The Album of the Year Tour was a concert tour by San Francisco band Faith No More, in support of their 1997 release Album of the Year. It was Faith No More's final tour before their original breakup in April 1998. Only 32 of the dates were in their native North America, due to the band's greater popularity overseas at the time.
Background The tour covered several continents, lasting from April 1997 to December 1997. During April 1998, the band reconvened for three festival dates in Spain and Portugal. These would end up being their last shows in over 10 years, as they announced their split later that month.
When Album of the Year was released in June 1997, Mike Bordin was called in to perform with Ozzy Osbourne for that year's edition of Ozzfest, which ran from May 24 to July 1. This resulted in Robin Guy (of the band Rachel Stamp) filling in on drums for Bordin during a UK Top of the Pops performance on May 30, as well as an absence of any Faith No More shows during the month of June. Shortly after he returned from Ozzfest, the band had to cancel four July dates in Europe, so Bordin could attend the birth of his first daughter in San Francisco.
The Album of the Year tour is notable for featuring Limp Bizkit, a nu metal/rap metal band greatly influenced by Faith No More, as an opener for several 1997 US dates. They were frequently booed by Faith No More's fans, including during a September 1997 concert at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, where the crowd booed them off stage.September 20, 1997 Philadelphia, Electric Factory gig review In a 2013 interview, Roddy Bottum reflected on the shows with Limp Bizkit, recalling "I fought it at the time. I had to really push to get a couple bands that I liked to get on the bill in Portland and Seattle on that leg. I had no interest in the sound of Limp Bizkit. It was not how I wanted to be represented at all. Not to be snotty at all, but that guy Fred Durst had a really bad attitude. He was kind of a jerk." Bottum also remembered an incident where Durst "called the audience faggots at one show when they booed him." Durst apologized to him after this show, as he did not know that Bottum had come out as gay in the early 90s. Limp Bizkit's guitarist Wes Borland later claimed that his band were excited about the prospect of getting to tour with Faith No More, stating "the idea of it was cool [but] once we got there, it was a really tough crowd. They have a really tough crowd to please, who are very vocal about not liking you. We opened for Faith No More and Primus in the same year, and the Primus tour went a lot better than the Faith No More tour."Borland, Wes. 2017. Talk Toomey Podcast Borland added that he did not get to know Mike Patton personally until several years later.
During the tour, they would cover various songs, both in full and as snippets, such as the Aqua song "Barbie Girl", "Highway Star" by Deep Purple, Will Smith's "Men in Black", Herb Alpert's "This Guy's in Love with You" and the R. Kelly songs "I Believe I Can Fly" and "Gotham City". An intro tape was used at the beginning of shows, which contained "Also sprach Zarathustra", followed by an Elvis-style fanfare clip announcing Faith No More as being from Caesars Palace, Las Vegas. The band's setlists for the tour mainly consisted of their 1990s material, with songs from Introduce Yourself and The Real Thing being played less frequently than before. However, the track "As the Worm Turns" (from 1985's We Care a Lot) began to appear more often this tour, having been mostly absent throughout the 1995 King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime tour. All songs from Album of the Year were played during the tour, with the sole exception of "She Loves Me Not", which still remains one of the only studio album songs Faith No More has never performed live. The two b-sides "The Big Kahuna" and "Light Up & Let Go" were also not played, and have remained unperformed to this day. "Helpless" was only performed a single time on the tour, during the October 26, 1997 show at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia.
On the European legs, Faith No More performed in Croatia and Luxembourg, two countries they had never previously visited.
