Thank You Scientist will hit the road this June with Strawberry Girls and Art Thief for their first U.S. headlining tour since the plague screwed everything up.
"We are so excited to embark on our first headlining tour in the post COVID world," says the band. "A lot has changed for us. We launched our own independent label and are now a fully fan funded machine. We've put together an incredible line up of friends to make a lot of fantastic noise in your general direction. Come out and hang before we lock ourselves away to record our next full length."
Better yet, we caught up with Thank You Scientist for a quick chat about tour, Toblerone, and science they're not allowed to talk about.
What's tour preparation for Thank You Scientist like? Obviously all bands do it, but you've got quite a few more members than most bands.
It's pretty rigorous. Typically 2-3 months before a major tour we rent out a compound, a place we call the "Thought Cabin." We train together. Really intense stuff. No family contact. Military cardio. Tons of deep tissue massage. Chakra inversions. I don't want to get into the science of it here.
Walk me through a Thank You Scientist live show. How much of it is true to the album and how much is improvisation? I remember seeing you guys open for Beardfish at Roxy & Dukes in 2013 and it was amazing.
I'm so glad you enjoyed the show. That was always a fun venue to play, with a hard stage to fit on. Our show is pretty close to what you hear on the record. We have improvised solo sections and we will occasionally revamp arrangements and/or get silly when we play live. At one particularly grim show I improvised a song about Toblerone in the middle of one of our instrumentals. It was not good.
Do you work on new material at all during tour? I know Plague Accommodations just came out, but I'm always fascinated by bands that find time to work out new material on tour.
Writing on tour is something I always tell myself I'm going to do, but when I'm actually out on the road I find it very hard to be productive. Perhaps this tour will be the one where I pull it off. Maybe you guys can publicly shame me if I don't.
How do you choose the setlist for your shows? Thank You Scientist's songs are pretty long, so it's not like you can choose a bunch.
It's very problematic when we have a 30 minute opening slot on a bigger tour, but when we are headlining we can do whatever we want. So if we feel like doing a bunch of prog epics and then an encore of 80s songs we will do that. Maybe I'll improvise a 30 mininute prog epic about Toblerone. If there's one thing I can guarantee, it's that people's wildest dreams are going to come true at these shows. As far as I've heard the promoters are guaranteeing that.
Are there any specific songs you're looking forward to playing this time around? Or does that always change?
That always changes, and we always try to throw some surprises into the set!
Get the dates below, and get your tickets (and kickass music) here.
6/1 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club
6/2 – Raleigh, NC – The Pour House Music Hall
6/4 – Atlanta, GA – Center Stage
6/6 – Fort Worth, TX – Tulips
6/7 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
6/9 – Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge
6/10 – Pomona, CA – The Glass House
6/11 – San Jose, CA – The Ritz
6/12 – Sacramento, CA – Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub
6/14 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
6/15 – Seattle, WA – Nectar Lounge
6/17 – Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall
6/18 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theater
6/19 – Lawrence, KS – The Bottleneck
6/21 – Palatine, IL – Durty Nellies
6/22 – Grand Rapids, MN – The Pyramid Scheme
6/24 – Pittsburgh, PA – Thunderbird Music Hall
6/25 – Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall
6/26 – Washington, DC – Union Stage
6/28 – Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus
