Calexico

Boy oh boy, do we have some scorching hot news for you? Tucson, Arizona’s favourite sons, Calexico, are finally making their long-awaited return to New Zealand.

“You see, Calexico are amazing live. Not only is their material extraordinarily good, but this is a band who clearly just dig playing…” - The Guardian

Having toured tirelessly across Europe and America throughout 2023 in support of the 20th anniversary of their seminal record Feast Of Wire, the band have saved the best ‘til last and are headed our way again at long last. To celebrate this double decade milestone, these shows will feature the album played in its entirety, plus of course a generous handful of fan favourites to finish.

Across their illustrious career, the charismatic core pairing of Joey Burns and John Convertino, both formerly of cult act Giant Sand, have earned a fevered following for their unique melting pot of country, cinema noir, desert jazz, TexMex tango, Latin rhythms, and French chansons. Their 1998 album The Black Light and 2000’s Hot Rail saw their star rise, but it was Feast of Wire that completed the trilogy of sorts, and shot them into the musical stratosphere.

Casting his mind back on the making of the album, Joey says, “I’m reminded of how much time and space we had in the studio to try out all sorts of ideas. Most of the recordings started like they often do with John on drums and myself on guitar. And as we brought in the other band members it was like a river was flooding through our subconsciousness and we couldn’t get the ideas to analog tape fast enough."

While musically, there’s nothing quite like it, there’s also a meaningful lyrical thread running through Feast of Wire. The tales woven here concern themselves with the lives of those attempting to make their way north of the Mexican-American border to safety, a plight that the band acknowledges has only worsened in recent years.

“...Genuinely masterful… crammed with immediate songcraft, shifting moods and open-ended exploration” - Pitchfork