✝️💨 'Holy Smoke (2025)' Tour Begins This Week!
I'm gonna drink a million beers PLUS new merch, win stuff, the Universe Replied.
Holy Smoke (2025) Tour starts THIS WEEK. I tell you what, we are proper in the mood for a big ol’ blowout.
5 shows, packing in more miles than is logistically or financially sensible, but we wanted to hit it far and wide in what will be our last trip to the States for a little while.
We’ll be celebrating All Hell in the USA for the first time since its release, but we’ll also be poised to play a ton of stuff from throughout our back catalogue, prioritising FUN and VIBES.
25 May - Empire Garage, Austin TX (TIX) w/ Touch Girl Apple Blossom
27 May - The Belasco, Los Angeles CA (TIX) w/ Star 99
29 May - Metro, Chicago IL (TIX) w/ Empty Country
30 May - The King of Clubs, Columbus OH (TIX) w/ Empty Country
31 May - The Brooklyn Monarch, Brooklyn NY (TIX) w/ Empty Country
We like to make this as easy as possible for you, so here are the Stage Times.
Sunday 25th May - The Empire Garage, Austin. w/ Touch Girl Apple Blossom
Doors: 7 / Opener: 7:45 / LC!: 8:45 / Over: 10:30
Tuesday 27th May - The Belasco, Los Angeles. w/ Star 99
Doors: 7 / Opener: 8 / LC!: 9 / Over: 10:45
Thursday 29th May - The Metro, Chicago. w/ Empty Country
Doors: 6 / Opener: 7 / LC!: 8:15 / Over: 10
Friday 30th May - The King of Clubs, Columbus. w/ Empty Country
Doors: 7 / Opener: 8 / LC!: 9:15 / Over: 11
Saturday 31st May - The Brooklyn Monarch, Brooklyn. w/ Empty Country
Doors: 6 / Opener: 7 / LC!: 8:15 / Over: 10
Here are the shirts you’ll find at the Merch Desk.
A brand new Clown Blood design (it’s me, I’m the clown), two recent All Hell adjacent works that haven’t been available at US shows before plus the classic “Budweiser Frog” tee for our fellow millennials.
IN ADDITION we’ll have crop-tops, vinyl (All Hell; HON,Y…; RIB; SS), CDs (All Hell; HON,Y; RIB; HS; WAB,WAD; SFIS), caps, badges, pennants, free stickers to grab. Shirts are $35, as are the 2LP vinyl records. CDs $13. Other bits in-between. Payment via cash or card. Shirts from size S to 5XL.
🇲🇽 Mexico City Show Cancelled
As a lot of you will have seen by now, we’re very sad to have cancelled our scheduled performance in Mexico City.
Last month at the AXE Ceremonia Festival in Mexico City, two young photographers, Berenice Giles and Miguel Ángel Rojas, were needlessly killed due to the collapse of a scissor lift. The festival was organised by the same promotion company that was due to host our concert in the city.
A number of you reached out to us about the discomfort you felt at us working with said company, and we immediately understood and shared in this. We attempted to engage in a dialogue with the promoter to better understand the events that occurred, but their response was slow and ultimately unsatisfactory, leaving us unable to work with them in good faith. They have yet to make a public statement over 6 weeks after the tragic incident.
We worked very hard to attempt to partner with alternative promoters. We thought we had found a solution that would allow the show to go ahead at a new venue, with a new promoter, without compromising our values. Unfortunately this fell through, leaving us without a show.
We dearly hope there will be another chance for us to return to Mexico one day. We appreciate many of you will be disappointed by this decision but it is important that we made the right moral choice. If we did not come to this conclusion, we would not be the band that we are.
🎰 WIN New All Hell Vinyl Variants!
‘All Hell’ is our best-selling vinyl album to date, and so with nearly all copies Sold Out, we’ve repressed it, in a couple new vinyl colour ways, which are available now/soon.
You can pick up the Shooting Star Glitter version from our online store (UK / US) now, or at the merch desk at upcoming shows. Additionally there’s the Selenograph version, exclusive to US retail. Take a look here for stockists, or ask your local record shop to order it in for you.
Anyone commenting on this Substack post will also be in with a chance of winning a copy of both, we’ll pick a comment at random before the weekend!
📖 ‘The Universe Replied’ Back in Print!
Available again for the first time in a couple of years, you can get your hands on ‘The Universe Replied: An Oral History of Romance is Boring by Los Campesinos!’.
There’s been just the right amount of clamour for this one to return. Enough demand to make clear that people would like the chance to own a copy and it’s wortwhile, but not too much to the point that the requests have become annoying (eg. Cos Lamp! t-shirt).
88 pages/35,000 words of interviews with Los Camp! and former band members about the creation, recording and touring of Romance Is Boring, and everything related. I’ll chuck one of these in with the above competition too!
