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. 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.
Sets
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). 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. Fans were often invited on stage during the performance of "Bird Flu."
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.
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. Her date at the Verizon Wireless Theatre was performed with Paul Wall. 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.“
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. She and her label XL Recordings made available a tour diary of her late 2007 UK dates in different parts to view on YouTube. Opening acts throughout her tour included The Gray Kid, Rye Rye, Santigold, Holy Fuck, 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."
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. 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."
"Video Introduction" "Bamboo Banga" "World Town" "XR2" "Pull Up the People" "Fire Fire" "Sunshowers" "20 Dollar" "Hussel" "Jimmy" "10 Dollar" "U.R.A.Q.T." "Bucky Done Gun" "Birdflu" "Boyz" Encore: "Paper Planes" "Galang"
Tour dates Date City Country Venue Europe20 May 2007PrestonEnglandMoor Park North America21 July 2007BrooklynUnited StatesConey Island25 July 2007Studio B28 July 2007San FranciscoRickshaw Stop30 July 2007Los AngelesThe Echo31 July 20073 August 2007ChicagoGrant Park4 August 2007House of Blues5 August 2007BaltimorePimlico Race Course Europe13 August 2007Paredes de CouraPortugalPraia Fluvial do Taboão 16 August 2007HasseltBelgiumKempischesteenweg17 August 2007CologneGermanyGloria Theater18 August 2007BiddinghuizenNetherlandsWalibi Holland21 August 2007NimesFranceArena of Nîmes23 August 200724 August 2007ParisParc de Saint-Cloud 26 August 2007LondonEnglandClapham Common1 September 2007StradballyIrelandStradbally Hall 2 September 2007InverarayScotlandInveraray Castle North America8 September 2007TorontoCanadaToronto Islands Park9 September 2007MontrealParc Jean-Drapeau11 September 2007DetroitUnited StatesFox Theatre14 September 2007AustinZilker Park 15 September 2007San FranciscoTreasure Island Australia22 September 2007MelbourneAustraliaBirrarung Marr23 September 2007AdelaideBotanic Park28 September 2007MelbourneForum Theatre29 September 2007BrisbaneCity Botanic Gardens30 September 2007SydneyMoore Park1 October 2007PerthWellington Square Asia5 October 2007NagoyaJapanNagoya Club Quattro6 October 2007OsakaShinsaibashi Club Quattro8 October 2007TokyoShibuya Club Quattro9 October 2007Liquid Room North America18 October 2007New York CityUnited StatesTerminal 519 October 200720 October 2007TorontoCanadaKool Haus26 October 2007New OrleansUnited StatesCity Park27 October 2007Las VegasSam Boyd Stadium29 October 2007MiamiStudio A31 October 2007AtlantaEarthlink Live2 November 2007HoustonVerizon Wireless Theater3 November 2007AustinHogg Memorial Auditorium4 November 2007DallasHouse of Blues7 November 2007San FranciscoThe Fillmore8 November 2007Mezzanine9 November 2007Los AngelesWiltern Theatre11 November 2007San DiegoCanes Bar & Grill14 November 2007VancouverCanadaCommodore Ballroom15 November 2007PortlandUnited StatesRoseland Theater16 November 2007SeattleShowbox SoDo20 November 2007MinneapolisFirst Avenue21 November 2007ChicagoHouse of Blues23 November 2007The Vic Theatre24 November 2007DetroitMajestic Theater26 November 2007MontrealCanadaMetropolis29 November 2007Washington, D.C.United States9:30 Club1 December 2007PhiladelphiaElectric Factory Europe8 December 2007LondonEnglandInstitute of Contemporary Arts10 December 2007BirminghamCustard Factory11 December 2007NewcastleDigital12 December 2007GlasgowScotlandThe Arches14 December 2007BrightonEnglandConcorde 215 December 2007BristolAnson Rooms17 December 2007NottinghamRescue Rooms18 December 2007ManchesterManchester Academy19 December 2007NorwichThe Waterfront20 December 2007LondonThe Coronet
Notes
References
External links Official site