The Dream Syndicate will perform their visceral 1984 album Medicine Show on tour in the US and Europe beginning in November 2025 and carrying through March of 2026. The tour will sync with a reissue of Medicine Show (now expanded into a 4-CD set of 42 songs, 29 unreleased performances [live and studio] from 1983-84) and a vinyl LP on the band's own Down There label, distributed by Fire Records.

It will be the first time the band has played Medicine Show in its entirety and comes fresh on the heels of a similar and successful tour for The Days of Wine and Roses in 2022.

The band will open each evening with a set of new material, drawn from the four reunion albums they have made since 2017, take a short break and then switch over to Medicine Show - heralded as one of the 40 best rock albums ever by the London Guardian. It has been out of print in every format for decades.

The reissue comes on the heels of an intense and lengthy legal battle that ended with the band winning the rights to the album which they'll be signing every evening at the merch table after the show.

The Dream Syndicate burst onto the LA scene at the beginning of 1982 as the leaders of the Paisley Underground movement -- becoming one of the leading lights of the American Indie scene that was brewing after the birth of punk and new wave. Four albums and countless tours followed before The Dream Syndicate disbanded in 1988, then reuniting in 2012. The core band of Steve Wynn, Dennis Duck and Mark Walton from the first incarnation was joined by Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 guitarist Jason Victor and eventually Green on Red keyboardist Chris Cacavas, the lineup that endures to this day.

More on the box set from band archivist Pat Thomas:

In 1982, The Dream Syndicate started their own record company: Down There Records to release their self-titled 4-song 12-inch EP that included the first versions of "When You Smile" and "That's What You Always Say."

They went on to sign with Slash for Days of Wine & Roses, followed by A&M for the Medicine Showalbum. After a long-protracted debate with the massive Universal Music Group -- the band has earned the right to reissue Medicine Show as a 42 song 4-CD box featuring 29 unreleased recordings from that 1983-84 era. For this special occasion, The Dream Syndicate are resurrecting their Down There label which will be distributed by Fire Records.

The Dream Syndicate's Medicine Show album has always been controversial, even before it was recorded. Indie-rock darlings become the first Paisley Underground band to sign to a major label, hire a mainstream rock producer, change bass players, and spend months recording it after banging out the previous album, Days of Wine and Roses in mere hours.

What this new box set reveals -- is that as a live band -- between Steve's (then) new songs and his animated vocal performances, Karl's expanded guitar playing (taking it to outer space and beyond), various new bassists (Dave Provost, then Mark Walton) holding it down (while pumping it up), and of course Dennis Duck holding it rock steady -- The Medicine Show era was the shit!

And let's not forget the brief, but unique inclusion of Tommy Zvoncheck's keyboards - we offer for the first time ever, the complete WXRT radio broadcast from the reel-to-reel master tape, the original LP was truncated -- and we located really cool rehearsal and live tapes with Kendra Smith -- just before she exited.

It's all part of the story -- the early primitive versions of original songs, plenty of cover songs that the band mangled into new forms, finding themselves along the way. No longer, can anyone say "you should have heard the original 1982 lineup on stage" -- if you skipped the band performing 1983-84, you really missed out. Thankfully, shows from CBGB's, Zaders, Soap Creek -- reveal some incendiary magic.

And we're not talking just the live shows, check out the remastered studio album (mastered from the original analog tapes), it now sounds as Steve Wynn recently declared, "as I remember hearing it while we mixed it".

Like many other psychologically complex albums upon their release, Lou's Berlin, Neil's On the Beach, Big Star Third, John Lennon's solo debut Plastic Ono Band, The Who's Quadrophenia, Dylan's Blood on the Tracks - it takes a while, sometimes a long while to let it marinate into the psyche of the listener.

The Medicine Show has arrived -- long overdue actually.

For those who have read Steve Wynn's recent memoir -- you know about the 'breakdown' he suffered while recording this album. The load was heavy, his dreams beyond control, major label debut, intense record producer, novella songs, friction between band members. Yet, the band emerged with a maverick result.

We were saddled with an enormous task. Listening to dozens of hours of tapes, choosing what needed to be mastered, listening again to the mastered material -- trying to make the whole thing blend. It was a blend of inspired frustration -- moments that were artistically gorgeous and cathartic from the beauty of the music and discovering lost gems.

Frankly, it leaves The Days of Wine & Roses in the dust -- and we say that while still declaring that album one of the Top 20 records of the 1980s. This one is on the list as well -- sandwiched between Double Nickels on The Dime and Zen Arcade.