Acclaimed indie-pop duo Tennis has announced a major North American headline tour heralding their highly anticipated fifth studio album SWIMMER, due out on Feb.14.
The first single from the album, and first new music in nearly three years, “Runner,” was released with news of the tour, along with a colorful companion video, directed by longtime collaborator Luca Venter and inspired by singer Alaina Moore’s love of “old musicals and all things Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Bob Fosse.”
“Runner” was called an “incandescent taste of Tennis’s upcoming fifth LP,” by Australia’s Happy, and Cool Hunting hailed the “Runner” video with advice to “Bliss out in technicolor. The visual treatment is full of sequins, night skies and satin—the ideal accompaniment for Moore’s falsetto, crescendoing synths, and lush production.”
Known as a captivating and charismatic live act, Tennis will celebrate the recent premiere of “Runner” with a much-anticipated headline performance at Atlanta, GA’s Over/Under Music Fest on Saturday, Nov. 23. The duo has spent much of its existence on the road, including sold-out headline runs, festival sets, tours alongside such like-minded artists as Father John Misty, Spoon, The Decemberists, and The Shins, and most recently, a sold-out summer double bill with Mumford & Sons at Englewood, CO’s Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre.
Produced by Tennis and mixed by four-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee Claudius Mittendorfer (Panic! At The Disco, Parquet Courts), SWIMMER sees the Denver, CO-based husband and wife duo of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore elevating their distinctive pop approach to heretofore unexplored new heights, experimenting with atypical instrumentation, complex time changes, and an increased focus on lyrical storytelling fueled in part by a series of life-changing experiences that only served to strengthen their already powerful personal and creative bond.
“’Runner’ is the first song we wrote for our fifth record,” says Moore. “It began as a guitar riff Patrick recorded while we were living off-grid, anchored in a fisherman’s cove called San Juanico. The only instruments we had on board were an acoustic guitar and a drum sequencer, but the limitations seemed to work in our favor. Until that point, we had no clear vision for our writing. The demo Patrick recorded that day outlined our future, the first contours of our next record.”
In addition to their frequent live activity, Tennis has made a number of high profile media appearances, spanning NPR to NBC, while also collaborating on campaigns for top brands like Gucci, Madewell, and Vinyl Me, Please.
Tennis Swimmer Tour dates
November 2019 23 – Over/Under Music Fest – Atlanta, GA
February 2020 25 – Madrid Theatre & Cafe – Kansas City, MO 27 – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX 28 – Paper Tiger – San Antonio, TX 29 – Stubb’s Bar-B-Q – Austin, TX
March 2020 2 – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX 4 – Meow Wolf – Santa Fe, NM 26 – Metro Music Hall – Salt Lake City, UT 28 – Top Hat Lounge – Missoula, MT 30 – Venue Nightclub – Vancouver, BC 31 – Neptune Theatre – Seattle, WA
April 2020 1 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR 3 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA 4 – The Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles, CA 5 – Belly Up Tavern – Solana Beach, CA 8 – Crescent Ballroom – Phoenix, AZ 10 – Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO 16 – Slowdown – Omaha, NE 17 – Cedar Cultural Center – Minneapolis, MN 18 – The Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL 20 – Majestic Theatre Center – Detroit, MI 21 – Deluxe at Old National Centre – Indianapolis, IN 22 – The Opera House – Toronto, ON 24 – Higher Ground – Burlington, VT 25 – Royale – Boston, MA 26 – Port City Music Hall – Portland, ME 28 – Brooklyn Steel – Brooklyn, NY 29 – The 9:30 Club – Washington, DC 30 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA
May 2020 1- Haw River Ballroom – Saxapahaw, NC 4 – Saturn – Birmingham, AL 6 – Cannery Ballroom – Nashville, TN 8 – Headliners Music Hall – Louisville, KY 9 – Delmar Hall – Saint Louis, MO
On Friday, July 12, Upstate NY celebrated a final farewell performance from one of the area’s most beloved jam acts,Formula 5. The groove-rock foursome, for their final show, were headlining the third annual Rock The Dock Music Festival in Lake George, NY. Formula 5 had announced their intention to go on an indefinite hiatus earlier this year with plans to to finish out a select handful of live performances, the last of which was their main stage set at Rock The Dock, the one-day music event which they have hosted for the past two years.
On this third time around, Rock The Dock saw a beautiful day of weather and an impressive turnout of festival patrons who flocked to a corner of Lake George to see an intimate list of popular music acts. Other acts on the festival main stage for the day were the funk dance band West End Blend, singer-songwriter Mike Powell, Saratoga Springs’ JT Maple, along with Americana rock outfit Eastbound Jesus and the Colorado-based jam quartet Magic Beans. And, of course, after all of these acts, Formula 5 closed the stage out, performing a highly lauded, headlining set of music.
