American rockers Wheatus announce new album and date at Belfast's Limelight on October 24

It’s hard to believe it’s now well over 20 years since Wheatus released their million-selling eponymously titled debut album and still ubiquitous single Teenage Dirtbag.

Yes, that’s right – “Dirtbag” is no longer a teenager.

In honour of this milestone, Wheatus will release a new specially expanded 20-track edition of their now classic debut long-player ‘Wheatus’ on December 1, 2023.

And to further celebrate the debut album’s imminent expanded release, the much-loved New York act are thrilled to announce an extensive new UK and Irish headline tour for autumn 2023.

Pandemics notwithstanding, the six-piece have kept busy these past few years with a seemingly endless run of shows across the globe, but this new autumn 2023 run of dates will be Wheatus’ first gigs on our shores in more than four years.

Commenting on the tour announcement, Wheatus frontman Brendan B Brown said: “We toured the UK, Ireland and Europe 18 years in a row from 2001-2019, some years more than once. The pandemic has paused that tradition since 2020. This opportunity to return is more precious to us than all the other years combined and we're gonna throw the kitchen sink at it”.

As part of the forthcoming tour Wheatus have confirmed that they will perform at Belfast’s Limelight 2 on October 24 with tickets one sale from Thursday April 6 at 10am after which you can access by clicking here.

The brilliant promo video for “Teenage Dirtbag,” featuring clips of Mena Suvari and Jason Biggs from the 2000 teen rom-com movie ‘Loser’, is fast closing in on an incredible 250 million views.

Watch the “Teenage Dirtbag” video HERE

The fiercely independent New York act has now released six studio albums and two live albums across their career.

Talking of the new 20-track expanded version of debut album ‘Wheatus’, Brendan B Brown said: “We found demos of ten more songs from throughout the band’s history that had such an album-one vibe that they never made it onto our more recent records. So now we’re giving them a proper chance to be heard. The new 20-song expanded version of the album will feature the originally conceived tracklisting and sequence, plus the extra ten songs that have finally found a home on a record.”

The past 12 months have seen Wheatus explode back into the mainstream with the “Teenage Dirtbag photos” TikTok trend going hugely viral across social media, with more than two billion views in less than a month.

The song has been shared and celebrated recently by Lil Nas X, Madonna, Paris Hilton, Lady Gaga, Chevy Chase, Jon Bon Jovi, Victoria Beckham, Alice Cooper, Millie Bobby Brown, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brooke Shields, Mark Ruffalo, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Heidi Klum, Mark Ronson, LL Cool J, Tony Hawk, Sammy Hagar, Nick Kroll, Lupita Nyong’o, Machine Gun Kelly, Anderson Paak, Jessica Alba, Mick Fleetwood, Sheryl Crow, Chris Pratt and Jamie Lee Curtis, amongst countless others all pushing the hashtag #teenagedirtbag.

As the band rightly conclude: “Teenage years may be fleeting, but it seems ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ is for life!”