Alt-rockers Weezer [ tickets ] have laid out plans for their first proper North American tour in more than three years as the band continues to support its latest self-titled studio album.

The group, which recently has been throwing "hootenannys" during various one-off appearances (hand-picked fans are asked to bring instruments and jam with the band after the brief concert for those shows), will kick off the run Sept. 23 in suburban Boston. The 21-date tour runs through late October, with Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club providing opening support. Dates are included below.

Weezer recently claimed the No. 4 slot on The Billboard 200 with its sixth studio album; the band's third self-titled set is colloquially known to fans as "The Red Album," and follows previous blue and green self-titled efforts. Produced by Rick Rubin, Jacknife Lee and the band itself, the set features lead track "Pork and Beans," which shot to No. 1 on the modern-rock chart and is also making waves at mainstream-rock and pop radio.

The album features a red-background photo of the band posing in various outfits in a manner some observers have compared to The Village People.

"The cover for The Red Album was kind of ... a happy accident," bassist Scott Shriner recently told music website Buzznet.com. "We had a whole 'nother set of photographs that we wanted to be the cover and nothing that we were looking at ever matched up to what we felt that album sounded like and represents for us. Our art director got that photo [the official album cover], which originally was a fun photo. 'OK, everybody, go as your alter ego, and we'll take a kooky picture,' [he said]. He put the red background behind that, and that's what felt like the strongest image that matched how we feel the album sounds."

"The Red Album" follows 2005's "Make Believe," which debuted at No. 2 on the album chart and spawned the No. 1 hits "Beverly Hills" and "Perfect Situation." Between records, the band took a hiatus so that frontman Rivers Cuomo could get a degree from Harvard.

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