bar italia return with a slew of European and North American tour dates. The run of shows in October and November, including stops in London, Milan, Barcelona, Paris, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, will follow a sold-out, small capacity London show previewing new music at 93 Feet East on June 19th. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 20th at 10am local time.
The last two years have seen the London trio release two critically acclaimed albums on Matador only several months apart – the poised Tracey Denim and the grand The Twits. They’ve traversed the globe with headline performances from Istanbul to Tokyo, sold-out multi-night stints in New York and Los Angeles, and festivals including Corona Capital, Glastonbury and Coachella. With over 160 shows worldwide across 2023-2024, bar italia became an exhibitionist and muscular five-piece – equally comfortable at festival mosh-pit incitement and moments of pin-drop intimacy.
Ripped and Torn, the debut album by Chicago three-piece Lifeguard, may or may not take its title from the legendary Scottish punk fanzine of the same name. Or perhaps it references the torn t-shirts that rock writer Lester Bangs claimed the late Pere Ubu founder Peter Laughner died for “in the battle fires of his ripped emotions.” Or maybe it points to the trio’s ferociously destabilising take on melodic post-punk and high velocity hardcore, signposting their debt to the kind of year zero aesthetics that would reignite wild improvisational songforms with muzzy garage Messthetics in a way rarely extrapolated this side of Dredd Foole & The Din.
