LUXEMBOURG’S Canadian-American punk-political duo Francis of Delirium are a band you completely wouldn’t mess with, trust us.
They first came onto our radar more than a year ago with “Equality Song”, a righteous roar of the female condition, itself a follow-up to their audacious debut “Quit Fucking Around”; since when they’ve continued to explore themes of the personal-political with a healthy dose of aggressive guitars on tracks like “Lakes”, “Let It All Go” and others (find our coverage here).
So it’s something of a surprise to find that they’ve really opened up a softer side, with singer Dana Bachrich recording a session with the Rotondes Chamber Orchestra, the full 20 minutes-plus of which you can watch down below; it reveals the integrity and harmonic structures of those punky fizzbomb missives in an entirely new way and comprises five songs arranged and reinterpreted for chamber music by Pol Belardi, thus realising a long-held dream of Jana’s.
Jana says of that experience: “It felt so natural and comfortable for me to sing with the orchestra, I feel like all the instruments had so much space to breathe and push and pull, it was just really exciting and emotional for me.
“The beginning of the first rehearsal was just the instrumentalists rehearsing and while I was listening to them go through the songs, I really had to hold back tears.
“This happened so much throughout the whole experience; it was just insane, especially when the orchestra played the overture, because I had no idea what that would sound like – I was blown away.
“The only thing that sucked was I had no guitar and I realised pretty quickly I have no idea what to do with my hands when I don’t have a guitar.”
And with a recent string of British dates not long completed, Francis of Delirium have announced a second tour for the new year: ten dates across these isles, after which they’ll head Stateside in support of Pennsylvania rockers The Districts.
Those dates are as follows, with tickets for the British leg available here:
Thursday, February 3rd, The Sebright Arms, Bethnal Green, London;
Friday, February 4th, Headrow House, Leeds;
Saturday, February 5th, The Cluny 2, Newcastle;
Monday, February 7th, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh;
Tuesday, February 8th, Record Junkee, Sheffield;
Wednesday, February 9th, Future Yard, Birkenhead;
Thursday, February 10th, Esquires, Bedford;
Saturday, February 12th, Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham;
Sunday, February 13th, Voodoo Daddy’s, Norwich, and
Monday, February 14th, The Prince Albert, Brighton, before proceeding Stateside as follows:
Friday, March 11th, Mr Smalls Theatre, Pittsburgh;
Saturday, March 12th, A&R Music Bar, Columbus, Ohio;
Sunday, March 13th, Zanzabar, Louisville, Kentucky;
Tuesday, March 15th, Metro, Chicago;
Wednesday, March 16th, Turf Club, Saint Paul, Minnesota;
Friday, March 18th, Bluebird Theatre, Denver;
Saturday, March 19th, Kilby Court, Salt Lake City;
Monday, March 21st, Neumos, Seattle;
Tuesday, March 22nd, Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, Oregon;
Friday, March 25th, August Hall, San Francisco;
Saturday, March 26th, The Lodge Room, Los Angeles;
Sunday, March 27th, Casbah Rock, San Diego;
Tuesday, March 29th, Valley Bar, Phoenix, Arizona;
Wednesday, March 30th, MW Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico;
Friday, April 1st, Dada Dallas, Dallas;
Saturday, April 2nd, Mohawk, Austin;
Sunday, April 3rd, Warehouse Live, Houston;
Tuesday, April 5th, The Basement East, Nashville;
Thursday, April 7th, El Club, Detroit;
Friday, April 8th, Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto;
Saturday, April 9th, Bar Le Ritz, Montreal;
Sunday, April 10th, The Sinclair, Cambridge, Massachusetts;
Tuesday, April 12th, Space Ballroom, Hamden, Connecticut;
Wednesday, April 13th, 9:30 Club, Washington DC;
Thursday, April 14th, Warsaw, Brooklyn, and
Saturday, April 16th, Union Transfer, Philadelphia.
Quite the itinerary; I think it fair to say, particularly Stateside, there’s no excuse not to catch ’em.
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