Pitchfork: Beastie Boys Further Expand World Tour

So what if they take their sweet-ass time between albums? The Beastie Boys have spent the latter half of 2004 giving their legions of fans some of the best make-up sex in the music business. Following the June release of their sixth album, To the 5 Boroughs, and their current world tour, New York's crown princes of Caucasian hip-hop have just announced plans to carry the love into early 2005, with a headlining stint at Australia's Big Day Out Festival.

Now in its 12th year, the Big Day Out Festival has long been considered one of alternative music's defining annual events, routinely seeing crowds of well over 200,000 attendees. Currently scheduled to join the Beasties on the down-under trek are The Streets, System of a Down, The Donnas, The Chemical Brothers, and The Music. Also scheduled for the bill are a number of local national acts, including Nu Zealand's nu-garage rockers The D4, with additional lineup announcements expected to be announced on November 10th. No word yet on an appearance by current Aussie radio kings Jet, but sometimes, as they say, no news is good news.

Tickets go on sale October 15th for each of the six dates of the festival, and those who purchase tickets from the Big Day Out website before midnight Friday, October 22nd will also be entered in a drawing for two backstage passes per city, allowing the lucky winners to check out the show from the side of the stage. And who wouldn't want to stare longingly at Mike D's graying right temple for a couple hours? The complete dates are as follows:

01-21 Auckland, New Zealand - Ericsson Stadium
01-23 Gold Coast, Australia - Parklands Gold Coast
01-26 Sydney, Australia - Sydney Showground
01-30 Melbourne, Australia - RAS Showground
02-04 Adelaide, Australia - Royal Adelaide Showground
02-06 Perth, Australia - Claremont Showgrounds

As previously reported, The Beastie Boys began their current world tour in June, and will extend into mid-January 2005. This effort marks the band's first global jaunt of the new millennium. More stops have been added since our last update and the current schedule is as follows:

2004:
10-11 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center*
10-12 Worcester, MA - Worcester Centrum*
10-15 Atlanta, GA - The Arena At Gwinnett Center*
10-16 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience
10-18 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Office Depot Center*
10-19 Tampa, FL - St. Pete Times Forum*
10-22 Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center*
10-23 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center*
11-03 Madison, WI - Alliant Energy Center Coliseum*
11-04 Chicago, IL - United Center*
11-05 Detroit, MI - Cobo Arena*
11-07 Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre
11-08 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
11-10 Ottawa, Ontario - Corel Centre
11-12 Uniondale, New York - Nassau Coliseum
12-03 Rennes, France - Transmusicales
12-06 Manchester, England - Men Arena
12-07 London, England - Wembley Arena
12-09 Berlin, Germany - Max Schmeling Halle
12-11 Brussels, Germany - Forest National
12-13 Dusseldorf, Germany - Phillipshalle
12-14 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Heineken Music Hall
12-16 Munich, Germany - Zenith
12-17 Basel, Switzerland - Saint Jakobshalle
12-18 Milan, Italy - Mazdapalace