Digable Planets play Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom on Friday, October 23, 2026, performing their 1994 album Blowout Comb front to back as part of the Blowout Comb 30th Anniversary Tour. Tickets are on sale now.
Key details
- Who: Digable Planets (Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira, Craig "Doodlebug" Irving)
- What: Blowout Comb 30th Anniversary Tour, with the album performed in full
- When: Friday, October 23, 2026
- Where: Commodore Ballroom, 868 Granville Street, Vancouver
- Status: On sale now via Ticketmaster
- Nearby dates: Seattle (October 20), Portland (October 21), Calgary (October 25), Edmonton (October 27)
Full tour dates
The fall 2026 leg of Digable Planets' Blowout Comb 30th Anniversary Tour, October 16 to 31, 2026.
- Oct 16 - Madison, WI - Majestic Theatre
- Oct 17 - Minneapolis, MN - The Fillmore
- Oct 18 - Chicago, IL - Metro
- Oct 20 - Seattle, WA - The Neptune Theatre
- Oct 21 - Portland, OR - Revolution Hall
- Oct 23 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
- Oct 25 - Calgary, AB - Palace Theatre
- Oct 27 - Edmonton, AB - Midway Music Hall
- Oct 29 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
- Oct 30 - Aspen, CO - Belly Up
- Oct 31 - Fort Collins, CO - Aggie Theatre
The album that made the difficult second record look easy
Most groups would have chased the hit. Digable Planets did the opposite. Their 1993 debut, Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space), produced "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)," a jazz-sampling crossover single that won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and made the trio briefly ubiquitous. Rather than repeat it, they returned in October 1994 with Blowout Comb, a denser, darker, more explicitly political record rooted in Brooklyn rather than in the bohemian abstraction that had defined their first LP.
It did not sell in the same numbers, and the group dissolved not long after. It has also spent three decades being reappraised upward. Live instrumentation, murky low end and long instrumental passages gave the record a texture closer to a jazz session than to anything on rap radio in 1994. Guest appearances from Jeru the Damaja and the late Guru of Gang Starr anchored it to the New York underground, while tracks like "9th Wonder (Blackitolism)," "Jettin" and "Dog It" have become the reference points fans cite when they argue that Blowout Comb, not the debut, is the group's real statement.
The anniversary run began in 2024, three decades on from the album's release, and Digable Planets have kept extending it. The current leg runs through the fall of 2026 and brings the full-album format to the west coast, with the Commodore date falling between Portland and Calgary. Butler has spent the intervening years as the driving force behind Sub Pop's Shabazz Palaces, a project whose abstraction owes plenty to the second half of the Digable Planets catalogue, which makes a full performance of Blowout Comb feel less like nostalgia and more like a thesis being defended.
Vancouver has seen the reunited trio recently. They headlined the Vogue Theatre in July 2024, and Scene in the Dark was in the room for it. The Commodore is a different proposition: a sprung dance floor, a room built for rhythm sections, and a capacity of roughly 1,000 that suits a record this reliant on the bass sitting in your chest rather than in your headphones.
Frequently asked questions
When do Digable Planets play Vancouver?
Friday, October 23, 2026 at the Commodore Ballroom. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster.
Will Digable Planets perform Blowout Comb in full?
Yes. The Blowout Comb 30th Anniversary Tour is built around a complete front-to-back performance of the 1994 album.
What other Vancouver concerts are happening in October 2026?
Plenty. Our Vancouver concert calendar lists every confirmed show at the Commodore Ballroom, Rogers Arena, the Orpheum and the rest of the city's rooms.
Scene in the Dark has covered Vancouver's live-music scene since 2010.
