Iconic British electric pop duo Underworld have announced spring 2020 tour dates. This will be the pair’s first North American live performances since selling out the Hollywood Bowl five years ago, and falls during the 40th anniversary year of the two artists forming Underworld.
Nestled between European dates, the five live shows will begin at The Warfield in San Francisco on May 15 and conclude on May 27 at Rebel in Toronto. On May 23 they will play Movement Festival in Detroit, marking their first-ever appearance at the festival and first Detroit show in 20 years.
The duo are promising “immersive and gloriously hallucinatory” two-hour live sets that will feature classic hits from their 40-year catalog, as well as recent material from DRIFT: Series 1. The DRIFT project was one-year music-and-video odyssey spanning November 1 2018 to November 1 2019. It included weekly online releases of new music and videos and a a comprehensive final product. That final release was a box set including seven CDs, a Blu-Ray of all episodes released during the year, five EPs and an 80-page booklet outlining the yearlong creative process and thought behind the product. It achieved universal acclaim from Metacritic. PopMatters ranked it the best electronic album of 2019. Music from DRIFT: Series 1 can be accessed here.
While initially planned as a one-year project, the duo decided to continue the project for another year, adding the Series 1 label to the initial DRIFT release.
Underworld is comprised of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith. They formed in 1980 in Cardiff, Wales, as a funk and synth-pop group, eventually adapting elements of and transitioning to a more house and techno act. They rose to prominence with their inclusion on the soundtrack for 1996’s Trainspotting. The duo have released 10 studio albums and been featured on myriad scores and soundtracks for movies, televisions shows and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Tour Dates:
05/15 – San Francisco, California – The Warfield
05/16 – Los Angeles, California – The Shrine
05/20 – New York, New York – Hammerstein Ballroom
05/23 – Detroit, Michigan – Movement Festival
05/27 – Toronto, Ontario – Rebel
Leave a Comment