In the midst of his North American tour, Rich Aucoin has formally announced that he will be ending his live shows in their current format — along with all their confetti, balloons and the parachute — and is planning to move on to a new format in three and a half years.
Speaking with Exclaim! via email, the artist shared the news and hinted at some big plans for what will replace the performance after 2025.
"I'd like to formally announce that at the end of 2025, the show will conclude," says Aucoin. "Since, I usually tour once per year (or at least plan to for 2023, 2024, 2025), that means there's around three chances left to see the show in your city. After that, the show will split into two different style shows."
He continues:
The first will take place at small rep theatres, black box rooms or soft seaters and will be seated shows that lean into the theatrical/cinematic vibes of the show. These shows will have a variety of bands [who] will play with me at the base of large movie-theatre sized projections of the movies the records are written as alternate scores for; there'll be lots of lighting tricks we can't achieve in the club settings too due to ambient light and will be able to focus back on the projections like in the early days when I cycled across Canada with a bed sheet playing along to Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
Aucoin describes the second type of show as "DIY Daft Punk," which will take place in small clubs and find the performer "more confined to synthesizers and running Ableton more like Girl Talk than leading the show with [his] voice."
He explains, "Still lots of great times to come but I'd like to retire myself and current show from yelling at the top of my lungs in the middle of a dance floor before it runs too long. I'm giving folks lots of lead up time rather than announcing this on my last tour 'cause other life [stuff] will inevitably come up ... I wanted to give fans and friends and folks who've just seen me once or so to be able to scream under a parachute with me one last time before we die."
Canadian fans will have plenty of time to catch the show in its current format this year, with Aucoin playing his United States album release shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Victoria, Vancouver and Montreal through this month and into May and June. See further tour details here.
To sweeten the deal, the artist has also shared new single "We're in This Together." He notes the song is "a collaboration with new touring mates in bands: (Doctor Sung, Lord Phobos) TWRP, (Dylan Germick) Planet Booty and (Brian Wecht) Ninja Sex Party," and that it also features "a choir made of 96 other folks who emailed in their vocal takes which they tracked to a demo I sent them back in the fall."
Aucoin says of the track: "It's a song about coming together and inclusivity amidst the perils of climate change and the fragile pale blue dot we all take shelter on while hurtling through space for eternity."
Listen to that below, and stay tuned for more news from the artist on the horizon.
Speaking with Exclaim! via email, the artist shared the news and hinted at some big plans for what will replace the performance after 2025.
"I'd like to formally announce that at the end of 2025, the show will conclude," says Aucoin. "Since, I usually tour once per year (or at least plan to for 2023, 2024, 2025), that means there's around three chances left to see the show in your city. After that, the show will split into two different style shows."
He continues:
The first will take place at small rep theatres, black box rooms or soft seaters and will be seated shows that lean into the theatrical/cinematic vibes of the show. These shows will have a variety of bands [who] will play with me at the base of large movie-theatre sized projections of the movies the records are written as alternate scores for; there'll be lots of lighting tricks we can't achieve in the club settings too due to ambient light and will be able to focus back on the projections like in the early days when I cycled across Canada with a bed sheet playing along to Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."
Aucoin describes the second type of show as "DIY Daft Punk," which will take place in small clubs and find the performer "more confined to synthesizers and running Ableton more like Girl Talk than leading the show with [his] voice."
He explains, "Still lots of great times to come but I'd like to retire myself and current show from yelling at the top of my lungs in the middle of a dance floor before it runs too long. I'm giving folks lots of lead up time rather than announcing this on my last tour 'cause other life [stuff] will inevitably come up ... I wanted to give fans and friends and folks who've just seen me once or so to be able to scream under a parachute with me one last time before we die."
Canadian fans will have plenty of time to catch the show in its current format this year, with Aucoin playing his United States album release shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Victoria, Vancouver and Montreal through this month and into May and June. See further tour details here.
To sweeten the deal, the artist has also shared new single "We're in This Together." He notes the song is "a collaboration with new touring mates in bands: (Doctor Sung, Lord Phobos) TWRP, (Dylan Germick) Planet Booty and (Brian Wecht) Ninja Sex Party," and that it also features "a choir made of 96 other folks who emailed in their vocal takes which they tracked to a demo I sent them back in the fall."
Aucoin says of the track: "It's a song about coming together and inclusivity amidst the perils of climate change and the fragile pale blue dot we all take shelter on while hurtling through space for eternity."
Listen to that below, and stay tuned for more news from the artist on the horizon.