Concert dates Early European shows {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" |- ! style="width:200px;"| Date ! style="width:200px;"| City ! style="width:150px;"| Country ! style="width:300px;"| Venue !Other Performers |- | April 22, 1997(First show since September 1995, and first show with Jon Hudson) || London|| England || Hippodrome|| |- | April 28, 1997 || Stockholm|| Sweden || Electric Garden || |- | April 30, 1997 || Amsterdam|| Netherlands || Paradiso||Hanniball |- | May 3, 1997 || Paris|| France || Élysée Montmartre|| Treponem Pal |- | May 4, 1997 || Cologne || rowspan="3" | Germany || Bürgerhaus Stollwerck || |- | May 5, 1997 || Berlin || SO 36 || |- | May 6, 1997 || Hamburg|| Markthalle|| Bad Sin |- | May 8, 1997 || Paris || France || Nulle Part Ailleurs || |- | May 12, 1997 || Glasgow|| Scotland || Arches|| |- | May 13, 1997 || Nottingham|| rowspan="4" | England || Rock City|| |- | May 13, 1997 || rowspan="3" | London || Astoria|| A |- | May 16, 1997 || TFI Friday || |- | May 30, 1997(With Robin Guy of Rachel Stamp on drums) || BBC Top of the Pops || Spice Girls |- | colspan="5"|Album of the Year is released around the world in June 1997|}
July '97 Florida shows Date City Country VenueOther Performers July 4, 1997 Tampa United States Pinellas County Fairgrounds Our Lady Peace, Mighty Joe Plum, Sugartooth, Cool for August, Creed, Naked July 5, 1997 Sunrise Markham Park Better Than Ezra, The Nixons, Orbit
First European leg Date City Country VenueOther Performers July 10, 1997(Cancelled due to the birth of Mike Bordin's daughter) Naples Italy Open Air at the Sea July 11, 1997(Cancelled due to the birth of Mike Bordin's daughter) Venice Beach Bum Rock Festival July 12, 1997(Cancelled due to the birth of Mike Bordin's daughter) Frauenfeld Switzerland Out in the Green Festival July 13, 1997(Cancelled due to the birth of Mike Bordin's daughter) Wels Austria Festival July 15, 1997 Katowice Poland Spodek Sporthall Flapjack July 17, 1997 Prague Czech Republic Sky Club Brumlovka Satisfucktion July 19, 1997 Zeebrugge Belgium Beach Rock Festival Simple Minds, Wet Wet Wet, Neneh Cherry, Mark Owen, Shaggy July 20, 1997 Stratford Upon Avon England Phoenix Festival David Bowie, Billy Bragg, Catatonia, Apollo 440 July 23, 1997 Copenhagen Denmark Vega July 24, 1997 Oslo Norway Rockefeller July 26, 1997 Stockholm Sweden Lollipop Festival July 28, 1997 Helsinki Finland Kulttuuritalo August 14, 1997(Cancelled) Cunlhat France Free-Wheels Festival August 16, 1997 Cologne Germany Bizarre Festival Silverchair, Fettes Brot, Marilyn Manson, Rollins Band, Bush, Skunk Anansie, Atari Teenage Riot, Catherine, Das Auge Gottes, Deine Lakaien, Descendents, Pist.On, Sans Secours August 17, 1997 Budapest Hungary Pepsi-sziget fesztivál Tankcsapda, New Model Army, Ladánybene 27 August 19, 1997 Haifa Israel City Hall August 20, 1997 Tel-Aviv Cinerama August 22, 1997 Trutnov Czech Republic Trutnov Open Air Festival August 24, 1997 Dronten Netherlands Lowlands Festival Foo Fighters, Life of Agony, Heideroosjes, Rowwen Hèze, Skunk Anansie, Rammstein, Blur, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pigmeat, Millencolin, Pennywise, I Against I August 25, 1997 Luxembourg Luxembourg Den Atelier August 26, 1997 Utrecht Netherlands Tivoli August 27, 1997 Rotterdam Night Town August 29, 1997 Strasbour France La Laiterie August 30, 1997 Konstanz Germany Rock Am See Festival August 31, 1997 Bologna Italy Arena Parco Nord Eels
