The Black Keys kick off their trans-Canadian summer tour with a sold-out show at Deer Lake Park near Vancouver, British Columbia, tonight, with several more sold-out Canadian dates to follow in the coming weeks, plus a few select shows below the 49th parallel, including stops in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin and later festival sets capped by the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in mid-August. Cage the Elephant opens throughout the tour, with Florence + the Machine joining in as well for next Wednesday's show at Milwaukee's Summerfest. See below for currently scheduled tour dates and visit nonesuch.com/on-tour for further details.

“Canada loves The Black Keys,” exclaims the Vancouver Sun’s Francois Marchand in a preview of tonight’s tour launch titled "The Black Keys Open Floodgates to Superstardom." In fact, it was in Canada that the Keys earned their first gold record, as Marchand notes, with their hit 2010 Nonesuch release, Brothers, which has since gone platinum in that country.

Band members Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney seem equally as energized as their Canadian fans for their latest tour, with Auerbach telling the Toronto Sun: “I’m really excited. We’ve got sort of a big set up, bigger than we’ve ever had.”

Gearing up for their forthcoming tour, the Keys hit the stage at Canada’s MuchMusic Video Awards two weeks ago, with a highly praised set that stood out against much of the night’s other pop-based performances. The Vancouver Sun’s Jen McDonnell proclaimed their set the best of the night, calling the band a “refreshing change of pace.”

In the midst of their Canadian tour dates, The Black Keys give a headlining performance at this year’s Summerfest, an 11-day music festival in Milwaukee, with a show at the festival’s 23,000-seat amphitheater, joined by Cage the Elephant and Florence + the Machine. Both Andy Tarnoff and Molly Snyder of OnMilwaukee list The Black Keys as one of their top Summerfest picks, with Tarnoff explaining, “I can’t find anything bad to say about The Black Keys. Every song I’ve heard from them, I like.”

Ever wonder how those incredible Black Keys tour posters get made? Check out this video from DKNG Studios to see how they put together the poster for tonight's Deer Lake Park show:

Poster Process - The Black Keys from DKNG Studios on Vimeo.

To pick up a copy of Brothers, head to the Nonesuch Store now, where orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout.

THE BLACK KEYS ON TOUR

Jun 27

Deer Lake Park

Burnaby, BC

Jun 28

Stampede Corral

Calgary, AB

Jun 29

Rexall Place

Edmonton, AB

Jun 30

TCU Place

Saskatoon, SK

Jul 2

MTS Centre

Winnipeg, MB

Jul 3

Roy Wilkins Auditorium

St. Paul, MN

Jul 5

Stir Cove Amphitheatre

Council Bluffs, IA

Jul 6

Summerfest, Marcus Amphitheater

Milwaukee, WI

Jul 7

Molson Amphitheatre

Toronto, ON

Jul 8

Ottawa Blues Festival

Ottawa, ON

Jul 10

Quebec City Summer Festival

Quebec, QC

Jul 11

Bell Centre

Montreal, QC

Jul 12

John Labatt Centre

London, ON

Jul 13

Artpark

Buffalo, NY

Aug 6

Kanrocksas

Kansas City, KS

Aug 13

Outside Lands Festival

San Francisco, CA