Cage the Elephant Tickets

Floor or seat: the Cage the Elephant decision

Buy the general admission floor if you want to be part of the show, and a raised lower-level side section near the stage if you want to watch it. That is the core choice at a Cage the Elephant headline date. The band plays loud, fast, guitar-driven rock with garage, punk-blues and psychedelic roots, and singer Matt Shultz roams the stage and plays to the front rows the whole night.

Most headline dates are end-stage concerts, meaning the stage sits at one end of the room and the bowl wraps around the other three sides. Layouts still vary by building, so open the seating map on your listing before you commit.

Every section ranked for a Shultz-led set

1. Front half of the GA floor. General admission means standing room, first come, first served. The area by the stage is the most physical part of the night: shoving, jumping and, at many shows, crowd surfing. Great if that is what you came for.
2. Lower-level sides close to the stage. The top reserved choice. You sit above the floor crowd, close in, at an angle that tracks Shultz as he moves from one side to the other.
3. Back or edges of the floor. Same energy, more room. Height matters here because arena floors are flat.
4. Lower level straight across from the stage. Farther away but square to the stage and usually near the soundboard, which is where the engineer sets the mix.
5. Upper level, center. The value tier. Pick the first rows over high corner seats, which feel remote from a show built around one moving performer.
6. Amphitheater lawn. Fine for a group singalong; the stage looks small from the grass.

Skip seats at a steep angle right beside the stage unless the listing describes the view. Speaker stacks and lighting towers can block part of the stage.

Bowling Green brothers and a run of radio hits

Brothers Matt Shultz (vocals) and Brad Shultz (guitar, keyboards) started the band in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2006 with bassist Daniel Tichenor and drummer Jared Champion. Since 2017 the touring lineup has included Nick Bockrath on lead guitar and Matthan Minster on keys and guitar.

Two albums have won the Grammy for Best Rock Album: Tell Me I'm Pretty at the 2017 ceremony and Social Cues at the 2020 ceremony. On the radio, the band had collected 14 No. 1 hits on Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart (the US alternative radio ranking) as of 2024, tied with Green Day and Linkin Park for second all time.

The six studio albums, in order:

• Cage the Elephant (2008): platinum, home to "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" and the first chart-topper, "Back Against the Wall."
• Thank You, Happy Birthday (2011): a No. 2 debut on the Billboard 200; "Shake Me Down" spent six weeks at the top of Alternative Airplay.
• Melophobia (2013): moodier, with "Come a Little Closer" and "Cigarette Daydreams," which topped 1 billion Spotify streams in late 2024.
• Tell Me I'm Pretty (2015): Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys produced; "Trouble" and "Mess Around" came from it.
• Social Cues (2019): written in the wake of Matt Shultz's divorce, with "Ready to Let Go" and "Skin and Bones."
• Neon Pill (May 17, 2024): three Alternative Airplay No. 1s in "Neon Pill," "Metaverse" and "Rainbow."

Neon Pill arrived after Matt Shultz's 2022 mental health crisis, which he has linked to an adverse reaction to prescribed medication; he has talked openly about his recovery since.

Loud, physical and occasionally acoustic

The reputation is energy. Shultz is in motion from the first song, and the floor responds like a club crowd even in an arena: jumping, shouting the words back and riding over the top of the crowd. The mix is loud and guitar-forward. A normal electric headline set draws on every album, and "Cigarette Daydreams" and "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" are the songs nearly everyone knows.

The band has a softer mode too. In 2017 it took Live and Unpeeled, an 11-show acoustic tour, on the road, reworking 18 of its own songs and three covers with string arrangements.

Headline runs and opening slots, 2010 to 2025

• 2010 to 2015: a 23-show headline tour in 2010, then the Thank You, Happy Birthday Tour (48 shows, 2012), the Melophobia Tour (49 shows, 2013 and 2014) and the Tell Me I'm Pretty Tour (34 shows, 2015).
• Arena support: Foo Fighters (fall 2011), Muse (fall 2013) and The Black Keys' Turn Blue tour (2014).
• 2019: Night Running, a 31-date co-headline with Beck.
• 2024 to 2025: the Neon Pill Tour, 65 shows and more than 440,000 tickets, the band's top-grossing tour so far, with Young the Giant and Bakar opening in the US and Sunflower Bean in Europe.
• Late August to early September 2025: opening for Oasis on the North American stadium leg of Oasis Live '25.
• Fall 2025: a North American headline run with hey, nothing.

Festival audiences have seen the band at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Coachella and Glastonbury. Upcoming dates appear in the listings on this page.

Reading the market for Cage the Elephant dates

Interest spikes when a new album and a tour land at the same time, as they did with Neon Pill.

• The floor goes first. The core audience wants to stand, so GA sells out before the bowl, and floor resale prices hold up longest.
• Presales absorb the early inventory. The band's site offers news and presale codes by sign-up, and promoter and venue presales usually come next, so much of the best inventory is gone before the public sale.
• An opening slot is priced on the headliner. On the 2025 Oasis dates, the ticket reflected Oasis demand, and the Cage set was shorter.
• Bowl seats can ease late. Upper and side sections often soften in the final days before a show that has not sold out; sold-out floor tickets rarely do.

Every Reserved Seat order is backed by a 100% guarantee.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Cage the Elephant
• Cage the Elephant: Official site