Conor Oberst has always written like a man haunted by something, so of course his next tour ends in a haunted hotel. His official site has announced “An Alleged Evening With,” a 49-date run of 2027 US solo shows.
His announcement bills it as his first solo headlining tour since 2019. Whatever the fine print on that, a proper road run of Oberst alone with the songs is rarer than it should be.
The pitch is extended evenings built from his decades-spanning catalog. In practice, that means decades of confessions to choose from on any given night (good luck guessing the setlist).
The venues are where this tour gets genuinely strange. Oberst will play The Caverns, an underground venue in Pelham, Tennessee, plus a converted Benedictine monastery chapel in Tucson.
He also has the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, San Francisco’s Castro Theatre and Cine El Rey in McAllen, Texas. The run closes with two nights at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.
That is the hotel that inspired The Shining and hosted Houdini at the peak of his career, according to the announcement. Booking it for a finale is either a stroke of genius or a dare (we suspect both).
The announcement’s only stage direction is three words: “Expect the unexpected.” Coming from the voice behind Bright Eyes, that reads less like hype and more like a warning.
Ticketmaster listings show the run opening on February 19 at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, Kansas. Consequence reports the Stanley Hotel finale lands on May 14 and 15.
In between, the listings show a long sweep through the South in March. Stops include Baltimore Soundstage on March 11 and Minglewood Hall in Memphis on March 20.
The West Coast leg arrives in late April. The Bellwether in Los Angeles is listed for April 28, followed by the Castro Theatre on May 2 and Seattle’s Neptune Theatre on May 9.
Tickets go on sale Friday, November 13 at 10am local time, with more dates still to come. The run is laid out in his official announcement, and Consequence has published all 49 dates.
There is a cause attached, too. Oberst has partnered with PLUS1, so one dollar from every ticket goes to his nonprofit, the Poison Oak Project.
The organization works to advance equity for LGBTQ+ people, with a particular focus on supporting the trans community. A dollar a ticket sounds modest, but across 49 rooms it becomes a statement.
Oberst remains one of indie’s most quietly influential writers, which is why Bright Eyes sit at No. 2 on our list of the best emo bands. A solo tour strips that legacy back to the songs themselves.
Plenty of veterans tour the hits in arenas and call it intimacy. Oberst is heading for a cave, a chapel and a haunted hotel, and that already makes this the most romantic tour announcement of the winter.