Adding to its serene views and amiable atmosphere, Rock The Dock equipped itself with an impressively nice sound. Patrons could sit atop the second or third deck of the massive steamboats —three of them boxed in the concert area in grand fashion—and enjoy the music as if they were riding the front row. In between sets, patrons could meander to close by vendors and be serenaded by the music of both JT Maple and Mike Powell.
Magic Beans, one of Colorado’s most promising jamband acts in recent times, were on deck taking the stage just before Formula 5’s send off. And they played a short but strong hour-long set that really managed to warm up the energy of Rock The Dock properly. Towards the end of their set, Beans’ steady, focused approach to uplifting trance funk had hit the crowd right way and had the concert area flush with dancers and smilers. At the apex of this great set, Magic Beans delivered a uniquely slow version of Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime.”
Formula 5 then took their time that evening to put on a proper close to a more than respectable seven year career of touring and recording. Those seven years saw a few different iterations of the band (every member of which was present this evening) craft and refine a highly popular, unique improvisational sound and live experience.
That live experience came out in full force for one last time at Rock The Dock, with the band—in it’s most recent lineup of keyboardist Matt Richards, bassist James Woods, drummer Greg Marek, and guitarist Joe Davis—sounding off to hundreds of their most dedicated fans and family in true, larger-than-life style. The way they performed for this ending display, the band might as well as have been in front of thousands of people, let alone several hundred. It came with perhaps a bit of irony that this last set from Formula 5 was as musically thrilling as some of the best they had ever done. By the last of the exasperated yet tenaciously sung notes from lead Joe Davis on the night’s encore “Breaking Glass,” it didn’t seem right that such a great display was the end instead of being the beginning of a new chapter.
But here at Rock The Dock there was no crazy setlist, no stage antics or tricks. Formula 5 simply offered an extremely well-executed, instrumentally colorful and comfortable display of original jams. A mighty “In The Sand” strapped Formula fans into a familiar rocket, and catapulted them towards the psychedelic reaches of high-energy space funk that this band had always demonstrated they could navigate better than most others playing today.
By the time the band transitioned energetically into “Come Along,” the dock was rife with glee. Whether people were realizing or not that this was in fact Formula 5’s final show, for a moment, that didn’t seem to be clear. People were just happy, and they moved in colorful motion to the quartet’s shifting tempos and amazing collection of weird, wild rock sounds.
One of those sounds was the familiar and super heady keyboard intro from Matt Richards to the band’s “Sad Bed.” If anyone thought “In The Sand” would be the highlight point, they might have been subverted by this tune which was played even more ambitiously than the mega jam before it. Across the last couple of years, since the career-making release of their record All Points North, “Sad Bed” has been one of Formula 5’s most creative and transcendent vehicles for improvisation, stretching out on many live occasions past twenty-five or even thirty minutes in length. This farewell show at Rock The Dock boasted a “Sad Bed” to end all “Sad Beds,” a masterfully groovy, last improvisational exercise for the band. In this inspired performance, Formula 5 sounded like a synthesis between all of their influences, fusing together the cosmic ’70s feel of Parliament Funkadelic, the raunchy grit of Widespread Panic, and the artistic unexpectedness of The Grateful Dead.
Even “Trout Waters Pt. 1 & 2,” which the band often in past shows would split up as segue points between other songs, was kept together in one long delivery and went near ballistic. Drummer Greg Marek, who was completely in the zone in this moment, deserves credit for helping to launch this one into a fantastic, power-rocking jam.
Through the entirety of this fully loaded yet all-too-quick two hours, the band was all smiles, with all four members beaming at one another at every musical change or, at times it seemed, just because they were so into it. Here, in the last show, they were having fun, and perhaps that’s what counts most. The crowd was certainly more than appreciative, matching the band’s amazing gusto step for step through to the end. When the band had returned to a deafening encore chant, Marek took to the microphone and said a few words that must have eased at least a few minds. “I don’t see why there’s any reason we can’t do this again next year.”
Swimmer continued the party for Rock The Dock at Lake George’s King Neptune’s Pub and the beach bar’s crowd eventually swelled to a cool gathering of festival attendees and turned the local hub into a sizzling last bit of dancing fun. Formula 5’s members, when they weren’t on stage making their last sentimental statements of the evening, were among the late night crowd, having a much deserved beer and mingling with fans and friendsSwimmer, this instrumentally intense yet often very melodically pleasing quartet, ripped up the last few hours of the festival between confident guitar shreds, jamtronic-tinged bass and drum lines, and even some moments of soulful saxaphone work thrown in. At the very least, this band that hails from the still musically fecund hotspot of Burlington, VT showed that while some of our favorites now and then have to call it quits, the music is always being carried on strongly by still younger and continually impressive artists.
