Genre-defying, Nashville-based quintet and live sensations Rainbow Kitten Surprise have unveiled additional dates for their upcoming highly anticipated North American headline tour, which now includes a stop at Santa Barbara Bowl on Friday, May 27. Support for this show will be 99 Neighbors.
For all upcoming headline shows, Rainbow Kitten Surprise has again teamed up with PLUS1, ensuring $1 of every ticket sold will go to local food banks working to fight hunger and food insecurity in their communities. The band – who has worked with PLUS1 since 2019 – is expected to direct over $25,000 towards these organizations on this upcoming run alone.
This past December, the band made their triumphant return to the live stage after a nearly two-year hiatus – selling out 3 nights at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl (a run they dubbed Crimbo Limbo after the ambiguous time between Christmas and New Year’s). They then ended the year with a bang – selling out The Anthem in Washington DC.
At the same time as these live successes, two longtime fan-favorite tracks began to take off organically on TikTok. Both “It’s Called: Freefall” and “Cocaine Jesus” experienced massive upticks after user-created content on the platform went viral – resulting in over 11 million *weekly* streams for the band. The songs now boast 85 and 80 million streams, respectively.
Last year, the band released their first ever live album, RKS! LIVE FROM ATHENS GEORGIA, harnessing all the magic of a Rainbow Kitten Surprise show as they electrify sold-out audiences with signature anthems and fan favorites. Recorded live from a two-night stand at The Georgia Theatre in Athens, GA during the band’s sold-out 2019 Friend, Love Freefall Tour, the 25-song collection also arrived as a limited-edition 3-LP vinyl.
The 2019 North American tour came in support of the band’s Elektra Records debut How To: Friend, Love, Freefall, and spanned 50 sold-out shows highlighted by 6 venue upgrades, 3 second nights added, and over 80,000 tickets sold. To date, the album itself has gathered north of 230 million streams, while the lead single “Fever Pitch” has eclipsed 40 million streams, having vaulted into the Top 10 at Triple A Radio upon release.
ABOUT RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE:
As if channeling another dimension where genres simply don’t exist, Rainbow Kitten Surprise find harmony in unpredictability, weaving together lyrical poetry, hummable melodies, and a rush of instrumental eccentricities. They quietly built an audience with Seven + Mary [2013] and RKS [2015] before serving up their 2018 full-length debut for Elektra, “HOW TO: FRIEND, LOVE, FREEFALL” – produced by Grammy Award-winner Jay Joyce (Cage The Elephant, Sleeper Agent). Igniting a two-year whirlwind, it brought the band’s total stream tally well past half-a-billion, while they garnered widespread praise from Billboard, TIME, Vice, and NPR who described their sound as “…a mix of jam and indie and whatever else you can throw into the soup…very earnest, beautiful, political, loving rock n’ roll.” Meanwhile, “Fever Pitch” marked their first Top 10 at AAA. Not to mention, they’ve performed on “CBS This Morning Saturday,” “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” PBS’s “Austin City Limits,” and graced the bills of Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Osheaga, to name a few. Moving 80,000 tickets, they embarked on the sold-out Friend, Love Freefall Tour earmarked by a packed night at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and three consecutive gigs in Athens, GA—as chronicled on their first official live album, Live From Athens Georgia, out in 2021.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise is: Ela Melo (lead vocals), Darrick “Bozzy” Keller (guitar, vocals), Ethan Goodpaster (lead guitar, vocals), Charlie Holt (bass, vocals), Jess Haney (drums)
