As well as the new solo album, Berninger has set his sights on new music from The National, and told NME about the hopes of a new “punk rock inspired album” from the band.
“The guys send me rock songs all the time, but I can’t fake that. People can hear a fake rock song because it just sounds so pathetic and effortful. I’ve got to actually be in the zone and feeling it. That’s starting to happen more, but when I was going through my phase, I wasn’t angry at anything – I couldn’t muster the energy. I couldn’t raise my voice above a whisper. There are even songs that are sonically aggressive, but I’m just mumbling,” he said.
“Everything just has to be organic with us. Thank god. I wouldn’t know how to start if I had to cook up a song from a strategic recipe perspective in terms of career arc or anything like that. Whatever’s going on, I have to write that.”
He also shed light on the status of the long-mooted sitcom he’s been working on with his brother Tom, titled Das Apes. “Das Apes is alive, and that’s all I can say,” he told NME in 2023. “There was nothing happening because of the writers strikes and stuff like that, but we’ll see. I’m not going to drown in projects like I was before, but that it is one of them that I really want to do and it might happen.”
