This year’s, 13th edition of Croatia’s INmusic festival, promises to be a feast of cult rock tunes and new material alike. Always and by design a haven for rock devotees, now at the brink of adolescence, INmusic has plenty to show off, from its venue being a picturesque island atop a swan lake, to having bands such as Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, and more, as headliners. This year promises to be even more prosperous – the increased capacity of about 35,000 visitors per day is about to be sold out, with several rock legends coming to Croatia between June 25 and 27 to commence their European summer tours, announce new material and/or treat the crowds to some of their greatest hits.
David Byrne, who recently announced a massive UK and Ireland arena tour, will perform the better part of his 11th studio album, American Utopia, released in March. While the INmusic performance will be among his first European festival appearances this summer, the setlists from the American tour promise plenty of Talking Heads classics, among them “Blind”, “Slippery People”, “Burning Down the House” and “Once in a Lifetime”. First night’s headliners, Queens of the Stone Age, also land in Europe this June for a lengthy festival tour. With no new material to promote (their latest album, Villains, was released last summer), Josh Homme’s bunch will treat the crowd to a balanced mix of tunes spanning their entire career.
Almost an identical situation is found with the June 26 headliners, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Skeleton Tree, the polyphonous rock legends’ 16th release, has been in circulation since the Fall of 2016; it was also accompanied by a massive world tour, which ended last November. Cave’s band kicked off a modest summer European festival tour on May 31 at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound, and has since thrilled the fans with the addition of some old hits, namely “Loverman” and “Do You Love Me?”, at the expense of performing the new album almost in its entirety (which was the case throughout the previous tour).
Nevertheless, the ones to advertise the most substantial batch of freshest tunes will be – Interpol, or at least so it is reasonably assumed. The New York trio, set to headline the event on June 27, have just announced a full slate of North American and European dates in support of their upcoming album, Marauder, out Aug 24. After a substantial Turn On the Bright Lights 15-year anniversary tour in 2017, during which they played the album in entirety and in order, this summer the post-punk fans are guaranteed to feast their ears on an abundance of new songs, among them the heart-stopping new single, “The Rover”.