Ex-STRAPPING YOUNG LAD frontman Devin Townsend has confirmed the tentative DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT live date announced on January 2nd. It will take place on March 20th in Auckland at the Transmission Room. Tickets are on sale now through moshtix.co.nz and undertheradar.co.nz.

Townsend's Australian / New Zealand tour schedule is as follows:

March

12 - Brisbane, Australia - The Hi-Fi
13 - Sydney, Australia - Enmore Theatre
14 - Melbourne, Australia - Billboard
16 - Adelaide, Australia - Fowlers
18 - Perth, Australia - Metro Fremantle
20 - Auckland, New Zealand - Transmission Room

Fan-filmed footage of Townsend's return to the stage with the Devin Townsend Project in Nashville, TN on January 8th is available below. It was Townsend's first gig in almost three years.

The setlist on the night was as follows:

'Supercrush'

'Kingdom'

'Addicted'

'Truth'

'Regulator' (jam)

'By Your Command'

'Ziltoid Attaxx!'

Townsend's North American tour schedule is now as follows:

January (with BTBAM, CYNIC and SCALE THE SUMMIT)

11 - Houston, TX - The Meridian
12 - Dallas, TX - The Prophet Bar
13 - San Antonio, TX - The White Rabbit
15 - Tempe, AZ - The Clubhouse
16 - San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
17 - Hollywood, CA - Sunset Strip
18 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
20 - Denver, CO - Cervantes
22 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall
23 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
24 - Chicago, IL - House Of Blues
25 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody's Downunder
26 - Toronto, ON - Opera House
27 - Montreal, QC - Club Soda
28 - Boston, MA - House Of Blues
29 - Clifton Park, NY - Northern Lights
30 - New York, NY - The Fillmore
31 - Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero

February

1 - Baltimore, MD - Sonar
3 - St. Peterburg, FL - State Theatre
6 - Charlotte, NC - The Fillmore

Townsend recently spoke to BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai about his new album, Addicted. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

“I wasn’t going to tour until all four records were done,” he reveals, “but as a musician in the current climate – because records really don’t sell that much anymore when it comes to artists like myself – if what you want to do for a living is continue to create, touring in 2010 is essential. There’s no real other way to say to people ‘Here’s what I have to offer.’ The trepidation that I had with touring and doing press for Strapping, a lot of that came from the fact that because my head wasn’t clear and somebody would ask me ‘Why did you do this?’ I didn’t have a good answer. I was so afraid of myself and what the true answer was I couldn’t talk about it. There was a choice there. I had the choice to stop and to not be a musician. There was something under the surface and it took me three years to come to the conclusion that I fucking love being a musician.”

It’s worth noting, however, that Townsend will be leaving one very significant part of his past under lock and key when he finally hits the stage again:

“No Strapping tunes,” he says, blunt and dead serious. “I think the thing people will be shocked by is how heavy the Ziltoid stuff is. We’re doing a lot of Ziltoid, we’re doing a lot of Physicist, and man, some of that music is every bit as heavy Strapping when it’s in a live context. There are going to be a certain amount of people thinking that I’m distancing myself from my past, but that’s not the case. For me to distance myself from Strapping is ridiculous because Strapping was who I was when I was doing it. Every minute of it. There’s no embarrassment and that’s what led me to where I am today. I love Strapping Young Lad. We did everything to the best of our abilities, I love Jed (Simon) and Gene (Hoglan) and Byron (Stroud), but unfortunately because I’ve solved certain things in my emotional development in an artistic sense, going back to it for the sake of the fans or money is incredibly disgusting artistically.”

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