Glass Animals Share Live Performance Video Of Gorge Show

12-12-2024

(Republic) On their colossal "Tour Of Earth," record-breaking British band Glass Animals performed at arenas and amphitheatres across North America, but none was more breathtaking than Washington's The Gorge, where the band played to 30,000 fans. Known as one of the best outdoor venues in the world and described by songwriter, producer, and lead singer Dave Bayley as "a remote, alien landscape," it was the perfect real-life-movie-set to record "A Tear in Space (Airlock)" live, taken from Glass Animals' critically acclaimed, UK Top 5, fourth studio album, I Love You So F***ing Much.

Bayley shares, "The live show is an unpredictable beast. We don't use backing tracks. Or click tracks. Every sound you hear is made by us with our fingers and breath, then and there in that moment in a unique way. Sometimes it ends up faster, sometimes slower, sometimes bigger, sometimes more intimate. Sometimes the melodies and chords change. Sometimes it's just chaos and we have to start over. But we thought it would be cool to put out some of these slightly different live versions. And we'll start here, with A Tear in Space, live from The Gorge. A 30,000 capacity natural amphitheater on the edge of a ginormous canyon in rural Washington. It looks like a barren alien landscape, and building our live set (a spaceship called the international shame station) on that cliff edge...well it just felt like a magic place to play the new album. It just fits. And...the crowd was incredible. And...we didn't mess up too much."

Glass Animals is one of the UK's biggest touring bands. Having just rounded off their "Tour Of Earth," taking their alien spaceship to North America, Europe, the UK, and Australia to hundreds of thousands of fans over the past year-coming home to headline a sold-out O2 Arena in London-Glass Animals has given the world a love story during hard times. From a sold-out Madison Square Garden, Kia Forum, and two sold-out Red Rocks (watch a show recap HERE), Glass Animals ended their global tour with two sold-out Sydney Opera House shows. Each mammoth performance has reminded fans of our shared humanity, set to the backdrop of space.

It was during the first writing stages of I Love You So F***ing Much that Dave intended to make a space album, but what happened was a remarkable zooming out of the human experience, and zooming back into the thing that binds us all: love. Painting 10 portraits of love in all its messy forms, I Love You So F***ing Much is the most personal record that Bayley has ever written. From the existential to the intimate, from the first love we witness around us as children, to romance, hate, and heartbreak-each song is dedicated to a different side of love. The record has already reached a quarter of a billion streams since its release in July, with 150 million Spotify streams, 90 million YouTube views, and 135 million TikTok views to date. It is the long-awaited follow-up to 2020's critically revered Dreamland, which sold over 12 million copies globally and gave life to the Diamond Certified hit "Heat Waves," the record-breaking song that became the biggest international hit from a British band in almost 30 years. In addition, it was the first song to reach #1 with a single writer and producer since Pharrell's "Happy" and the 11th most-streamed song in Spotify's history.

Not only have they recently performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! twice, playing "Creatures In Heaven" and "A Tear in Space (Airlock)," the GRAMMY and BRIT nominated band unveiled a short film in collaboration with VEVO titled "The Extremely Existential Late Show." Introduced by a robotic television set host accompanied by a special guest: a dog named "Krog The Deranged"-played by Dave's dog Woody-the band performed songs off I Love You So F***ing Much. This short film followed a brilliant BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge performances of "Show Pony" and cover of "End Of Beginning" by Djo.

Having a bird's-eye view of life is a view that Glass Animals has become comfortable with. Dreamland was released during the pandemic in 2020, and it was the album that elevated Glass Animals to mythical status. The single "Heat Waves" broke records across the planet, becoming the first song by a British band since Spice Girls' "Wannabe" in 1995 to claim #1 for 5 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. Having achieved GRAMMY and BRIT nominations, being crowned triple j's Hottest 100 winner, claiming over 44 billion global streams, and becoming the first British band to achieve #1 on the Spotify Global Chart, whilst holding space on the Billboard Hot 100 for longer than The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights."

From one infinite song that set the stage for the biggest British contemporary band to break records and tour the globe to the infinite possibility of their profound cosmic fourth studio album, Glass Animals is ready to tell their millions of fans, and perhaps themselves: I Love You So F***ing Much.