“‘Cutthroat’ is an in-your-face introduction to the what’s to come. It’s steeped in attitude, with blown out yell-sing vocals from Steen.” — Paste
Today, shame announce a 2026 North American tour and release “Quiet Life,” the second single/video from their new album Cutthroat, out September 5th via Dead Oceans. Following an EU/UK tour kicking off in September, the band will bring their legendary live show to North American in January, making stops in Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and more. A full list of dates is below, and tickets go on sale Friday, July 11th at 10am local time.
On the heels of title track, “Cutthroat,” praised by Brooklyn Vegan as “a fun, in-your-face riff rock banger,” “Quiet Life,” is a snarling rockabilly track in the vein of The Gun Club and The Cramps. Of the track, vocalist Charlie Steen says: “‘Quiet Life’ is about someone in a shitty relationship. It’s about the judgment they receive and the struggle that they have to go through, trying to understand the conflict they face, of wanting a better life… but being stuck.” In the song’s opening lines, Steen sings, “Spent too much time on my knees. / Round here nothing’s good for me, / But I still can’t make the choice to leave.” The video, directed by Pedro Takahashi and produced by FRIEND, features the band and friends venting their pent-up frustrations in a run-down office building.
Cutthroat is shame at their blistering best; an unapologetic new album made with Grammy winning producer John Congleton at the helm. “It’s about the cowards, the cunts, the hypocrites,” says Steen. “Let’s face it, there’s a lot of them around right now.”
Still in their twenties and having proved themselves several times over since their 2018 debut, Songs of Praise, the five childhood friends – singer Charlie Steen, guitarists Sean Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green, bassist Josh Finerty and drummer Charlie Forbes – went into Cutthroat ready to create a new Ground Zero. Stamped throughout with shame’s trademark sense of humour, the album takes on the big issues of today and gleefully toys with them. Holed up in Salvation Studios in Brighton, they cast a merciless eye on themes of conflict and corruption; hunger and desire; lust, envy and the omnipresent shadow of cowardice.
Musically, too, the record plays with visceral new ideas. Making electronic music on tour for fun, Coyle-Smith had previously seen the loops he was crafting as a separate entity to the things he wrote for shame. Then, he realised, maybe they didn’t have to be. “This time, anything could go if it sounded good and you got it right,” he says. This cheeky self-awareness, too, is important. The result is an album that revels in the idiosyncrasies of life, raising an eyebrow and asking the ugly questions that so often get tactfully brushed over. But the one answer that Cutthroat gives with a resounding flourish is that, right now, shame have never sounded better.
Shame Cutthroat U.S. & Canadian Tour Poster
SHAME TOUR DATES
Sun. Sept. 28 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
Mon. Sept. 29 – Antwerp, BE @ TRIX
Tue. Sept. 30 – Cologne, DE Gebäude 9
Thu. Oct. 2 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Fri. Oct. 3 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje
Sat. Oct. 4 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust
Mon. Oct. 6 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumphuset
Tue. Oct. 7- Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret AS
Wed. Oct. 8 – Stockholm, SE @ Slaktkyrkan
Fri. Oct. 10 – Helsinki, FI @ Korjaamo
Sat. Oct. 11 – Tallinn, EE @ Paavli Kultuurivabrik
Sun. Oct. 12 – Riga, LV @ Palladium
Tue. Oct. 14 – Vilnius, LT @ Kultūra
Wed. Oct. 15 – Warsaw, PL @ NIEBO
Thu. Oct. 16 – Berlin, DE @ SO36
Sat. Oct. 18 – Prague, CZ @ MeetFactory
Sun. Oct. 19 – Bratislava Nov. a, SK @ CverNov. ka
Mon. Oct. 20 – Vienna, AU @ Chelsea
Wed. Oct. 22 – Zagreb, HR @ Club Mochvara
Thu. Oct. 23 – Belgrade, RS @ Zappa Baza
Fri. Oct. 24 – Sofia, BG @ Mixtape 5
Sun. Oct. 26 – Istanbul, TK @ Blind
Tue. Oct. 28 – Bucharest, RO Control
Wed. Oct. 29 – Cluj, RO @ Atelier
Thu. Oct. 30 – Budapest, HU A38
Fri. Oct. 31 – Munich, DE @ Strom
Sun. Nov. 2 – Zurich, CH @ Plaza
Mon. Nov. 3 – Milan, IT @ Magazzini Generali
Wed. Nov. 5 – Lyon, FR @ L’Epicerie Moderne
Thu. Nov. 6 – Reims, FR @ La Cartonnerie
Fri. Nov. 7 – Lille, FR @ L’Aeronef
Sun. Nov. 9 – Southampton, UK @ 1865
Mon. Nov. 10 – Leeds, UK @ Project House
Wed. Nov. 12 – Dublin, IE @ National Stadium
Thu. Nov. 13 – Cork, IE @ Cypress Avenue
Sat. Nov. 15 – Manchester, UK @ New Century
Sun. Nov. 16 – Glasgow, UK @ The Garage
Mon. Nov. 17 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Wed. Nov. 19 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk
Thu. Nov. 20 – London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town
Thu. Jan. 15 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
Fri. Jan. 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
Sat. Jan. 17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Mon. Jan. 19 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
Tue-Jan. 20 – Portsmouth, NH @ The Press Room
Wed. Jan. 21 – Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
Fri. Jan. 23 – Toronto, ON @Phoenix Concert Theatre
Sat. Jan. 24 – Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
Sun. Jan. 25 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
Tue. Jan. 27 – St. Paul, MN @Turf Club
Thu. Jan. 29 – Oklahoma City, OK @Beer City Music Hall
Fri. Jan. 30 – Dallas, TX @Sons of Hermann Hall
Sat. Jan. 31 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Tue. Feb. 3 – Tucson, AZ @ La Rosa
Thu. Feb. 5 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Fri. Feb. 6 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
Sat. Feb. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Belasco Theatre
Tue. Feb. 10 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Thu. Feb. 12 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Fri. Feb. 13 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Sat. Feb. 14 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl