The Wallflowers, Early James

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Yasmin Than

A close-up of Jakob Dylan.

Jakob Dylan

You might have seen the Wallflowers before, but not like this. On their current tour, the alt-rock mainstays will perform the quadruple-platinum 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse in its entirety. The second release from the band led by Jakob Dylan (yes, Bob’s son) spawned four singles — including “One Headlight” and “6th Avenue Heartbreak.” But that’s not all. The Wallflowers also will perform Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ often-overlooked 1982 album, Long After Dark, from front to back. Petty asked Dylan to induct Petty and his band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, and now Dylan is honoring a major influence. Singer-songwriter Early James, who is signed to the label of The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, opens.

media release: The Wallflowers have announced a special 2026 US & European tour that will see the band perform their acclaimed 1996 album Bringing Down the Horse in its entirety, alongside Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Long After Dark, also played front-to-back. The run marks the first time the band has performed Bringing Down the Horse in full in honor of the LP’s 30th anniversary and promises a unique live experience for audiences across the US and Europe. 

Speaking about the tour, Jakob Dylan said, “Coming back after such a long time, we wanted to do something special for the 30th anniversary of Bringing Down the Horse. We decided to play what seems to be our fans’ favorite Wallflowers album, and for us, we wanted to play one of our favorite Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers records, Long After Dark.”

Released in 1996, Bringing Down the Horse became a defining album of its era. The record sold over four million copies worldwide and produced four hit singles: “One Headlight,” “The Difference,” “Three Marlenas,” and “6th Avenue Heartache.” At the 1998 Grammy Awards, The Wallflowers won “Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group,” while “One Headlight” was awarded “Best Rock Song.” The track remains a cultural mainstay, topping Billboard’s “Greatest of All Time Adult Alternative Songs” chart in 2021. The album’s monumental success launched a career that now spans three decades.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Long After Dark is widely regarded as one of the band’s finest works. A longtime admirer of Petty and the Heartbreakers, Dylan was personally asked by Petty to induct him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Their friendship was further highlighted in the 2018 documentary Echo in the Canyon, executive produced by and starring Dylan. The film marked Tom Petty’s final on-screen appearance and became one of the top ten highest-grossing theatrical documentaries of that year.

In addition to revisiting these landmark albums, The Wallflowers continue to build on their enduring legacy. Their 2021 release, Exit Wounds, reaffirmed the band’s signature sound — lean, potent, and entrancing. Uncut magazine praised the album, writing, “...Exit Wounds rocks with smouldering intensity,” while MOJO declared in a four-star review, “It’s his best original work by some years.” Pitchfork noted “the depth of experience deepens the traditionalism of Dylan’s music,” Los Angeles’ KCRW called it “a beacon for us all,” and SPIN described it as “a stunning body of work by anyone’s standards.”