AFI adds spring shows to 'Crash Love' outing

Alt-punk outfit AFI has pushed its in-progress journey behind last year's "Crash Love" into the spring with another leg of North American dates.

The California natives continue the roadtrip tonight (1/18) in Boise, ID, followed by club and theater performances throughout the western part of the nation through month's end. Since last check, a new round of spring dates has been added to the itinerary, beginning March 12 in Nashville and finishing up six shows later with a March 19 concert in New Orleans. The full schedule is shown at right.

The two US legs will bookend Japanese and Australian excursions, and the band will head across the pond to Europe in early April. Information about the international shows is available at the group's website.

"Crash Love," the quartet's eighth studio effort, surfaced in September. Produced by Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee, and two years in the making, the album has been called AFI's most focused, direct and ambitious effort to date. The set follows two consecutive platinum AFI albums: 2006's "Decemberunderground," which entered the US chart at No. 1, and 2003's "Sing the Sorrow."

"I feel like, from one album to the next, we have evolved in our songwriting and musical interests and what we're trying to do," bassist Hunter Burgan said in an interview with SoundSpike last fall. "I think this one is more than just an evolution from the previous album. I think it also embodies a lot of the energy from the earlier albums. I think it definitely fits in very well with the catalog. It's almost like we're showing off everything we've learned in our career in one album."

In December, AFI announced plans to headline the first night (3/27) of the 2010 Bamboozle Festival in Anaheim, CA. Information about the lineup and tickets is available at the Bamboozle website.