Due to injuries sustained from excessive touring, American rock band Greta Van Fleet have had to cancel their UK & European tour. Frontman Josh Kiszka has been suffering from an upper respiratory infection that he picked up from the band’s 2018 world tour. The news was revealed in one of the band’s Facebook posts where they also released the dates to their re-scheduled tour which starts in November. Their tour was meant to begin yesterday (February 22nd) in Barcelona with the band expecting a set of sold-out shows in the UK starting on March 5th.
They had this to say in the post, “A year and a half of constant touring has been both invigorating and exhausting. Josh currently has a relentless upper respiratory infection that has not yet had the chance to heal. His doctor has required extended rest as the only path to full recovery.
“It now feels necessary for the entire band to recalibrate our balance, both physically and mentally. Rather than continuing on to more performances and exacerbate things further, we have made this decision in order to give you the full Greta Van Fleet experience when we meet again.”
“We are heartbroken in sharing this setback with you and hope you can understand this painful decision. It will be extremely satisfying to reconcile this calamity by making the most of our time together in a healthier state.”
The European tour is in support of the band’s debut album ‘Anthem of the Peaceful Army‘ which was released in October last year. The album has seen significant commercial success with the record reaching number 1 in the American rock albums chart in its first week. It reached number 5 in the UK charts.
Despite the commercial success, the album received mixed critical responses. Although publications such as Classic Rock Magazine strongly praised the album stating, “It might be saddled with the worst title in living memory, but Anthem Of The Peaceful Army really is one of the most exciting records released by a new band in recent years. This is partly a result of the amount of money and attention that’s being thrown at them – this is the first time in years that a rock band has been given a genuine fighting chance by a major label – but it’s mostly down to the youthful, unmanufacturable exhilaration that courses through its 10 tracks.”
However, the band’s sound has been criticised for its similarity to that of Led Zeppelin, the pioneering hard rock legends of the 70’s. Pitchfork gave the album a 1.6 score and began the review with, “Greta Van Fleet sound like they did weed exactly once, called the cops, and tried to record a Led Zeppelin album before they arrested themselves”, before going on to say, “They make music that sounds exactly like Led Zeppelin and demand very little other than forgetting how good Led Zeppelin often were.” However despite this mixed reception, Greta Van Fleet did win a Grammy for best rock album for ‘From the Fires‘ this year.
The UK tour dates are listed below.
March of the Peaceful Army
03/11/19 – Leeds O2 Academy – Leeds
04/11 – Olympia – Dublin
06/11 – Glasgow O2 Academy – Glasgow
07/11 – Newcastle O2 Academy – Newcastle
09/11 – Mountford Hall – Liverpool
10/11 – Rock City – Nottingham
