Kala Tour

Kala Tour
Tour by M.I.A.

M.I.A. performing at Treasure Island Music Festival, 2007
Associated album Kala (2007)
Start date 20 May 2007
End date 20 December 2007
No. of shows 22 in Europe
36 in North America
1 in Australia
5 in Japan
64 in total
M.I.A. concert chronology

The Kala Tour is a 2007 global M.I.A. concert tour performed in support of her studio album Kala (see 2007 in music).

Tour details

The tour features dates across Europe, North America, Canada and Asia. M.I.A. began performing in support of Kala at Radio 1's Big Weekend on 20 May 2007. She made sporadic appearances at venues in the US during late 2006, including performances at Gotham Hall in New York City on 31 August 2006 where other performing acts included Cee-lo and The Rapture, and at McCarren Pool on 3 September 2006 where other performers included Spank Rock and Amanda Blank. This tour followed recording for Kala, and the Arular Tour, which ended in February 2006 with performances in Japan. The 2007 Kala tour was announced by M.I.A. on her official website and Myspace page.[1] The setlist featured songs heard for the first time from her studio album Kala (2007), and also included songs from previous album Arular (2005). Dates included concerts at music festivals, universities, colleges and club venues around the world.[2]

Sets

Afrikan Boy supporting M.I.A. at the Rock en Seine Festival, 2007

Concerts during the tour often began with political activist Koichi Toyama on a panoramic screen delivering an anarchic speech, ordering the overthrow of a government. The setlist often began with Kala's opening track "Bamboo Banga." M.I.A. selected programming, beats and videos during her set using a Lemur Input Device on stage, and performed dates with back up singer Cherry, DJs Sinden and Low B, supporting vocalists and backup dancers "The Coconut Twins" (Kesh and Zezi Ifore).[3][4] On the back screen, disembodied images and film footage of break-dancing street kids, strippers, tigers, war, video games, political rhetoric, graphs, globes, laughing women and large concert crowds from her previous shows are played throughout the show.[5] Fans were often invited on stage during the performance of "Bird Flu."[6]

M.I.A. has collaborated with CassettePlaya, Ashish and Brian Lichtenberg and as with the Arular Tour she wore some of her own designs on tour. T-shirts such as the "How Many How Many" Tees from the "Boyz" set were sold as tour merchandise at gigs and via her website. "Kala Tour Tees" from her "Kala Tour/Okley Run" line were released in 2008.[7]

Shows

M.I.A.'s date at the House of Blues in Chicago, US was performed with Lupe Fiasco and Emily King, whilst her dates at the Arena of Nîmes in France and at the Fox Theater in the US were performed opening for Björk.[8] Her date at the Verizon Wireless Theatre was performed with Paul Wall.[2] Although reports suggested that M.I.A was booked and subsequently cancelled an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2007, a statement released by M.I.A.'s agents explained "Contrary to printed reports in the Guardian Guide, M.I.A. advised Glastonbury that she was unavailable to perform in late May. We are sorry if fans were led to believe otherwise. M.I.A. looks forward to performing next year.“[9]

More dates were added to her US tour after September 2007 due to high demand. M.I.A. ended 2007 with a mini-tour of venues across the U.K.[10] She and her label XL Recordings made available a tour diary of her late 2007 UK dates in different parts to view on YouTube.[11][12] Opening acts throughout her tour included The Gray Kid, Rye Rye, Santigold, Holy Fuck,[6] The Cool Kids, Soko, Radioclit, Buraka Som Sistema and Afrikan Boy. Her DJs also often played opening sets before her shows. On her YouTube account, M.I.A. posted a video of her and her tourmates during an encore performance of "Paper Planes at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, where she named the tour the "KALA Back 2 P.O.W.A. Tour."[13]

The KALA tour ended in December 2007, with will.i.am, Paul Wall, the Beastie Boys, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Pavement's Mark Ibold among attendees.[14] It was followed by M.I.A.'s People vs. Money Tour in 2008.

Set list

M.I.A. did not follow the same setlist at every show, but played combinations of the following songs. "Galang" and "Paper Planes" were variably chosen as the final song she played for the encore depending on the venue. During the Terminal 5 club performance, part of the CMJ Music Marathon, she performed mash ups of New Order's "Blue Monday" with "Jimmy", "10 Dollar" with the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", (from the mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism) and "Galang" with Lil Mama's "Lip Gloss". It was noted that the latter "served as a reminder of how much the mainstream pop/dance/rap landscape has shifted since M.I.A. first appeared in 2004, and how much certain megahits such as Fergie's "London Bridge" have come to resemble her sound."[14]

Encore:

