Radiohead booked a date in Tel Aviv, Israel as part of their world tour behind A Moon Shaped Pool, bucking an industry trend of boycotting the country. Now, they’ve enlisted a Jewish-Arabic band to upcoming their upcoming US tour.
Based in Israel, Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis “revives” the music of the Al-Kuwaiti Brothers, Tassa’s grandfather and great-uncle. A press release describes the Al-Kuwaiti Brothers as “composers of the most popular Iraqi songs from the early 20th century.”
At a time when tensions between Middle Eastern cultures is high and the West is experiencing a spike in naked xenophobia and religious intolerance, it might not be a stretch to think booking this particular band for these particular shows is a calculated move by Radiohead to promote unity. (It probably doesn’t hurt that Jonny Greenwood collaborated with Dude Tassa on the 2009 track “Eize Yom”.)
Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis will open the entiriety of Radiohead’s US tour (set to kick off March 30th in Miami) as well as the aforementioned Tel Aviv show on July 19th. Find Radiohead’s complete itinerary below.
Radiohead 2017 Tour Dates:
03/30 – Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena #
04/01 – Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena #
04/03 – New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center #
04/05 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center #
04/08 – Seattle, WA @ Key Arena #
04/09 – Portland, OR @ Moda Center #
04/11 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl #
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theater #
04/18 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theater #
04/21 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
06/06 – Oslo, NO @ Spektrum ^
06/07 – Oslo, NO @ Spektrum ^
06/09 – Stockholm, SE @ Ericsson Globe ^
06/11 – Aarhus, DK @ NorthSide Festival
06/14 – Florence, IT @ Visarno Arena *
06/16 – Milan, IT @ Parco Di Monza (I-Days 2017) *
06/18 – Hilvarenbeek, NL @ Best Kept Secret Festival
06/20 – Dublin, IE @ 3Arena ^
06/23 – Pilton, UK @ Glasonbury Music Festival
06/28 – Gdynia, PL @ Open’er Festival
06/30 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
07/02 – Arras, FR @ Main Square Festival
07/04 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Arena ^&
07/05 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Arena ^&
07/07 – Glasgow, UK @ TRNSMT Festival
07/19 – Tel Aviv, IS @ Park Hayarkon #
# = w/ Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis
^ = w/ Junun
* = w/ James Blake
& = w/ Oliver Coates
Get to know Dudu Tassa & The Kuwaitis: