This summer, Washington, D.C.'s Darkest Hour will celebrate a major milestone in the band's history—their 20th anniversary—with a tour of select dates in North America and Europe.
To commemorate the event, presenting sponsor ESP Guitars—along with director Alex Wohleber and Outerloop Management Creative Director Nikhil Potdar—has put together a brief film, Out of Step, featuring Darkest Hour's Mike Schleibaum.
In the video, which you can check out below, Schleibaum reflects on his early years, his first guitar and other milestones from the past 20 years.
"To say we feel lucky to have been able to pursue this crazy dream of rocking and rolling for so many years would be a tremendous understatement," Schleibaum says. "The honor that it has been to travel the world and make new friends while partying with old ones has not been lost on us. Playing live has always been at the heart of what we do as artists and therefore we felt it only right to commemorate our 20th anniversary as a band.”
Chris Cannella, director of artist relations/product management at ESP Guitars, adds:
“When I started at ESP last year, one of my first goals was to make a connection between ESP and Darkest Hour. There are some bands and guitar brands that you just know will be a perfect fit, and this was one of them. I consider myself a huge fan of Darkest Hour, and even before I started at ESP, I wanted them to be using the guitars and basses that would be the absolute best for their music.
"We first brought on Mike Schleibaum to the ESP artist family, then Aaron Deal quickly followed. Just this month, we’ve added Lonestar. These guys are well deserving of the overdue recognition they’re getting right now, and we are proud they’re all using ESP for their 20th anniversary events."
Speaking of which, you can check out all the band's currently scheduled shows below. The tour will find the band performing their 2005 album, Undoing Ruin, in its entirety.
- 6/24 - Gramercy Theater @ New York City, NY
- 6/25 - Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
- 6/27 - Toronto, ON @ Hard Luck w/Ion Dissonance * no DTF
- 6/28 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
- 6/30 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
- 7/01 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
For tickets and more information, visit fuckwaitingaroundtodie.com. For more about Darkest Hour, follow along on YouTube. For more about ESP Guitars, visit espguitars.com.
