Cass McCombs announces show at London’s Union Chapel
CASS MCCOMBS ANNOUNCES SHOW AT LONDON’S UNION CHAPEL ON 20 FEBRUARY AS PART OF “INTERIOR LIVE OAK” EUROPEAN TOUR
SHARES VIDEO FOR ‘MISSIONARY BELL’
NEW ALBUM INTERIOR LIVE OAK OUT NOW VIA DOMINO
“74 minutes doesn’t feel remotely long enough with McCombs on this sort of form”
5/5 The Guardian ‘Album of the Week’
“A whole new peak […]. How he manages to keep up this level of excellence over 16 tracks is anyone’s guess”
5/5 The London Standard
“McCombs’ songwriting is in top form”
8.1 Pitchfork
Watch the video for ‘Missionary Bell’ here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j5ipfq1qWE
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Cass McCombs has today announced a European and North American headline tour on the heels of the release of his latest album, Interior Live Oak, and late summer headline, festival, and support dates. The tour will bring Cass and his band to London for a show at Union Chapel on 20 February 2026 as well as playing a number of shows in Europe. A full list of dates and tickets can be found below.
In conjunction with the tour announcement, Cass releases a new video for ‘Missionary Bell’, “the very best of the ballads [on Interior Live Oak], a song whose melody is so simple and expressive you can scarcely believe it hasn’t always existed” (The Guardian). The video was directed by Andy Madeleine and features archival footage of the Bay Area and Monterey through the 20th century, including footage from the Occupation of Alcatraz.
From the video makers:
“When we were coming up with ideas for this video, we kept thinking about the question that the lyrics asks, “What else is as heavy as a missionary bell?”
So we made a long list:
A washing machine.
A hippopotamus.
A tank.
A cement trunk.
A wet mattress.
A blue whale’s tongue.
A pizza oven, and so on…
Next, we consulted Google on what were the world’s heaviest monastery bells, and here was the result:
77,000 pounds! We were way off base. We concluded a fully loaded big rig, depending on the cargo, weighs 80,000 pounds, slightly over that of a missionary bell. We started to itemize the hypothetical cargo on our hypothetical big rig, and that’s when the in-fighting began. So we ended up just scrapping that idea, and we made this video instead.”
Interior Live Oak is Cass’s most personal album to date, and, more than any previous record, shows his vast range as a lyricist and musician. The album draws from everything Cass has created over two decades of experimentation and cuts through with a direct and clarifying light. Throughout, his attitude is hopeful, which may sound odd for someone who often sings about the more extreme aspects of modern life. Interior Live Oak, however, is the resolve of someone who has lived those extremes. In a time of temporal anxieties, Cass’s music seeks an alternate route to break through the noise and discover a moment of presence— of beauty.
Purchase Interior Live Oak here:
https://cassmccombs.ffm.to/interiorliveoak
Photo credit: Silvia Grav
High-res images are available here
Tour dates:
16 Feb – Winterthur, CH @ Salzhaus
18 Feb – Istanbul, TR @ Blind
20 Feb – London, UK @ Union Chapel
22 Feb – Dublin, IE @ Worksmans Club
17 Mar – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon #
19 Mar – New York, NY @ LPR #
20 Mar – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom #
21 Mar – Boston, MA @ Brighton #
22 Mar – Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse #
24 Mar – Montreal, QC @ Le Ritz #
25 Mar – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern #
27 Mar – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig #
28 Mar – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall #
29 Mar – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium #
30 Mar – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club #
1 Apr – Denver, CO @ Bluebird #
4 Apr – Seattle, WA @ Tractor *
5 Apr – Portland, OR @ Aladdin *
7 Apr – Petaluma, CA @ Mystic Theater *
9 Apr – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall *
10 Apr – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room *
11 Apr – Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour *
# with support from Chris Cohen
* with support from Hand Habits (solo)
Tickets are available here:
https://cassmccombs.com/
Praise for Interior Live Oak:
“74 minutes doesn’t feel remotely long enough with McCombs on this sort of form”
5/5 The Guardian ‘Album of the Week’
“A whole new peak […]. How he manages to keep up this level of excellence over 16 tracks is anyone’s guess”
5/5 The London Standard
“McCombs’ songwriting is in top form”
8.1 Pitchfork
“Cass McCombs’s quietly brilliant new record cements him as truly elusive storyteller”
The Observer ‘Albums of the Week’
“Peerless lyricism”
9/10 Uncut
“The kind of record it’s impossible to be casual about”
4/5 Mojo
“What great songs these are”
4/5 The Times
“Amongst McCombs finest achievements so far”
8/10 The Line of Best Fit
4/5 Far Out ‘Album of the Week’
8/10 Americana UK
“A cast of unreliable narrators that only cement his own musical consistency and earnestness”
4/5 Our Culture
“An album of layered, witty and fully felt elisions”
4/5 Record Collector
“Cass McCombs is in fine form”
The Telegraph
“America’s most literate, daring singer-songwriter under the age of 50. […] Nobody does it better”
The New Cue
“One of his strongest collections of songs […] you are left feeling both satisfied and beguiled, hoping that this might be the one that gets McCombs the broader recognition he deserves”
KLOF
“His work stands out through its dogged individuality, matching a potent literary sensibility to his astute use of melody as a weapon to make incisions on your heart”
Clash
“Superb entry in McCombs’ outstanding catalog of songs”
Beats Per Minute