Formula 5 Setlist: Friday July 12, Rock The Dock Music Festival
Set 1: Earthbound Tim > Booher’s Pass, Pedro -> In the Sand > Come Along, Trout Waters Pt 1 & 2, Sad Bed > Gettin Tough Again
Formula 5 has made a name for themselves in the past 7 years, performing at a rally for Bernie Sanders, with shows in more than 20 states, festival appearances across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, their own Ben & Jerry’s shake, as well as three studio albums, two live albums and their own festival, Rock the Dock, taking place this Friday in Lake George, in what will be their final performance for Formula 5.
Then, that will be it for Formula 5. The band announced in March that they would go on indefinite hiatus following their Rock the Dock festival on Friday, July 12. The Magic Beans, Eastbound Jesus, Swimmer, West End Blend, Mike Powell, and JT Maple will also perform ahead of their final performance.
We asked fans and former band members for their favorite memories of the band, whose short tenure left an indelible mark on the jam scene in the Northeast.
Larry Shippee
Since that first Tumbledown weekend (2016) when a bottle of acid laced whiskey led to great friends and a love for Formula 5, to almost year later finding out that said bottle of acid whiskey was the catalyst to “Figure Out A Feeling,” to raging in costumes at Horror Camp, to late nights after Nectar’s, to pen rips on stage at ADK Fest, to deer hits, it’s been a WILD RIDE.
Tasha Mase
It was at Putnam Den and Formula 5, Mister F and the Other Brothers were playing. It was the first live music I had seen since moving to the 518. I didn’t know anyone, but it didn’t matter, all that mattered was the music and it was everything you wanted it to be.
Gyasi Owens
My favorite Formula 5 show was the 2016 Halloween show up at King Neptune’s in Lake George. They set up a projector and did a jam over a major battle scene from Lord of the Rings. It was epic. Doing an improv rhyme during a cissy strut jam at Dino BBQ in Troy was also dope!
Sue Davis
I remember talking with all of the guys in the band over the years while they grabbed a bite to eat at the house on their way to their next local gig. They were excited to share their music as they hit the road and cultivated more F5 fans across the country. The Halloween & Ugly Christmas sweater shows were so much fun. I have great memories of the sounds of the crowds as they yelled and applauded at the end of many of their jams. It was always so great to see all their friends who came out to the shows. They always made sure to shake our hands or give us a hug and tell us how great they sounded and how proud they were of the band. It’s been a wild and wonderful ride and I enjoyed my nights out until 3am!
Jared Lindquist
When I was a junior in high school, I skipped my prom to go see my first F5 show at the Stone Church in Newmarket, NH. I really shouldn’t have even been in that club, but after meeting the band for the first time and getting a few songs in, I knew I made the right choice. I believe that show had the debut of “Blue,” it was so new that Matt had to read the lyrics off of a sheet. It became one of my favorite songs of theirs and is always sticks out in my mind as making missing prom worth it.
Mike and Maria Kane
Disc Jam 2015: The Relix tent acoustic set they played a cover of one of my favorite bands songs which was awesome but I think they did a “Catch Me” that day too which might have been the last time I saw mike perform it
King Neptune’s after ADK Fest 2017: This was the first time I saw them really in the heart of their own turf, which I kind of always thought was Albany but was really enthused by the Lake George vibe surrounding the guys
Eastbound Throwdown, September 2017: When F5 stared their set opening up the weekend, it was raining good but Mikey and I didn’t give a fuck and raged the hell out of their set. As the weather broke, so did a lot of others.
The Hollow, April 28, 2018: this was the last time I saw F5 and the last night I partied before I found out I was having our baby.
Rock the Dock 2018: Mike and I shared with all the guys that we’d be having a baby. Matt Richards dedicated the set to us – not on the mic, but to our faces, which was even cooler to me. We have loved this journey. It is sad to see it end but we will treasure the memories, the music, and the people forever.
Jaclyn Osterhout
My favorite moment with Formula 5 is when I was in Colorado and they were creating a song called “Blue.” I listened to them play the same four notes in our Airbnb about 20 times. It was so annoyed until the song came to fruition and now it’s my favorite and how cool that I got to be a part of that.
