Punk rock trio Ash have announced six Irish dates as part of their upcoming Ad Astra tour.

"It’s time for us to put you out of your misery," said the band in a statement on social media, "the Ad Astra tour is ready to launch."

The tour, which is due to kick off on September 9 in London, will include an Irish leg with gigs in Listowel, Dundalk, Galway, Cork, Limerick and a headline show at The Academy in Dublin.

Ad Astra follows the trio's Teenage Wildlife greatest hits tour, which started pre-pandemic and wrapped in 2023. The Downpatrick-formed group also released Race the Night in 2023, the band’s eighth studio album since they formed in 1992.

The self-produced record was inspired by the two year hiatus the band took during the pandemic. When the band finally reunited again in 2021, they began to work on the new record with renewed motivation.

"Madly, we sounded like we’d never been away,” says drummer Rick McMurray. “We sounded better than ever. It was probably one of my favourite days of being in a band – there was just such a buzz to get back in a room together.”

“I played a shit-ton of guitar in the pandemic,” says guitarist and singer Tim Wheeler, "There are some quite outstanding guitar solos on this record which are probably a result of that!”

Tickets for the headline show in The Academy go on sale Friday, May 23 at 10am. More information can be found here.

 

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