Minus the Bear add new shows to ‘Menos El Oso’ 20th anniversary tour

Minus the Bear are ending their nearly-seven-year hiatus this fall, when they’ll be celebrating 20 years of their 2005 album Menos El Oso on tour, and playing Best Friends Forever fest. They’ve now added a few new shows to the run, in Austin (Emos on October 16), New Orleans (Civic Theatre on October 19), Washington DC (9:30 Club on November 4), NYC (Irving Plaza on November 9), Lawrence, KS (Granada Theatre on November 19), and Seattle (The Showbox on November 26). See updated dates below.

Austin and Seattle tickets are on sale now, and tickets for all other new dates go on sale Friday, March 21 at 10 AM local, with various presales starting Wednesday, March 19 at 10 AM local.

About the tour, guitarist David Knudson says, “Menos el Oso put us on a trajectory that none of us were expecting. There is a “before ‘Pachuca Sunrise’ video” moment in time, and then there is an “after ‘Pachuca Sunrise’ video” moment in time. It seemed like once people heard that song, and saw that video, everyone went straight to Limewire, Napster, Soulseek, BitTorrent, etc. and shared the album immediately. Celebrating the twentieth anniversary of something this monumental in our lives is a gift. Having the chance to appreciate it with our fans, families and fellow bandmates while we are all alive and kicking is an opportunity I can’t wait to embrace.”

We put Menos El Oso at #2 in our list of Minus The Bear albums, ranked, and we said: As a lyricist, Jake had fully hit his stride on Menos El Oso. The songs are so vivid, so imagery-inducing, and he makes all the tiny parts of life feel huge. He turns everyday moments into poetry (“A swimming pool with no bodies is a problem that we can fix”), he puts care into the carefree (“This is a city for not sleeping, the clocks are set by feel”), and conversations play out like movie dialogs (“‘Come on man,’ she said, ‘We have to leave this town/I can’t stand another day without the rain'”). As he lays out his stories, the band crafts one stunning backdrop after the next. Songs go from dancey to mathy to rockin’ at the drop of a hat, and Minus The Bear sound totally in the pocket at every turn. Guitars can be shimmering and beautiful, or tech-y and mind-bending. They sound like a band who love punk as much as they love funk, without ever fitting neatly into either one, and you get a small taste of the prog influences that would get fully explored on Planet of Ice too. Some songs feel anxious and jittery, others feel smooth and chill. On Menos El Oso, Minus The Bear’s unique blend of influences had come together so seamlessly that it became fully impossible to try to shoehorn them into any individual genre of music. They were just Minus The Bear, and they were very, very good at being that.

MINUS THE BEAR: 2025 TOUR DATES
Oct 4, 2025 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
Oct 6, 2025 Sacramento, CA Ace Of Spades
Oct 7, 2025 San Francisco, CA The Regency Ballroom
Oct 8, 2025 San Diego, CA The Observatory North Park
Oct 10, 2025 – Oct 12, 2025 Las Vegas, NV Best Friends Forever 2025
Oct 11, 2025 Los Angeles, CA The Belasco Theater
Oct 12, 2025 Los Angeles, CA The Belasco Theater
Oct 14, 2025 Tempe, AZ Marquee Theatre
Oct 16, 2025 Austin, TX Emo’s Austin
Oct 17, 2025 Dallas, TX Granada Theater
Oct 18, 2025 Austin, TX Emo’s Austin
Oct 19, 2025 New Orleans, LA Civic Theatre
Oct 21, 2025 Orlando, FL The Beacham
Oct 22, 2025 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade – Heaven Stage
Oct 24, 2025 Philadelphia, PA The Fillmore Philadelphia
Oct 25, 2025 Boston, MA Citizens House of Blues
Nov 4, 2025 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Nov 5, 2025 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Nov 7, 2025 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
Nov 8, 2025 New York, NY Irving Plaza
Nov 9, 2025 New York, NY Irving Plaza
Nov 11, 2025 Mckees Rocks, PA Roxian Theatre
Nov 12, 2025 Cleveland, OH House of Blues Cleveland
Nov 14, 2025 Detroit, MI The Majestic Theatre
Nov 15, 2025 Chicago, IL Metro Chicago
Nov 16, 2025 Chicago, IL Metro Chicago
Nov 18, 2025 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
Nov 19, 2025 Lawrence, KS The Granada
Nov 21, 2025 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
Nov 22, 2025 Denver, CO Ogden Theatre
Nov 23, 2025 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
Nov 26, 2025 Seattle, WA The Showbox
Nov 28, 2025 Seattle, WA The Showbox
Nov 29, 2025 Seattle, WA The Showbox