Alyssa Ladzinski
Watching Formula 5 open up for The Disco Biscuits in Albany was so exciting, seeing how they perfectly hand-crafted their setlist to fit the music and style of that night. And more of a personal memory, ANY time they played “Excalibur,” no matter where I was at a festival or show, you bet I’d find my way over to the stage.
Mike McDonald (former keyboardist)
When asked to write about my favorite moment in Formula 5, I very quickly realized it would be much more difficult to choose than I first expected. Having been a part of it from the beginning and experienced the highs and lows, I can imagine mine (or any member) may differ significantly from what others might think. So I decided to pick 3 from my time with Formula 5: StrangeCreek 2012 – Joe had been in the band roughly 6 months and we had begun to turn a few heads in the jam scene, albeit mostly local to Upstate N.Y. Thanks to some help from Greg Bell, we were able to land a Friday afternoon slot at the very sought after annual festival StrangeCreek in Western Masschusetts. We were incredibly nervous for this show as many bigger bands on the jam scene who we looked up to were on the bill, and it was our first slot at a major regional festival. We started our set on the Vernville stage to a mostly empty field but it very quickly turned into one of the largest crowds we will have ever played. I vividly remember the energy and fun of that set, in part thanks to it being captured by a Wormtown taper. Check out the “Movin On” > “Jam”> “Trampled Underfoot” from this show.
Brooklyn Bowl with Natalie Cressman and Elise Testone, March 2015: Things had been having an upward trajectory in most of late 2014-2015 and we were stoked to have an opportunity to play this legendary venue in Brooklyn. We had the pleasure of having Natalie Cressman of Trey Anastasio Band on trombone and American Idol finalist Elise Testone on vocals as well as playing to a great crowd in Brooklyn.
2015 Garrison Beer Blast – This was one of my last shows with the band and really a homecoming of sorts for the band in Lake George as 2015 proved to be our biggest year of growth so far. We headlined a great one day festival with some awesome bands and some of our best friends and fans in attendance. I particularly felt this was some of our best playing to date and we had an amazing recording of the entire performance along with some videos.
Ed Kulseng
As I sit here and reflect on all my memories with Formula 5 I can’t help but feel remorseful. It feels as though I’m writing a eulogy. A dear friend who always had a magical gift for bringing my favorite people together is no more; it’s really like writing dozens of eulogies. Everywhere I go to this day, I’m stopped by people I’ve met as a direct result of F5. My life and that of my friends is forever different. This is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. Instead of burying a friend, I’m burying six of my best friends dreams.
If you would asked me seven months ago, I would’ve told you that F5 would be gracing the stages of Madison Square Garden, SPAC, Red Rocks, or just about every other major concert venue around the country but instead I’m here struggling to come to terms with the fact that they may never play again. When I spoke before of F5, I used them as a conduit of inspiration for my musician friends who looked up to them and what they had – tight and blissful improvisions and their ability to draw crowds that would pack The Hollow so tight.
F5 was more than a jam band, and more than my friends. These guys are notorious for doing everything in their power to share whatever spotlight they could harness with other musicians and artists. So many places I’ve been I can say I wouldn’t have gone without them cramming me and Kevin in the van, making room for me at the last minute. The amount of times that F5 stuck their neck out for me or carried me back to the van, propped me up and got me home safe made me feel like a piece of shit. Of every memory I’ve made and every story I’ve told, the good ones always start with “this one time at Formula 5” so I guess I’m just having trouble coming to terms with the fact that no more memories are going to start like that and I might not have as many stories to tell moving forward.
The first time I drink in a bar, F5 was playing The Black Oak in Oneonta. Bill (Shattuck, original bassist) convinced the bouncer to let my underage friend Eric in. The first time I skied, F5 played Hunter Mountain – James gave me my first and only set of skis and Joe taught me. My 21st birthday was F5 at The Monopole. I drove to Hampton for a Phish show and Greg took me in and let me crash. I always hoped they’d play at my wedding and maybe even my funeral. Every time I walked into an F5 show, people knew my name, people knew who I was and welcomed me with a hug. These guys are my brothers and their fans are my family.
For the first time it’s hard to put my F5 hat on, because now I have no more shows to sell, no more merch to push, and now I worry about the condition it’s in. Now that hat is an artifact, a relic of my youth, one I have to preserve. I love this band, they carried me on their backs to adulthood and gave me too much to list. Joe, Greg, James, Matt, Mike and Bill what you have built will never be forgotten, thank you for everything!
Formula 5 Rocks the Dock in Lake George on Friday, July 12th. Other bands include The Magic Beans, Eastbound Jesus, Swimmer, West End Blend, Mike Powell, and JT Maple. Get tickets online or at the box office.
