Start date July 30, 2002 Legs 14 | End date January 17, 2004 No. of shows 103 | |
Associated album Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls | ||
The Beyond the Valley of the Murderdolls World Tour was a concert tour by horror punk supergroup the Murderdolls in support of their first studio album, of the same name, which was released in August 2002.
The band had formed in 2001 under the name of The Rejects, an old band that guitarist Joey Jordison had decided to reform after Jordison had finished touring with Slipknot in support of their album Iowa. Jordison and active Static-X guitarist Tripp Eisen recruited Wednesday 13 of the band Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13 to play bass, although he later switched to vocals. The trio recorded their debut album in the early months of 2002. Eric Griffin and Ben Graves joined the band in March after Jordison was pleased with a video of them jamming with Eisen. Before the band were scheduled to perform a small number of shows in the United States in July, Eisen announced that he was departing the band to return to Static-X. He was replaced by friend and former Dope bandmate Acey Slade. The band performed their first show together on July 30, 2002 in San Diego.
The band performed a select number of club shows in July through to August in the United States in promotion for their currently unreleased album at the time. The band then proceeded to Japan and performed at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo and Osaka in front of thousands of people. The band then embarked on their first tour of Europe which consisted mainly of club shows. While touring in the United Kingdom, bass player Eric Griffin had to return home for undisclosed reasons. Alex Kane of AntiProduct, the band’s supporting act on this leg, filled in for Griffin for the remaining dates in the UK. The band performed two gigs in the United States before embarking on a second leg of Europe supporting Papa Roach, a band that Jordison had befriended whilst touring with Slipknot. The band performed a small number of dates in North America after returning from Europe. The band then embarked on a headlining tour of the UK, returned to Tokyo and performed one date in Jordison’s native Iowa.
In 2003, the band headed to Australia to take part in the annual Big Day Out festival. Bands amongst the line-up included the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Jane’s Addiction and others. The band was initially set to support the Deftones for two side shows whilst in Australia, but these shows were cancelled. The band supported Jane’s Addiction for an intimate show in Sydney. The band returned to the United States to perform two shows in California before returning to Japan for the third time. The band then again returned to Europe for the festival season and supported Iron Maiden for a number of arena shows before co-headlining a tour of England with Stone Sour, a band containing two of Jordison’s fellow members of Slipknot. The Murderdolls performed their final two shows with their then current line-up in January 2004. The band went on an indefinite hiatus after Jordison returned to Slipknot. The band would subsequently not perform again until 2010 when the newly reformed line-up began touring for the Women & Children Last World Tour.