Taking Back Sunday tour follows Club Nokia gig with December dates

After a single performance at the new Club Nokia in Los Angeles, Taking Back Sunday (TBS) will be taking back the road with an early December jaunt. The tour begins December 3 at Concrete Street Amphitheatre in Corpus Christi, TX, and concludes with a December 19 gig at The Valarium in Knoxville, TN.

The 15-date trek will hit several cities in Texas before moving across the South and up through the Midwest markets. Highlights include a December 7 performance at Rialto Theatre in Tuscon, AZ, and a December 16 concert at the Norva in Norfolk, VA, the most northeastern date on the books. Envy on the Coast will provide support on all nights of the month-long trek.

Pre-sales for the all-ages shows begin October 9 at 10 a.m. (local time) and continue through October 10 at midnight. Public on-sales for most of the shows begin on October 11.

“We were excited to accept an invitation to help open the new Club Nokia in Downtown LA this November because we haven’t been out there for a while,” the group wrote in a statement on their official Web site. “We also decided to hit up a few places at the end of the year that we can’t always get to when we are trying to cover most of North America in a six week time frame.”

According to the statement, TBS will preview new music from their upcoming fourth studio album during the year-end jaunt. The band is currently writing and recording material for the effort, which is expected to be released in 2009.

The disc will be the band’s first studio record with new lead guitarist and vocalist Matt Fazzi. The musician, previously of the band Facing New York, officially joined the band in May. Former bandmate Fred Mascherino left the band in October 2007 to pursue his solo career, but his departure was hardly the first lineup change for the band. TBS almost broke up in 2003 when original back-up singer John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper left to form Straylight Run.

TBS formed in 1999 in Amityville, NY, and debuted in 2002 with the independent label release “Tell All Your Friends.” After releasing “Where You Want to Be” in 2004, the band switched to a major label for 2006’s “Louder Now,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.

Taking Back Sunday itinerary:
(Dates subject to change.)