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The Knife’s Live Shows Are Going to Be Weird as Hell

the knife, shaking the habitual

“It has to be fun,” the Knife’s Karin Dreijer-Anderson recently told SPIN, talking about the Swedish duo’s upcoming live show. “I think we will show some humor in our live show.”

Now we now what that “humor” will entail. According to a post on the experimental electro outfit’s blog, shows in support of the Knife Essential Shaking the Habitual will involve aerobics, dance-karaoke, and live sets from Cool Pans, “the biggest steel band in Scandinavia!”

A handful of the band’s European gigs will begin with DEEP Aerobics (short for “Death Electro Emo Protest Aerobics”), which the post describes as “a workout form invented and shamelessly disseminated by Miguel Gutierrez, who hopes to soon destroy the technique, because it’s just too hard to teach, and really the world is going to hell in a hand basket anyway.”

The stream-of-consciousness-sounding announcement continues, “It is the communal/political/conceptual/imaginational workout experience you always wanted but never could embarrass yourself enough to find or do in public. It is for anyone who has ever had any interest in combining the joie de vivre that is the vigorous bouncing of one’s anatomical/spiritual/energetic molecules with the existential absurdity that is living in a world/country/economic system of injustice, war-mongering, and cultural ineptitude. Oh wait, that’s you. If you feel like it: come in your own crazy aerobics costume, whatever that means to you. Taste the sweat.” 

For the Knife’s May 16 and 17 gigs in Stockholm, the live spectacle will begin with performances by the aforementioned Cool Pans, and will also involve something called “Danceoke,” which will be organized by artist collective and feminist support group Öfa-Kollektivet. “ÖFA takes the liberty to challenge the bipolar gender thinking and aim to create a space for gender-free experiences,” the post explains. “Breaking stereotypes is to break the system that controls and limits, reins and holds back, shapes and dictates — that’s why ÖFA has an aftertaste of gingerbread, promiscuity, trust, hope, daring and do-it-yourself spirit!” 

Danceoke, meanwhile, is “like karaoke but instead of singing alone you dance to music videos together with a full dance floor. Danceoke shifts the perspective of performer/audience and makes people come together no matter what.”

Several of the Knife’s European concerts will end with DJ sets: Dreijer-Anderson and brother/bandmate Olof Dreijer have already booked Shinedoe, rRoxymore, Hannah Holland, Pernille Krog Mogensen, Lemieux, and Jin Mustafa b2b to hit the stacks, with many more spinners to be revealed in the coming weeks.

Read the Knife’s entire live show announcement post here, and scroll down for tour information.

The Knife 2013 tour dates:

April 26 – Bremen, Germany @ Pier 2 *
April 27 – Hamburg, Germany @ Docks *
April 29 – Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz *
April 30 – Zurich, Switzerland @ Komplex 457 *
May 1 – Munich, Germany @ Muffathalle *
May 2 – Cologne, Germany @ E-Werk
May 4 – Paris, France @ La Cite de La Musique
May 5 – Brussels, Belgium @ AB Club
May 6 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
May 8 – London, U.K. @ Roundhouse
May 9 – London, U.K. @ Roundhouse
May 11 – Berlin, Germany @ Columbiahalle
May 12 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega Main Hall *
May 13 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega Main Hall *
May 15 – Oslo, Norway @ Sentrum Scene *
May 16 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Hangaren Subtopia #
May 17 – Stockholm, Sweden @ Hangaren Subtopia #
May 24 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound
June 14 – Aarhus, Denmark @ Northside Festival
July 19 – Gräfenhainichen, Germany @ MELT! Festival
August 7 – Helsinki, Finland @ Flow Festival
August 9 – Goteborg, Sweden @ Way Out West Festival
August 10 – Oslo, Norway @ Øya Festival
August 17 – Hasselt, Belgium @ Pukkelpop Festival
August 18 – Biddinghuizen, Netherlands @ Lowlands Festival
August 30 – Zürich, Switzerland @ Zürich Openair Festival
September 6 – Warsaw, Poland @ Burn Selector Festival
September 7 – Whiteley, U.K. @ Bestival

* = with DEEP Aerobics
# = with Cool Pans and Danceoke