Fruit Bats Plan Return to The Wilma in 2024
Indie folk veterans, Fruit Bats, will return to The Wilma in Missoula on Sunday, May 19, 2024.
Founded by Eric D. Johnson, a former member of indie giants The Shins and part of the supergroup Bonny Light Horseman, Fruit Bats have undergone various lineup changes over the years. Despite these shifts, the band’s core has remained centered around Johnson. Influenced by the likes of Supertramp, The Byrds, The Kinks, and late ’70s to early ’80s pop radio, their music is a delightful blend of indie folk with a nostalgic touch.
For a taste of their sound, check out tracks like ” The Bottom of It,” “Humbug Mountain Song,” and “The Ruminant Band.” Fruit Bats’ most recent album, A River Running to Your Heart, released in 2023, has been praised by Americana-UK.com as “a low-key beauty of a record, a small and lovely triumph for a too often despondent and agitated world.”
Don’t miss the chance to witness this indie gem live at The Wilma!
Tickets
GROOVE PRESALE: A limited amount of Groove Presale tickets will be available ONLINE ONLY (while supplies last) from 10am to 10pm, Thursday, January 25th. A password will be provided via email after completing the sign up form below. PLEASE NOTE: Logjam Gift Cards cannot be used for presale purchases. Learn how to purchase tickets with your Logjam gift card here.
PUBLIC ON SALE: Tickets go on sale Friday, January 26, 2024 at 10:00AM at The Top Hat, online, or by phone at 1 (800) 653-8000. All tickets are general admission and a limited amount of seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. All ages are welcome.
About Fruit Bats
Eric D. Johnson rarely lingers at one location too long.
“There’s always been motion in my life between one place and another,” says the Fruit Bats songwriter.
As a kid growing up in the Midwest, Johnson’s family moved around a lot, but it wasn’t until he became a touring musician years later that motion became a central part of his identity. That transient lifestyle stoked an enduring reverence for the world he watched pass by through a van window.
“It weighs heavily on me—the notion of place,” Johnson says. “The places I’ve been and the places I want to go.”
A sense of place is a unifying theme he’s revisited with Fruit Bats throughout its many lives. From the project’s origins in the late ’90s as a vehicle for Johnson’s lo-fi tinkering to the more sonically ambitious work of recent years, Fruit Bats has often showcased love songs where people and locations meld into one. It’s a loose song structure that navigates what he calls “the geography of the heart.”
“The songs exist in a world that you can sort of travel from one to another,” says Johnson. “There are roads and rivers between these songs.” Continue reading…
