Haken returns to the Nile Theater with Thank You Scientist and Einar Solberg

Nearly four years after their last Valley show, the U.K. prog-metal band comes back to Mesa on Sunday, March 7, with a support bill built for the faithful.

The last time Haken played the Valley, it was May 22, 2023, at the Nile Theater in downtown Mesa. They're coming back to the same stage. Haken headlines the Nile Theater on Sunday, March 7, 2027, with Thank You Scientist and Einar Solberg in support. The show starts at 7 p.m., and tickets are $34.50 to $37 through See Tickets. The date was announced Oct. 26.

For a certain kind of music fan in Arizona, that bill is the headline on its own. Blabbermouth reported the run on Oct. 28, describing Haken as a U.K. progressive and alternative metal band and naming Thank You Scientist and Solberg, the frontman of Leprous, as the support acts. The tour's spring routing also includes a Cruise to the Edge appearance in April, where Solberg won't be joining them.

The pairing with Thank You Scientist has history. The two bands toured North America together in 2016, a run The Prog Report covered when it was announced and that The Progressive Aspect wrote up that fall. A decade on, the reunion is the kind of detail longtime fans will notice. Adding Solberg gives the night a third voice from the same corner of modern prog, and for anyone who knows Leprous, a chance to hear its singer in a room this size is reason enough to show up for doors.

Haken have been regular visitors to North America for a long time. Their tours with Thank You Scientist, with Leprous and Bent Knee (The Prog Report), and on their own have built a real audience here, and the Valley has been part of that. JamBase files them under metal and rock both, which is about as close as a two-word label gets to a band whose songs tend to run long and change shape several times on the way through.

A 2016 tour pairing, reunited a decade later, in an 850-capacity room.

The Nile Theater is a good place for it. It holds 850, which is small for a bill with three acts this well known in prog circles, and that's the point. A band this technical sounds different when you're close enough to watch the hands, and an 850-person room puts most of the crowd in that range. It's also the same room Haken played last time, so anyone who was there in 2023 already knows what they're walking into.

A Sunday show with a 7 p.m. start and three acts on the bill means a full evening, so plan to get there early if you want to catch the openers. With tickets topping out at $37, this is also one of the more affordable ways to see three bands of this caliber in one night, and at this capacity it's worth not waiting.

It's been almost four years since Haken were last in Mesa. In March, they'll be back on the same stage, with an old touring partner and a new one alongside. For the Valley's prog crowd, it's the kind of Sunday you mark on the calendar the day it's announced.

Sources: HAKEN Announces March/April 2027 North American Tour (Blabbermouth) (blabbermouth.net); Haken announce North America tour dates with Thank You Scientist (The Prog Report) (progreport.com); Haken & Thank You Scientist (The Progressive Aspect) (theprogressiveaspect.net); Haken & Leprous announce North American tour with special guests Bent Knee (The Prog Report) (progreport.com); Tickets (See Tickets) (prod-nts-api.seeticketsusa.us)