THE THE is bringing the ENSOULED WORLD TOUR to the historic Fox Theater in Oakland on November 7th, 2024!The Another Planet Entertainment presale begins Thursday, May 23rd at 10am (password = heron) via TheFoxOakland.com.
The general on sale begins Friday, May 24th at 10am!
Please note presale tickets are only available online.
LISTEN TO THE THE:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7cKtqv9cYVlOwnuCFH95ce?si=IeT1iv0cReu6O4BHqVuJLw
WATCH THE THE:
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheTheOfficial
ABOUT THE THE:
The word “soul” has been a recurring one in the story of THE THE: from Matt Johnson’s 1981 neo-psychedelic debut album, Burning Blue Soul, through the shapeshifting musicality of its 1983 successor, Soul Mining, and now with the name of his mercurial band’s 2024 Ensouled World Tour.
From the beginnings of THE THE in the late 1970s, Matt Johnson has always been a diviner of truth, whether it be of a personal or political nature. Over four-and-a-half decades he has earned an enduring reputation as a brave and uncompromising artist dealing with dark matters of the heart and delivering prescient socio-political commentary.
Originally conceived less as a traditional band, more a multimedia art collective (inspired by the Plastic Ono Band), THE THE were born out of the teenage Matt Johnson’s experiments with reel-to-reel tape – initially conducted in the basement of his parents’ pub, the Crown, in Loughton, Essex, and at De Wolfe Studios in London’s Soho, where Johnson worked as an apprentice sound engineer and used the downtime to make his own music.
THE THE emerged from the post-punk landscape, in an era of self-taught musicians and DIY experimentation. Combining his passions for film soundtracks and musique concrète with his love of traditional songwriters such as John Lennon, Hank Williams and Robert Johnson, Matt Johnson began to develop a unique sound. His first, low-key release, in 1979, was the limited edition cassette, See Without Being Seen (remastered and reissued in 2020 on his Cinéola label). This in turn led to his signing with 4AD Records for the headspinning Burning Blue Soul, made during intensive recording sessions in ‘81.
THE THE’s great leap forward, Soul Mining, followed in 1983. Brilliantly showcasing Matt Johnson’s multifaceted sonic approach – one that encompassed synthesisers and fiddles, drum machines and accordions – it was an astonishing album, particularly as one made by a mere 21-year-old, boldly charting his emotional weather.
Johnson’s next album was an even more ambitious one. Infected (1986) tackled desire – ‘Out Of The Blue (into the fire)’, ‘Slow Train To Dawn’ – and offered the stirring account of a US fighter pilot losing altitude over the Persian Gulf in ‘Sweet Bird Of Truth’. In ‘Heartland’, he painted a grimly vivid portrait of the UK decaying in the dark days of Thatcherism.
But Infected was a globally-minded album, as made explicit by the accompanying 47-minute, multi-location film made for the album, with a budget of £350,000 (the equivalent of £1.1 million today). Shot in Bolivia, Peru, New York and London, its Herzog-like journey into the heart of darkness involved dangerous encounters with South American communist rebel fighters and Spanish Harlem street gangs. The result was a wholly intoxicating audio-visual experience, in which the sheer authenticity of these mad adventures gripped the viewer to the screen.
The origins of 1989’s Mind Bomb meanwhile involved an inner journey, one that found Matt Johnson intensively practising meditation, imbibing magic mushrooms and studying religious texts. THE THE subsequently expanded into a four-piece band, involving guitarist Johnny Marr (who had very nearly joined forces with Johnson in the early ‘80s, before forming The Smiths), drummer David Palmer and bassist James Eller.
The release of Mind Bomb was accompanied by a global tour, THE THE Versus The World, which spanned 1989-1990, but was brought to an enforced pause partway through due to the sudden death of Johnson’s brother, Eugene, aged 24, from an aneurysm. “That was a hammer blow to my family,” he offers. “It was absolutely awful.”
At the end of this phase, exhausted, Johnson quit the stage, returning only at the invitation of THE THE fan David Bowie. Johnson, along with JG Thirlwell, performed an experimental set during Bowie’s curation of the Meltdown festival at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2002. “I never met Bowie,” Johnson laments. “But he’d sent messages. I know he’d mentioned that Infected was one of his favourite albums. It was a real honour to be invited by him.”
All of which brings us to the much-anticipated – and COVID-delayed – release of the first studio album in a quarter century, Ensoulment, and the Ensouled World Tour 2024, set to visit Europe, America and Australia. “This one would have happened sooner,” he stresses, “but of course, we’ve been on a bit of a dystopian amusement arcade ride the last few years. So, life got in the way.”
As to what audiences can expect from the shows, Matt Johnson promises “there will be sons from the new album, plus the songs we love to play each time… ‘This Is The Day’, ‘Uncertain Smile’, ‘Heartland’. But there were certain songs that people asked for that weren’t performed on the last tour that will be included this time.”
Event Venue
Fox Theater - Oakland, 521 19th St, Oakland, CA 94612, United States,Oakland, California
Tickets
