Braids Announce 2023 Tour Dates With String Ensemble

Canadian art rock band Braids have announced their first round of tour dates of 2023. Supporting their forthcoming album Euphoric Recall (out April 28th on Secret City Records), the limited run of shows will be a special performance series featuring a string ensemble.

It'll include several dates in Canada, London, and their first US shows in over four years with stops in Los Angeles and New York City. For more information or to purchase tickets, CLICK HERE.

Tour Dates:

05/27 - Los Angeles, CA @ Knitting Factory NoHo
05/30 - Toronto, ON @ Paradise Theatre
06/01 - Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW
06/02 - Montreal QC @ Society for Arts & Technology
06/04 - New York, NY @ Racket
06/10 - London, UK @ Kings Place Hall One

"This upcoming concert series will be our most ambitious live shows yet, as we are joined on stage by string ensembles and immersive live visuals," stated the band. "Our new album Euphoric Recall sees us writing and arranging for strings for the very first time. As the album took shape we knew that we wanted to have the lush, cinematic textures of a real string ensemble.

We set out teaching ourselves how to compose for strings - in the room all 3 of us throwing melodic and textural ideas back and forth - a real creative sandbox approach. Having the arrangements come to life in the studio was an absolute highlight for us and as we heard the songs elevated to new levels, we knew that we had to present a version of the live show with the full ensemble.

These six shows, in some of our favorite music cities, will be the very first taste of that, and the first time we've ever played live with expanded orchestration. We have also been working with installation/digital media artist Nima Navab on creating immersive AI generated visuals to accompany our album.

We've been sharing this over the past couple months online and it's been fun to see people as intrigued by the uncanny visuals as we are. These immersive and sometimes overwhelming videos will even further elevate the shows into the most holistic presentation of our musical world.

Over the past 10 years we have been lucky enough to play over 500 concerts all around the world, so we see this performance series as an exciting new journey for us. These will certainly be shows not to miss. We look forward to seeing you out there!"

A freer and wholly anew effort, Euphoric Recall finds the trio abandoning strategy, burning it down, and realizing their love record. Love, all of it; the unbound bliss, the budding impulses, and the messy imperfections, a supernova swirled up in a suite of bold, melodic, symphonic pop songs surrendered to the present.

The complexity of love and healing is not a new subject for Braids, but the vantage from which they see and sense it here is. Standell-Preston's lyrics draw generously from her heart space, often writing on the spot, in just a few takes. Lines are vivid, exhilarating, and evocative, a directness indicative of fully knowing oneself and engaging the moment.

As songs emerged, the rhythms and textures became brighter and looser, brimming with life. Written, recorded, self-produced, and mixed at Studio Toute Garnie, their Montréal studio, the music of Euphoric Recall is both unrushed and urgent, lush yet captured with in-the-room clarity. Elements weave in and out, shading a rich universe without crowding it.

Braids have teased several songs from Euphoric Recall to date, including "Apple," a bubbling "shoegaze love song" (Consequence) and "Evolution," a clear eyed and calm banger that Brooklyn Vegan called "a quietly propulsive track whose dialed-in lyrics allow the electronics to shine."

The album's first single "Retriever" is also out now, a luscious and meandering 9-minute journey that Stereogum raved "builds and glides over an expansive runtime," while Exclaim! stated "the song is a sleek, bubbling odyssey that incorporated delicate drum machines and waves of metallic guitar."

Credit: Mélissa Gamache