The Afghan Whigs will kick off the North American leg of their Soft Control tour on Wednesday at The Beacham in downtown Orlando, with the show set for 7 p.m. at the venue's address on 46 N. Orange Ave. The Cincinnati alternative rock band's current lineup features frontman Greg Dulli alongside fellow founding member and bassist John Curley, guitarist Christopher Thorn, multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and drummer Bryan Lee Brown.
Soft Control, released in August 2026 through Royal Cream/BMG, marks the band's 10th studio album and its fourth since the Afghan Whigs reunited in 2012 after a 12-year hiatus, according to Orlando Weekly. The band recorded 22 songs for the project before narrowing the tracklist down to 10, as Pitchfork reported. Sessions for the record took place at studios in Joshua Tree, New Orleans, East Hollywood and Cincinnati, according to a statement from The Afghan Whigs.
A Cross-Country Record With Guest Voices
The album opens with “Jungle Roux,” which features a synthesizer part that originated from a recording mistake, the Orlando Weekly report notes. “Memphis, Texas” brings in vocalist and violist Petra Haden, a member of That Dog and The Rentals. Elsewhere on the record, “Duvateen” began with a riff inspired by Keith Richards, “House of I” includes deliberate doo-doo-doo backing vocals, and “The Deepest Part of the Darkest Shadow” features trumpet.
Dulli has described the band's songwriting in reflective terms, telling the outlet, “We are a compilation of our memories.” He has credited his mother with shaping his musical foundation through their shared listening to soul music, and the Orlando Weekly piece notes he bought his first record, the Jackson 5 single “I Want You Back,” at age 4 — a song later echoed in “Debonair,” which combines that Jackson 5 hit with the Twin Peaks title theme on the band's 1993 album Gentlemen.
From Sub Pop Roots to a Covers-Happy Catalog
The Afghan Whigs shared Sub Pop's roster with Nirvana and Soundgarden during the 1990s, per the same Orlando Weekly account, even as their sound diverged from grunge toward soul and R&B influences. The band has also built a reputation for unlikely covers, having reworked TLC's “Creep” and reimagined the Supremes' “My World Is Empty Without You” over the bassline of Hall & Oates' “Maneater.” Dulli has said he would never sing a song he did not feel like singing, a philosophy that appears to extend to how the band treats its own catalog live — the opening seven songs of a recent spring tour came from seven different albums.
For the Orlando show, the band plans a deliberate lighting and visual presentation without elaborate stage production, according to the Orlando Weekly report. Minneapolis psychedelic-rock act Night Moves will open, a group Dulli has called one of his favorite bands. Pitchfork reported that Night Moves is set to join the Afghan Whigs for the North American leg, which begins in Orlando on Nov. 4; the overall fall tour, including earlier European dates, was planned to run from mid-September through late November 2026.
A Busy Year on the Road
The Orlando date follows a run in which the Afghan Whigs played 20 shows earlier in 2026, including a sold-out concert at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club that grossed $36,180 off 804 tickets sold, according to Pollstar Boxoffice figures reported by Pollstar. The outlet's listed itinerary also included stops in Atlanta on Nov. 5, Baltimore on Nov. 8, Toronto on Nov. 11 and New Orleans on Nov. 19, giving Central Florida fans a chance to catch the band before it heads north and west.
