La Luz

Psychedelic garage rock of Seattle quartet La Luz returns to Prague after ten years

La Luz (Spanish for The Light) is a Seattle-based band centered around the vibrant musical vision and the guitar genius of Shana Cleveland. La Luz were formed in the summer of 2012 by Cleveland, who had previously recorded with the Curious Mystery and Shana Cleveland & the Sandcastles. Looking for a group to fulfill her vision of a band who were equally at home playing upbeat surf and psychedelic moody garage, Cleveland joined forces with Alice Sandahl on keys, Abbey Blackwell on bass, and Marian Li-Pino on drums, with all four sharing vocals. Their first shows and releases — the Damp Face EP and debut album It's Alive — rode the wave of upbeat surf rock. Subsequently, the band started shifting towards rather introspective guitar psychedelia. Their critically acclaimed second album Weirdo Shrine was co-produced by Ty Segall, though it wasn't until their third — Floating Features (2018) — that La Luz achieved a major global breakthrough.

Six years later, La Luz returned with their fourth LP News of the Universe, released in May 2024 by the renowned label Sub Pop. With a credo adapted from science fiction author Octavia E. Butler, ​News of the Universe is a record born of calamity, a work of dark, beautiful psychedelia reflecting Cleveland’s experience of having her world blown apart by a breast cancer diagnosis just two years after the birth of her son. Genre-wise, the album spans doo-wop, r’n’b, and rock’n’roll, capturing the band in a transitional phase; it features drummer Audrey Johnson for the first time, while longtime members bassist Lena Simon and keyboardist Alice Sandahl bid farewell to the band. Is there any band in the world more suited to capturing the chaos of change in all its messy beauty than La Luz?

With the new album, La Luz are heading out on a European tour, which will bring them to Prague for the second time, after a show at Strahov 10 years back.
 

"A sound so golden that it seems to bathe you in light. It is also a sound like hope, evidence that Cleveland has managed to locate beauty in darkness." — Under The Radar​

Tickets:
pre-sale starts on April 9 at 10:00
450 CZK via MeetFactory & GoOut
550 CZK at the door

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