We Speak Alternative

The Neighbourhood Bring THE WOURLD TOUR to the United Center on November 18

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2026

Photo: @thenbhd

Five years away did nothing to cool the demand. The Neighbourhood is back with a new album, a sold out global tour and the biggest rooms of its career, and on Wednesday, November 18, THE WOURLD TOUR lands at the United Center with Nessa Barrett opening the night.

The Neighbourhood plays the United Center on Wednesday, November 18, with Nessa Barrett as the special guest. The Chicago date is part of the fall North American leg of THE WOURLD TOUR, the band’s global run that opened on March 28 in Austin and closes on December 5 with a hometown stand at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.

The tour supports (((((ultraSOUND))))), the California band’s comeback album, released on November 14, 2025. It is their first album since 2020 and their first since returning from a hiatus, reuniting singer Jesse Rutherford with the band that defined a decade of black and white pop melancholy on songs including “Sweater Weather.” A deluxe edition added five more songs this spring, and the new material has been building at alternative radio ever since.

The United Center, at 1901 West Madison Street, is the biggest indoor room in Chicago, and this tour was built for rooms like it: full production, a catalog that spans five albums, and a crowd that has waited half a decade to sing these songs again.

Darren Jessee Returns With Wistful New Single “Shoulder Season”

Published

1 day ago

November 6, 2026

We Speak Media

Darren Jessee. Photo by Dustin Condren.

Darren Jessee has been the drummer behind Ben Folds Five and the songwriter behind Hotel Lights, and his new single sounds like a man deciding not to put the pen down. “Shoulder Season,” recorded by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, previews a forthcoming solo album due in 2027.

North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five, Hotel Lights) is proud to present “Shoulder Season,” the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist’s brand new single lifted from his forthcoming solo album that will see a 2027 release. Recorded by GRAMMY-winning musician and producer Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman and mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Kurt Vile), “Shoulder Season” traces the paths people chart in and around our lives over the years. The track also invites close listening, which in turn draws attention to Jessee’s evocative lyrics as well as the nuanced instrumental performances he and Kaufman captured on tape. “‘Shoulder Season’ … I liked the words by themselves,” Jessee says. “They suggest perseverance and resilience during a season of time. The term shoulder season means a transitional time of year.” Watch the music video for “Shoulder Season” on YouTube.

Darren Jessee was in a period of personal upheaval. His mother had recently passed away after a short illness. He was also touring as a drummer for the Americana act Chatham County Line, a gig that he enjoyed but one that kept him from performing much as a solo artist. And then his label rep at Bar/None, home of Jessee’s last seven albums, retired. In the wake of it all, Jessee found himself wondering if it was perhaps time to set aside the burden of managing a songwriting career and simply lean into his work as a drummer. “But then I just kept finding these songs and enjoying them,” he says of his forthcoming solo showcase that symbolizes a new beginning for the veteran musician — an organic, hushed and transcendent sound very much inspired by the blizzard that the album was recorded in.

Stay tuned for more music and information on Darren Jessee’s forthcoming solo album to be announced in the coming weeks. Jessee will be making the following appearances in November:

November 12 — Wake Forest, NC — Wake Forest Listening Room

November 18 — Greensboro, NC — Flat Iron (with Natalie Jane Hill)