Cabaret Voltaire have announced the first North American dates of their Final USA + Canada Tour, confirming a run of performances across the United States and Canada in May 2026. The newly revealed shows form part of a wider farewell cycle that also includes final UK and European tours, marking five decades since the group first emerged from Sheffield to redefine the possibilities of electronic music.
Formed in the early 1970s by Stephen ‘Mal’ Mallinder, Chris Watson, and Richard H. Kirk, Cabaret Voltaire were among the first British groups to fuse tape manipulation, found sound, early synthesizers, and confrontational visuals into a unified artistic practice. Drawing inspiration from Dadaist provocation and the realities of post-industrial Britain, the band rejected rock orthodoxy in favor of experimentation that would go on to shape industrial music, post-punk, electronic body music, and club culture itself.
Across a body of work that includes landmark releases such as Mix-Up, Red Mecca, and The Crackdown, Cabaret Voltaire bridged underground tape culture and the emerging electronic mainstream, influencing generations of artists while remaining resolutely independent in spirit. Watson departed the group in 1981, with Mallinder continuing alongside Kirk until the project went dormant in the mid-1990s.
After a long period of inactivity, Kirk revived Cabaret Voltaire in 2014 with a performance at Berlin’s Atonal Festival, followed by a final trilogy of studio releases — Shadow of Fear, BN9Drone, and Dekadrone — issued between 2020 and 2021. Kirk’s death in Autumn 2021 brought that chapter to a close. Mallinder and Watson have since stated unequivocally that no new recordings will be made under the Cabaret Voltaire name.
The newly announced North American dates mark the group’s return to the continent as part of this final live chapter. The shows will feature I Speak Machine as a special guest.
Tickets for the West Coast leg of the tour go on sale this Friday, January 23. East Coast dates will be announced later.
Final USA + Canada Tour — May 2026:
May 4, 2026 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
May 6, 2026 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
May 8, 2026 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
May 10, 2026 – Denver, CO – Summit
May 12, 2026 – Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether
May 15, 2026 – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
More North American dates will be announced.
These USA and Canada performances follow the announcement of Cabaret Voltaire’s Final UK Tour in October 2026 and a series of Final European dates scheduled throughout March and June 2026, collectively bringing one of the most uncompromising and influential live legacies in electronic music to a close.
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