Italian dance trio Eiffel 65 rocked clubs here in the U.S. this spring with its undeniably infectious "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" hit, and now the group will take its lighthearted grooves on the road for an extensive tour of American radio festivals, starting on May 12 in San Diego.

Originally formed by veteran producers Jeffrey Jey, Maurizio Lobina, and Gabry Ponte in 1998 as a side project from their day gigs, Eiffel 65 has taken Europe and the U.S. by storm with its "Europop" album, a record that has sold some 1.95 million copies to date here in the States alone.

For its concert show, Eiffel 65 frontman/singer Jeffrey Jey told MTV News that the trio models itself after such '80s and '90s dance-pop stadium draws as Depeche Mode rather than try to recreate a club vibe in the mode of such artists as the Chemical Brothers.

Jey explained. "He's substituting [for] our drummer and maybe sometimes our bass player. You'll be seeing a typical [concert] situation like Depeche Mode. You'll see the band onstage.

"It's not based on a dance act, because that's not what Eiffel 65 is going to be. You won't see us three dancing along with the other dancers. We might have some backing vocals live, speaking. Maurizio is playing the tunes that you hear on the records, and I'm singing live."

"As for the vocoder situation," he continued, "we will have them on the [pre-recorded] CDs as backing vocals, so they're going to be there, but their volume is going to be a little bit lower than you would normally hear, and I'm going to be topping that.

"You're going to be having a slightly different effect, but you can tell that it's live, of course, and that's mainly what the Eiffel 65 [show is]. We have some pretty strange acts in the middle of the songs, but we don't want to say anything, because we would like people to see it." [RealVideo]

Upcoming dates and radio festivals where you can catch Eiffel 65:

  • 5/12 - San Diego, CA @ KHTS Show
  • 5/13 - Los Angeles, CA @ Dodger Stadium
  • 5/14 - Sacramento, CA @ KDND Show
  • 5/18 - New Orleans, LA @ WEZB Show
  • 5/19 - Salt Lake City, UT @ KZHT Show
  • 5/20 - Omaha, NE @ Westfair Amphitheater
  • 5/22 - Detroit, MI @ WDRQ Show
  • 5/24 - New York, NY @ WKTU Show
  • 5/26 - Allentown, PA @ WAEB Show
  • 5/28 - Long Island, NY @ WBLI Show
  • 5/29 - Buffalo, NY @ WKSE Show
  • 5/30 - Rochester, NY @ WPXY Show
  • 5/31 - Portland, ME @ WJBQ Show
  • 6/3 - Boston, MA @ Tweeter Center
  • 6/4 - Philadelphia, PA @ WIOQ Show
  • 6/5 - Towson, MD @ WXYV Show
  • 6/8 - Wilkes-Barre, PA @ WBHT Show
  • 6/9 - Dallas, TX @ KHKS Show
  • 6/10 - Beacon, NY @ WSPK Show
  • 6/11 - Lathan, NY @ WFLY Show
  • 6/16 - Louisville, KY @ WDJX Show
  • 6/17 - Chicago, IL @ B96 Show
  • 6/21 - Springfield, MO @ KHTO Show
  • 6/22 - Wichita, KS @ KKRD Show
  • 6/23 - St. Louis, MO @ KSLZ Show
  • 6/24 - Bonner Springs, KS @ Sandstone Amphitheater
  • 6/25 - San Francisco, CA @ KYLD Show
  • 7/3 - Orlando, FL @ WXXL Show