Arular Tour

Arular Tour
M.I.A. performing in Los Angeles, USA 2005
Tour by M.I.A.
Associated album	Arular
Start date	2 February 2005 - Toronto, Ontario
End date	February 2006 - Japan
Legs	4
M.I.A. tour chronology
Arular Tour (2005) KALA Tour (2007)

The Arular Tour is a global concert tour by M.I.A. performed in support of her first studio album Arular (2005). It took place from 2005 to 2006.

The tour featured dates across North America, South America, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australasia. M.I.A. performed sporadically near the end of 2004. One of M.I.A.’s first live performances in London took place in November 2004.^[1] She also performed at an event in Puerto Rico and minor gigs in places such as Philadelphia and New York City in the U.S., as well as Hamburg and Berlin in Germany in 2004.^[2] Her 2005 tour began with her North American debut performance at the Drake Hotel in Toronto, Ontario on 2 February 2005.^[3]

Tour details

The Arular Tour setlist featured songs from her debut album Arular. Some mixes from her mixtape Piracy Funds Terrorism were also performed. M.I.A. did not follow the same setlist at every show. M.I.A. spoke in 2005 of wanting to make her live set “minimal,” inspired by gigs of acts such as electroclash musician Peaches which she attended whilst travelling and filming a documentary on her.^[4] M.I.A.'s concert following the Drake Hotel gig received a response described as "phenomenal" by organiser Jacob Smid, with attendees already knowing many of her songs.^[3]

Sets were sometimes decorated with palm fronds. The stage featured coloured drapes, canvasses and flags she created with prints of her graffiti stencils, paintings, and her album and singles artwork. These featured pictures of anonymous rebel soldiers, tigers, tanks and guns amid jagged colourful patterns. Her stage attire featured similar prints. She wore many contrasting outfits, nearly every item of clothing hand made by friends such as Carri Mundane and herself.^[1] In some shows, a video screen displayed images of tigers, looping fighter jets, maps of London and oil rigs.

Additionally, M.I.A. co-headlined tours with Roots Manuva and LCD Soundsystem during 2005.^[5] Her dates from 10 May at the Commodore Ballroom, Canada to 12 June at the 9:30 Club, US were performed with LCD Soundsystem.^[6] M.I.A. performed with backup singer Cherry and DJ Diplo on many dates. Spank Rock opened for M.I.A. on a few dates, as did DJ's Rekha, Marlboro and Contra who made appearances on some dates during the tour.^[7] Concerts took place at club venues and music festivals. She joined Gwen Stefani on her 2005 tour and ended the Arular tour with performances in Japan in February 2006. M.I.A. performed several sold-out shows during her tour, with Aziz Ansari, Feist, David Byrne, Nas, Kelis, Matt Damon and Natalie Portman among those attending concerts.^{[8][9][10][11]} Recording for her second album Kala followed this tour, which preceded the 2007 KALA Tour.

Set list

This is the set-list from M.I.A.'s sold out concert at the club S.O.B.s in Manhattan U.S..

• "Pull Up the People"
• "Fire Fire"
• "Sunshowers"
• "Hombre"
• "M.I.A."
• "Amazon"
• "10 Dollar"
• "Bucky Done Gun"
• "Galang"
• "U.R.A.Q.T."
• "Bingo"