🤔 Some Notes In Advance of Tour
But typed in a small font, so it feels slightly less self-indulgent.
Usually ahead of a US tour I’d be panicking about visas returning on time, but there’s no fear of that this time around, as we’re coming back on the tail end of the year long visas we were granted ahead of last June’s US trip. All indications were that this brief North America trip would be a breezy one, but the unfortunate cancellation of the Mexico show changed that, and has proven very stressful. I am always very proud that our band is truly independent, no management, no record label, but this has been a very rare occasion where I’ve felt it would be a relief to be able to pass responsibility to somebody. To hide, and have someone else make the important decisions. But of course that’s not how we operate, and I am proud of the work we’ve done ahead of this tour.
We’re personally all so sad about not performing in Mexico. Every US trip for the past several years we’ve tried to incorporate a show there, and until now it’s never been possible.
The most important thing though is that we have made a decision that we think honours Berenice and Miguel, and that we find morally comfortable. The decision isn’t without its repercussions, of course. We’re very aware of the disappointment from fans in Mexico City (or who were travelling there especially for the show) and can understand why in some instances this is displayed as anger. That’s why we tried so hard to find an alternative promoter. We feel a very real sense of guilt for the cancellation, and the expense it may have caused for some of you. For the most part there’s been an outpouring of gratitude from fans (and strangers) in Mexico, for drawing attention to the ongoing situation. This is not necessary but is kind and appreciated.
The show cancellation also has an impact on the tour’s finances. Our Mexico flights were booked long ago. Thankfully we were able to change these to allow us to fly direct to Austin, Texas, but at a total cost of £2,048. The Mexico City show fee was a guaranteed minimum of $4,500USD (approximately £3,350). We’d booked flights and baggage between Mexico City and Austin too, which won’t be used (and regrettably were non-refundable), so that’s wastage of £2,621. Meaning a total swing of around -£8,000 on the budget sheet. I’m not sharing this info for any reason other than because you guys seem to find it interesting when I give a glimpse behind the curtain. We’ll make this money back, but Miguel and Berenice will never attend a concert again. A great injustice.
This means tour now starts with us flying a day later, and arriving in Texas. We’ll land late on Friday, and have all day on Saturday to enjoy being in Austin, before Sunday’s show. Usually once we land, the anxiety and stress dissipates, and I’m sure (I hope!) this time will be no different. Our plans will be the same as usual: coffee, food, beer, record shops, stocking up on 20 Soothing Touch Lip Balms at Whole Foods. Matt has suggested a dip at Barton Springs, which admittedly does look the perfect way to begin a tour and balance out the inevitable excess. Gotta detox to etc etc. We’re staying near Town Lake/Rainey Street, so if you have any recommendations around that area, please let us know in the comments.
The shows themselves will be a delight as always. Of that I have no doubts. I’m not exaggerating when I say we enjoy every show we play.
I wanted to draw attention to a detail about the Brooklyn show. I mentioned in a previous email that we’d deliberately avoided working with Bowery Presents on this show, because their artist fees are low, and their booking fees are huge. We’re working direct with the Monarch venue on this, and that has allowed us to keep ticket prices low, but it’s also going to allow us to make a lot more money. The nature of this show deal is a very low guarantee, but with a generous profit split after costs have been covered. We know we’ll always sell over 1,000 tickets for a show in New York, and with that number passed we’re currently in a situation where every additional $30 ticket sold sees around $27 go direct to our show fee. This arrangement is obviously a huge help with balancing the books for this tour!
ICYMI: last month saw the vinyl and digital release of Tom’s soundtrack to the short-film ‘Sleep Singing’. The physical release is limited to just 150 copies on our very own Heart Swells label, be sure to check it out to hear a different side of Tom’s incredible musicianship.
Day tickets are now available for our appearance at OFF Festival, Poland. It’s a great lineup across the whole weekend, but if Los Camp! are your one true love, you get the bonus of seeing the likes of Kraftwerk, Kneecap and Nilüfer Yanya play on the same day as us!
Five of my (Gareth) favourite albums of 2025 so far… Into A Pretty Room - Lots of Hands ; Café Life - Vanessa Amara ; Every Video Without You, Every Sound Without Your Name - Lucy Liyou ; Time Indefinite - William Tyler ; Lifetime - Erika de Casier.
This feels like another message which is either regional-specific, or asking you to spend money on us. I’m sorry, I hate it when that happens! As a teaser, there’s a project going on in the background which is for LC! fans the world over and FOC.
See you in the pit,
LC! x
As an old ™️ LC! fan, the 10 pm end time for the Brooklyn gig is sadly very appreciated. In lieu of an official pre/post show party, and backed by the FOMO of fellow state side fans, I’m trying to organize an informal gathering at a nearby bar. I’ll be posting on the discord and reddit for other NYC based weeping dipshits. Come have a beer!
What Switch games are you planning for the flight and why are they Balatro and more Balatro?