Glass Animals have announced that they will be headlining this year’s ‘The Night We Stole Christmas,’ event, usually hosted in Chicago, presented by Cumulus Media this year as an online streamed event, tickets are available here. The British Alternative outfit being selected to headline is an unusual choice for an American event but it is a sure sign of their popularity across the pond. The event will stream live on the 23rd of December at 6PM Pacific time which sadly for those of us watching in the UK translates to 2am GMT in the morning of the 24th of December.
The event will continue through till Christmas Day and ‘Sharing the bill,’ with Glass Animals, ‘are Southern California-based acts Wallows and Cold War Kids.’ As well as indie bands from both the UK and the US, the event also promises a number of other special guests which may include big names like Billie Eilish and Foo Fighters. The night certainly promises to be a big moment for Glass Animals and may serve to increase their following the US even more, as well as attracting some attention back at home as well.
Despite forming in Oxford, Glass Animals have firm roots in the United States with frontman Dave Bayley born and raised in Texas, before moving to the UK at 13, and guitarist Drew MacFarlane also being born in the US before moving to the UK and meeting Bayley at secondary school. It is perhaps these roots which have made the band so easily accessible to listeners across the pond, which traction on home soil has perhaps been a little more rugged.
However, while previous albums ‘Zaba,’ and ‘How To Be A Human Being,’ did not perform all that well in the UK, although the latter did manage to climb as high as number 23 in the UK album charts, their latest effort ‘Dreamland,’ has been a much more palpable success, scoring number 2 when it came out in the summer this year. Despite many delays, and the obvious obstruction of coronavirus, the album has been much more well received in the UK than any of their previous efforts.
Perhaps one reason for the increased positive response to Glass Animals’ latest album is that, on this album, they have been more willing than ever before to produce individual tracks which can stand their own ground as a single. For example, ‘Heat Waves,’ is one tune from ‘Dreamland,’ and in fact the first one by the band to make it into the UK top 100 singles chart.
While Glass Animals as proud inhabitants of the Indie genre have always seemed to prioritise creating a great album as a whole, which is no exception for ‘Dreamland,’ which has the most unified and distinctive concept yet, blending music with the visual arts and even futuristic 3D computer modelling, the album also features distinctive tunes which can stand on their own two feet. ‘Heat Waves,’ is the most obvious example of this, with the official video racking up 6.7 million views now.
