Music and tours
In 1999, the group released Audio, their first studio recording.
They performed Moby's song "Natural Blues" with Moby and Jill Scott at the Grammys in 2001.
In 2002, the group participated in Moby's Area2 tour, giving a more rock-oriented performance than in the theatrical shows. Songs developed during this tour appeared on 2003's album The Complex.
Unlike Audio, The Complex, released in 2003, featured a variety of vocalists and guests including Tracy Bonham, Dave Matthews, Gavin Rossdale and Venus Hum. The record spawned its own 2003 tour, "The Complex Rock Tour," the first headlined by Blue Man Group. The tour deconstructed the traditional rock concert experience into its often clichéd parts and was chronicled in a 2004 DVD release. The tour featured Tracy Bonham and Venus Hum as supporting acts. The DVD included a surround sound mix of some of the studio recordings.
Blue Man Group launched its second tour, "How to Be a Megastar Tour", on September 26, 2006. It featured some new material as well as material from the original Complex Rock Tour, and featured Tracy Bonham as opening act and vocalist. DJ/VJ Mike Relm was the opening act for the tour's second leg, which ended April 22, 2007, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The third leg of the tour began in May 2007 and included performances in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, Mexico; Buenos Aires, Argentina; São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Santiago, Chile. The fourth leg, using "2.1" in its title, included more U.S. and Canada dates. The tour visited France, Korea, Canada, Germany, and a few other European countries through 2008. From August 19–23, it visited Taipei, Taiwan to promote its 2009 Summer Deaflympics, with most of the show's dialogue accompanied by subtitles. After Typhoon Morakot hit the island in mid-August 2009, the group held an extra show to benefit flood victims.
Blue Man Group performed with Ricky Martin at the 8th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2007[33] and again with Michel Teló at the 2012 Latin Grammy Awards.[34]
In 2008, they collaborated on the track "No More Heroes" with Dutch DJ and producer Tiësto for the remixed version of the Elements of Life album.
Announced in 2009, Blue Man Group began performing for the first time at sea on Norwegian Cruise Line's ship Epic. From July 2010 to March 2015, Epic alternated 7-Day Eastern and Western Caribbean sailings from Miami with nightly Blue Man Group shows.
A Blue Man Group national tour in 2010 visited various cities in the United States, Canada and Latin America. The tour included elements from their then-current theatrical performances, and new elements created for the tour.[35]
To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the group gave a special performance with Dave Matthews at the Astor Place Theatre in New York City, collaborating on the song "Sing Along."[36]
To celebrate Blue Man Group's 25th anniversary, a global tour began in Singapore in March 2016. It continued through Asia and Oceania in 2016 and opened for the first time in South Africa in February 2017.[37] It was announced that the tour will continue on to Abu Dhabi and Switzerland later in 2017.[38]
In April 2016, Blue Man Group released Three, their third studio album. Building on the group's previous albums, Three draws inspiration from the group's 25-year history.[39]
In May 2017, Blue Man Group collaborated with the YouTube channel The Slow Mo Guys for a video of several objects being destroyed with bowling balls, including busts of the Blue Men. A Blue Man "autographed" Gavin Free's lab coat (the cleaner of the hosts') by wiping his head on the right shoulder.[40]
On April 27, 2019, Blue Man Group gave a special performance at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, during the Grand Opening Session of DECA's International Career Development Conference.[41]
In February 2021, it was revealed that Blue Man Group had collaborated with American pop band AJR on the song "Ordinaryish People", included on their album OK Orchestra (2021).[42] A music video featuring Blue Man Group was released on February 9, 2022.[43]
In April 2024, Blue Man collaborated with Canadian musician Andrew Huang on a song called "Desert Portal". They released joint videos on their YouTube channels: the former's of the song's music video, which depicts the group and Huang discovering a sound-activated tent that transports them to a desert, and the latter's of the music video's behind the scenes.[44][45]
On August 16, 2024, Blue Man Group collaborated with the YouTube channel Drumeo for a video, alongside their musical director, Josh Matthews. They are introduced to a song by My Chemical Romance called Welcome to the Black Parade. They listen to the song in its entirety without a drum track, and then are tasked with creating their own drum part and performing it on video. After their performance, the song is then revealed in its original form with the drum track included and the group's reaction is recorded.[46][47]
