TWO SWEET TOUR RUMORS: SYSTEM OF A DOWN WITH DEFTONES AND ANOTHER G3 TOUR

UPDATE, 2:47pm EDT: Dates for the System of a Down + Deftones tour have been announced! Head on over to Metal Insider to check them out. More will presumably be added soon.

Original Post:

Rockstar Mayhem Festival, Summer Slaughter, Trespass America… the summer touring circuit in the U.S. is getting pretty crowded, but that’s not stopping even more bands from heading out on the road. Wait ’til you see some of the confirmed tour packages we’ve heard about but can’t publish yet. I hope you’re saving up those beans one at a time.

But here are two rumors we can publish: 1) System of a Down and Deftones touring together this summer, 2) a re-booted G3 guitar virtuoso tour this fall.

Rumors surrounding the SOAD + Deftones jaunt heated up Friday when System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian took to the band’s Twitter account with this photo of a Deftones all access tour pass. Meanwhile, Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno posted this photo of a System of a Down tour pass on the band’s official website. Both posts were captioned “Announcement coming Monday.” So yeah, that’s pretty unsubtle and goes beyond just a “rumor” — it’s happening. I guess the only potential surprise could be the form of the tour; maybe it’s actually a one-off festival or something? My money’s on a full major-market U.S. tour, though. It would be System of a Down’s first since coming off hiatus last year.

South American shred fans have something to be excited about as well, as Joe Satriani’s G3 tour has announced a couple of stops in Brazil in October. The tour will feature Satriani, Steve Morse, and for the first time in a while John Petrucci. I saw Petrucci on a G3 tour in New York sometime around 2003/2004, and it was quite a memorable experience; those of you in Brazil are in for a treat. I’d love to see the G3 tour come back to the U.S. Or, for that matter, how about a solo John Petrucci tour?

-VN