BoDeans Announce 40th Anniversary Tour Dates for 2026

BoDeans have revealed that they will celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2026 with a massive tour that will carry them from coast to coast starting in late January. According to a press release, there will be more than 100 shows.

The roots rockers have announced 28 dates so far beginning Jan. 30 in Prior Lake, Minnesota and carrying through to Des Plaines, Illinois June 6. You can see the complete list of shows below. Additional information and ticket purchase links are available at the band’s website.

Vocalist and guitarist Kurt Neumann cofounded the group with guitarist and vocalist Sam Llanas at the beginning of the ’80s, initially going by Da BoDeans. They started to seriously gig in the Milwaukee area and beyond starting in 1983. Inking a deal with Slash/Warner Bros., their debut album, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams emerged in 1986, produced by T Bone Burnett.

They eventually notched a number of songs that became fan favorites, including “Good Things,” “Fadeaway,” “Still the Night,” “Paradise” and 1993’s “Closer to Free,” which memorably got a lot of attention when it was tapped to be the theme song for the ’90s Fox teen drama Party of Five. More recently, Neumann has written over 70 songs for the Netflix program The Ranch and BoDeans music found its way into seasons 2 and 4 of the Hulu smash The Bear

READ MORE: TV Shows from the ’80s and ’90s You Might Remember

Watch the Bodeans’ ‘Closer to Free’ Video

In a 2014 conversation with this author, Neumann reflected back on the formative days for the band. “We were just a three-piece at first and doing this weird kind of rockabilly/alt-country stuff,” he remembered. “It was our thing and it was pure and stuff like that, but as you get signed to labels and as people leave and you go through the process, things change and you try to adapt and you try to make sense of it.”

“But if you listen to our first record and our fourth or fifth record and they’re very different. Because that’s the way life is,” he explained. “It would be hard to just be one thing only, but certainly in this business, in the arts, you know, you want to change. You’d be crucified if you don’t change and then you get crucified if you do change. So you’ve just gotta follow your heart in it.”

Llanas departed from the lineup in 2011 and it is Neumann who has carried the group forward for more than a decade since then. Understandably, to be at the 40-year mark comes as a surprise to him personally, but he also admits that after such a long span, he’s feeling the passage of time.

“If you could somehow go back and get your hands on a yearbook from my graduating class, [the] 1979 Waukesha South Black Shirt and you flipped through the pages and found my picture, you’d find a picture of a plain, average looking boy/man,” he said in a statement. “But more interestingly, you’d see a quote underneath that says ‘Never too old to rock ‘n’ roll.’ Well, after 40 years of driving from town to town to play the many songs I’ve written over the years I have to say,  I’m not so sure anymore.”

“That is to say, I’m starting to feel every mile and every show and every leap from every drum riser and piano and run through the audience. Every night of sleeping in a bad hotel bed or a bunk on a moving bus. Or driving through the night at 3am, trying to get to your hotel room so you can just lay your head down and finally get some sleep. And hopefully the pillows don’t smell as bad as you know they will,” he continues. “When you step off into a journey like this, you never know just where it may lead or for how long. I knew I wanted to do something positive and creative in this world. And though there have been many ups and downs over the last 40 years — some extremely stressful on me and my family — music was always that beautiful escape for me in my life. And so, I would escape into it every day. But I never ever imagined I would be standing up on a stage, singing my songs even for one year.”

A new BoDeans album, appropriately titled 1983, is set to be released in 2026 during the tour.

BoDeans, 2026 40th Anniversary Tour Dates

Jan. 30 – Prior Lake, MN @ Mystic Lake Casino Showroom

Jan. 31 – Skokie, IL @ North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie

Mar. 05 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up – CA

Mar. 06 – Malibu, CA @ Smothers Theatre Pepperdine University

Mar. 07 – Menlo Park, CA @ Guild Theatre

Mar. 08 – Sonoma, CA @ Sebastiani Theatre

Mar. 14 – Phoenix, CA @ Celebrity Theatre

Mar. 15 –  Tucson, AZ @ Fox Tucson Theater

April 03 –  La Crosse, WI @ La Crosse Center Riverside Ballroom

April 04 –  Wausau, WI @ The Grand Theater

April 09 –  Stoughton, WI @ Stoughton Opera House

April 10 – Stoughton, WI @ Stoughton Opera House

April 11 –  Aurora, IL @ Paramount Theatre

April 17 –  Indianapolis, IN @ The Shelton Auditorium

April 18 –  Hobart, IN @ Hobart Art Theater

April 30 –  Old Saybrook, CT @ Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center

May 01 – Salisbury, MA @ Blue Ocean Music Hall

May 02 – Plymouth, MA @ The Spire Center for the Performing Arts

May 03 – Springfield, MA @ Hope Center for the Arts

May 05 – Kingston, NY @ Assembly Kingston

May 06 –  Red Bank, NJ The Vogel @ Count Basie Center for the Arts

May 07 –  Sellersville, PA @ Sellersville Theater

May 08 – Annapolis, MD @ Rams Head On Stage

May 09 – Alexandria, VA @ The Birchmere

May 13 –  Oakmont, PA @ The Oaks Theater

May 14 –  Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues

June 05 – Green Bay, WI @ Meyer Theatre

June 06 – Des Plaines, IL @ Des Plaines Theatre