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
North America
2 February 2005	Toronto, Ontario	Canada	Drake Hotel
3 February 2005	Los Angeles, California	United States	Knitting Factory
5 February 2005	New York City, New York	United States	Knitting Factory
20 March 2005	Austin, Texas	United States	South by Southwest Festival
1 May 2005	Indio, California	United States	Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
10 May 2005	Vancouver, BC	Canada	Commodore Ballroom
11 May 2005	Seattle, Washington	United States	Showbox
13 May 2005	San Francisco, California	United States	Independent club
14 May 2005	San Francisco, California	United States	The Fillmore
19 May 2005	Chicago, Illinois	United States	Metro Chicago
20 May 2005	Detroit, Michigan	United States	Majestic Theatre
22 May 2005	Montreal, Quebec	Canada	La Tulipe
9 June 2005	Boston, Massachusetts	United States	Avalon
12 June 2005	Washington DC	United States	9:30 Club
17 June 2005	Manhattan, New York	United States	S.O.B.s
Europe
19 June 2005	Barcelona	Spain	Sónar
20 June 2005	London	England	Fabric club
23 June 2005	Norwich	England	Norwich Waterfront
24 June 2005	London	England	02 Wireless Festival
24 June 2005	Glastonbury	England	Glastonbury Festival
North America
7 August 2005	Central Park, New York	United States	Central Park SummerStage
Asia
13 August 2005	Tokyo	Japan	Summer Sonic Festival
14 August 2005	Osaka	Japan	Summer Sonic Festival
Europe
26–28 August 2005	Reading and Leeds	England	Reading and Leeds Festival
North America
19 September 2005	Athens, Georgia	United States	40 Watt Club
21 September 2005	Washington D.C.	United States	9:30 Club
23 September 2005	Boston, Massachusetts	United States	Paradise
24 September 2005	Montreal, Quebec	Canada	Metropolis
26 September 2005	Toronto, Ontario	Canada	Phoenix Concert Theatre
27 September 2005	Detroit, Michigan	United States	St. Andrews
28 September 2005	Chicago, Illinois	United States	Metro Chicago
29 September 2005	Minneapolis, Minnesota	United States	Fine Line Cafe
1 October 2005	Denver, Colorado	United States	Gothic Theatre
4 October 2005	Los Angeles, California	United States	Henry Fonda Theatre
5 October 2005	San Francisco, California	United States	Grand Ballroom
South America
22 October 2005	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	TIM Festival at Museum of Modern Art
25 October 2005	Sao Paulo	Brazil	TIM Festival at Tom
29 October 2005	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Bue Festival
Australasia
26 January,January January, 29 February,Februaryebruary 5, 2006	Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth	Australia	Big Day Out
28 January 2006	Sydney	Australia	The Metro
1 February 2006	Melbourne	Australia	Prince of Wales Theatre
Asia
February 2006		Japan

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Frere Jones, Sasha (22 November 2004). "Bingo in Swansea: Maya Arulpragsam’s world". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/22/041122crmu_music. Retrieved 30 May 2008. 
2. ^ "Are you lesbian? No I’m making music". pop (all love). 1 February 2005. http://popwherry.blogspot.com/2005/02/are-you-lesbian-no-im-making-music.html. Retrieved 30 May 2008. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Peters, Mitchell (5 September 2005). "M.I.A.". Pollstar. http://www.pollstar.com/news/viewhotstar.pl?Artist=MIA. Retrieved 30 May 2008. ^{[dead link]}
4. ^ Moayeri, Lily. "“And Interview with Maya Arul a.k.a. M.I.A. – Arul on recording Arular “". Remixmag. http://remixmag.com/mag/remix_mia/index.html. Retrieved 30 May 2008. 
5. ^ Chekuru, Kavitha (25 July 2005). "M.I.A. Announces Headlining Tour". Pitchforkmedia. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/34916-mia-announces-headlining-tour. Retrieved 30 May 2008. 
6. ^ E. Davis, Carolyn (26 April 2005). "M.I.A. Forges Her Own Path". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1500804/20050426/mia__4_.jhtml. Retrieved 6 August 2008. 
7. ^ Inoue, Todd (12 October 2005). "Chairman M.I.A.". Metroactive. http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/10.12.05/mia-0541.html. Retrieved 5 October 2008. 
8. ^ "M.I.A. story - Aziz Ansari featuring Eugene Mirman". azizisbored.com. YouTube. 23 February 2005. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QcgvGqo_OUI. Retrieved 5 October 2008. 
9. ^ Feist (5 May 2005). "A Torch Singer with an ancient sound". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/arts/music/05play.html. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 
10. ^ Shapiro, Peter (17 June 2005). "Talking about her revolution". Times Online (London). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14932-1658366,00.html. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 
11. ^ Levy, Ariel (November 2005). "Natalie Portman will change your life". Blender. http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=1791. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 

External links

• Official site
• M.I.A. on Myspace
• M.I.A. The IGN interview, 2005