North American leg Date City Country VenueOther Performers September 5, 1997 Tinley Park, IL United States New World Music Theatre Veruca Salt, Silverchair, Seven Mary Three, Megadeth, Local H, Limp Bizkit, Helmet, Gravity Kills, Days of the New, Cracker September 7, 1997 Tulsa Mohawk Park Helmet, Sugar Ray, Reel Big Fish, Our Lady Peace, Smash Mouth, Caroline's Spine, Outhouse, Artificial Joy Club, Groove Pilots September 9, 1997 St. Louis Mississippi Nights Limp Bizkit September 10, 1997 Columbus Newport Music Hall September 11, 1997 Cincinnati Bogart's September 12, 1997 Atlanta Masquerade September 13, 1997 Charlotte Blockbuster Pavilion Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Blues Traveler, Primus, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Soul Coughing September 14, 1997 Virginia Beach Virginia Beach Amphitheater Seven Mary Three, The Nixons, Corrosion of Conformity, Jimmie's Chicken Shack September 16, 1997 Washington 9:30 Club Limp Bizkit September 17, 1997 Sea Bright The Tradewinds September 18, 1997 Providence Strand Theatre September 19, 1997 New York Roseland Ballroom September 20, 1997 Philadelphia Electric Factory September 21, 1997 Worcester Green Hill Park Limp Bizkit, Godsmack, Sector 98, Fjlex September 22, 1997(Rumored; not officially confirmed) Rochester Waterstreet Music Hall Limp Bizkit September 23, 1997 Cleveland Agora Theatre September 24, 1997 Detroit St. Andrews Hall September 25, 1997 Milwaukee Modjeska Theatre September 26, 1997 Bonner Springs Sandstone Amphitheatre Pantera, Machine Head, Limp Bizkit, Coal Chamber September 27, 1997 Dallas Deep Ellum Live Limp Bizkit September 28, 1997 New Orleans Marconi Meadows Foo Fighters, Fiona Apple, Better Than Ezra, Candlebox, Cowboy Mouth, Limp Bizkit, Reel Big Fish October 1, 1997 Denver Odgen Theatre Limp Bizkit October 2, 1997 Salt Lake City Brick's October 3, 1997 Las Vegas Huntridge Theatre October 4, 1997 Phoenix Celebrity Theater Limp Bizkit, Grey Daze October 5, 1997 Los Angeles Palace Limp Bizkit October 6, 1997 San Francisco The Warfield lowercase October 8, 1997 Portland La Luna October 10, 1997 Vancouver Canada Rage October 11, 1997 Seattle United States Moore Theatre
Australia/New Zealand leg Date City Country VenueOther Performers October 16, 1997 Wellington New Zealand Queens Wharf October 17, 1997 Auckland North Shore Events Centre Go Ask Alice October 20, 1997 Sydney Australia Hordern Pavilion Shihad October 21, 1997 October 23, 1997 Newcastle Workers Club October 24, 1997 Brisbane Brisbane Entertainment Centre October 26, 1997 Melbourne Festival Hall Shihad October 27, 1997 October 29, 1997 Adelaide Adelaide Entertainment Centre November 1, 1997 Perth Perth Entertainment Centre Shihad
Japanese leg Date City Country VenueOther Performers November 5, 1997 Nagoya Japan Club Quattro November 6, 1997 Osaka Sinsaibashi November 7, 1997 Tokyo Shibuya On Air East November 8, 1997
Second European leg Date City Country VenueOther Performers November 11, 1997 Hamburg Germany Grosse Freiheit November 12, 1997 Berlin Huxley's Neue Welt November 13, 1997 Ludwigsburg Forum Am Schlosspark November 14, 1997 Sursee Stadthalle November 15, 1997 Geneva Switzerland Vernier sur Rock November 17, 1997 Munich Germany Colosseum Radish November 18, 1997 Vienna Austria Libro Music Hall November 19, 1997 Ljubljana Slovenia Hala Tivoli Odpisani, Psycho-Path November 20, 1997 Zagreb Croatia Dom Sportova November 21, 1997 Milan Italy Palalido Radish November 23, 1997 Moscow Russia Lushniki Tequilajazzz, Green Gray, Naive November 25, 1997 Offenbach am Main Germany Stadthalle Offenbach Eskimos and Egypt, Radish November 26, 1997 Düsseldorf Stahlwerk November 27, 1997 Hannover Music Hall Eskimos and Egypt, Radish November 29, 1997 London England Brixton Academy Radish November 30, 1997 Cambridge Corn Exchange December 1, 1997 Wolverhampton Civic Hall December 3, 1997 Manchester Manchester Academy Radish December 4, 1997 Nottingham Rock City December 5, 1997 London TFI Friday December 5, 1997 Glasgow Scotland Barrowlands December 6, 1997 Innsbruck Austria MTV Air & Style Event December 8, 1997 Lyon France Transbordeur December 9, 1997 Paris Canal + Studios December 9, 1997 Paris Le Bataclan Radish December 10, 1997 Lille L'Aéronef
Late European shows