Tour news: Tenacious D, Nas, Dennis Marsh

Tenacious D. Photo/supplied

Before we get to the major international announcement of the week, let's hear it for a couple of local legends hitting the road.

Country music stars Dennis Marsh and Eddie Low are teaming up for the 16-date From Your Place to Our Place tour around the North Island, starting at Rotorua's Civic Theatre on April 3, and including a show at Auckland's SkyCity Theatre on April 16.

Marsh is New Zealand's biggest-selling country music artist with more 350,000 album sales, including his most recent album Sounds of the Pacific from last year and his 2011 No 1 album The Maori Songbook, which spent 26 weeks in the charts.

No wonder then he received the Legend Award at the annual New Zealand Country Music Awards that same year.

Low was also a recipient of the award in 2009 in recognition of a 50-year career that has taken him around the world and seen him share stages with many of music's greats, including Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride, and Kenny Rogers.

The long-time friends will perform the entire show together accompanied by their backing band the Midnight Special.

Tickets for the shows go on sale on February 19 from usual outlets, including Ticketek, Ticketmaster and Ticket Direct. For full tour dates go to eccles.co.nz.

Following their funny and foul-mouthed support slot for the Foo Fighters at Western Springs way back in late 2011, Tenacious D return for their very own headlining dates.

Made up of actor and front man Jack Black, and his faithful, if a little underappreciated sidekick, Kyle Gass, the band play Auckland Town Hall on May 20, Wellington Opera House, May 21, and the Bedford in Christchurch, May 22.

The tour is in support of last year's third album, Rize of the Fenix.

It was a return to form after 2006's The Pick of Destiny, which bombed in the wake of the success of their self-titled debut that included songs like Tribute and others that are far too rude to write about here.

Tickets on sale February 25 from buytickets.co.nz and ticketek.co.nz.

Meanwhile, the inaugural heavyweight hip-hop tour the Movement Festival will be headlined by legendary New York rapper Nas at Vector Arena on April 24.

His 1994 debut, Illmatic, is a hip-hop classic and since then he has gone on to release 11 solo albums including last year's Life is Good. He was last here alongside Damian Marley in support of the pair's joint album Distant Relatives.

On the 2013 Movement bill he will be joined by southern hip-hop star 2 Chainz - who guested on Beez in the Trap by Nicki Minaj and released his debut album Based On a T.R.U Story last year - Philadelphia hip-hop party boys Chiddy Bang, up-and-coming mixtape king and queen Joey Bada$$ and Angel Haze, and top local acts Homebrew, David Dallas and DJ Sir-Vere.

Tickets on sale Monday from ticketmaster.co.nz. See muchmoremusic.co.nz for more information.

In support act news, soul singer Mavis Staples returns to New Zealand as a special guest of Wilco for the alt-country stars' shows in Wellington on April 5 and the following night at Auckland Town Hall.

Staples, who, as part of the Staple Singers, provided the soundtrack to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, was last here in 2011 with Aaron Neville and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

And lastly, Kiwi soul diva Aaradhna will support the Jacksons at their Auckland show on March 26 at the Logan Campbell Centre.

- TimeOut