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue
Europe
20 May 2007 Preston England Radio 1's Big Weekend
North America
21 July 2007 New York City, New York United States Siren Music Festival (Coney Island)
25 July 2007 Studio B
28 July 2007 San Francisco, California Rickshaw Stop
30 July 2007 Echo Park, California Echoplex
3 August 2007 Chicago, Illinois Lollapalooza
4 August 2007 House of Blues
5 August 2007 Baltimore, Maryland Virgin Festival
Europe
9 August 2007 Gdynia Poland Babie Doły Airport
13 August 2007 Paredes de Coura Portugal Paredes de Coura Festival
16 August 2007 Hasselt Belgium Pukkelpop Festival
17 August 2007 Cologne Germany Gloria Theater
18 August 2007 Biddinghuizen Netherlands Lowlands Festival
21 August 2007 Nimes France Arena of Nîmes
23 August 2007
24 August 2007 Paris Rock en Seine
26 August 2007 London England Get Loaded in the Park
31 August 2007 Fabric
1 September 2007 Dublin Ireland Electric Picnic Festival
2 September 2007 Loch Fyne Scotland Connect Festival
North America
8 September 2007 Toronto, Ontario Canada Virgin Festival
9 September 2007 Montreal, Quebec Osheaga Festival
11 September 2007 Detroit, Michigan United States Fox Theatre
14 September 2007 Austin, Texas Austin City Limits Festival
15 September 2007 San Francisco, California Treasure Island Music Festival
Asia
1 October 2007 Perth Australia Parklife (Wellington Square)
5 October 2007 Nagoya Japan Club Quattro
5 October 2007
6 October 2007 Osaka Club Quattro
8 October 2007 Tokyo Club Quattro
9 October 2007 Liquid Room
North America
18 October 2007 New York City, New York United States Terminal 5
19 October 2007
20 October 2007 Toronto, Ontario Canada Kool Haus
26 October 2007 New Orleans, Louisiana United States Voodoo Music Experience
27 October 2007 Las Vegas, Nevada Vegoose
29 October 2007 Miami, Florida Studio A
31 October 2007 Atlanta, Georgia Earthlink Live
2 November 2007 Houston, Texas Club V @ Verizon Wireless Theatre
3 November 2007 Austin, Texas Hogg Auditorium at University of Texas
4 November 2007 Dallas, Texas House of Blues
7 November 2007 San Francisco, California The Fillmore
8 November 2007 Mezzanine
9 November 2007 Los Angeles, California The Wiltern
11 November 2007 San Diego, California Canes
14 November 2007 Vancouver, British Columbia Canada Commodore Ballroom
15 November 2007 Portland, Oregon United States Roseland Theatre
16 November 2007 Seattle, Washington Showbox SoDo
20 November 2007 Minneapolis, Minnesota First Avenue
21 November 2007 Chicago, Illinois House of Blues
23 November 2007 Vic Theatre
24 November 2007 Detroit, Michigan Majestic Theatre
26 November 2007 Montreal, Quebec Canada Metropolis
21 November 2007 Washington, D.C. United States 9:30 Club
1 December 2007 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Electric Factory
Europe
8 December 2007 London England ICA
10 December 2007 Birmingham Custard Factory
11 December 2007 Newcastle upon Tyne Digital Club
12 December 2007 Glasgow Scotland Glasgow Arches
14 December 2007 Brighton England Concorde 2
15 December 2007 Bristol Anson Rooms
17 December 2007 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
18 December 2007 Manchester Academy 2 at the University of Manchester Students' Union
19 December 2007 Norwich Norwich Waterfront
20 December 2007 London The Coronet

References

  1. "M.I.A.". M.I.A. Myspace. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
  2. 1 2 "M.I.A. adds shows with The Cool Kids". Pitchfork Media. 1 October 2007. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  3. "The Fader - Video: MIA, "Bamboo Banga"". The Fader. 29 May 2007. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
  4. Chinen, Nate (20 October 2007). "CMJ Music Marathon in Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-05.
  5. Dodero, Camille (22 October 2007). "CMJ: This is Another Piece about M.I.A. at Terminal 5". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  6. 1 2 Macneil, Jason (21 October 2007). "Concert Review:Kool Haus, Toronto". Jam! Canoe. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
  7. "The Fader - Stylee Fridays: MIA talks fashion". The Fader. 24 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  8. "M.I.A. adds U.S. dates to Summer Tour". Pitchfork Media. 28 June 2007. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  9. "M.I.A. info - June 21st 2007 entry". MIAUK - M.I.A. Official Website. Retrieved 2008-06-06.
  10. "M.I.A. UK Tour dates announced". AngryApe. 18 October 2007. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  11. "M.I.A. UK Tour Part 1". XL Recordings. YouTube. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  12. "M.I.A. UK Tour Part 2". XL Recordings. YouTube. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  13. Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (1 December 2007). "Paper Planes (Official) Live Video". worldtown. YouTube. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
  14. 1 2 Phillips, Amy (20 October 2007). "CMJ: Friday [Amy Phillips]". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
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