Fruit Bats at the Codfish Hollow Barn -- April 15.
Saturday, April 15, 8 p.m.
Codfish Hollow Barn, 5013 288th Avenue, Maquoketa IA
Opening this year's concert season at the Codfish Hollow Barn precisely one day after the release of their latest album A River Running to Your Heart, Eric D. Johnson and his outfit Fruit Bats headline an April 15 engagement at the Maquoketa venue, the musicians' previous recording – 2021's The Pet Parade – lauded by Flood magazine as "harmonious, reflective, and lyrically mature.
In Chicago in early 2000, Johnson joined the experimental folk group Califone as a multi-instrumentalist. But the singer/songwriter had also been making homemade cassettes since 1997 under the moniker Fruit Bats, and after hearing some of Johnson's solo recordings under that name, the members of Califone (who ran the small record label Perishable) agreed to release a full-length Fruit Bats album. That recording, Echolocation, was consequently released in the fall of 2001, and Fruit Bats immediately went on to tour frequently throughout that year and the next, often as a support act for such bands as The Sadies, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Modest Mouse, and The Shins. After signing with Sub Pop Records in 2002, Fruit Bats' debut for the label, Mouthfuls, was released the following April, and the band continued to tour regularly, traveling with label-mates Iron and Wine and Holopaw and playing occasional headlining dates. That album cycle also saw Fruit Bats make their major festival debut at Washington state's Sasquatch! Music Festival in 2004, and the outfit's "When U Love Somebody" went on to become a signature song for the band, getting featured in the film Youth in Revolt and being covered by bands including The Decemberists, Guster, and Said the Whale.
In 2005, Fruit Bats released their second album for Sub Pop, Spelled in Bones, and made their network television debut on Last Call with Carson Daly. They also appeared for a performance at the Sundance Film Festival, embarked on a co-headlining tour with label-mates Rogue Wave, and supported acts such as Son Volt, Ray Lamontagne, and Guster. After a three-year break while Johnson toured with The Shins, Fruit Bats debuted The Ruminant Band, whose ragged, guitar-heavy folk-rock sound marked a sonic departure for the band. The album was also a critical breakthrough for the outfit, receiving positive reviews from Pitchfork and The A.V. Club, Released in 2011, Tripper made it to the top 15 of the Billboard Heatseekers chart (the first Fruit Bats record to make that list), and after a hiatus of several years, Fruit Bats released their sixth full-length LP Absolute Loser in 2016, with the album's single "Humbug Mountain Song," eventually garnering more than 59 million streams on Spotify. Since then, Fruit Bats delivered three additional albums in successive years with 2019's Gold Past Life, 2020's Siamese Dream, and 2021's The Pet Parade, the latter of which was nominated for Best Americana Album at the 2021 Libera Awards.
Fruit Bats headline their Maquoketa engagement on April 15 with an opening set by VV Lightbody, admission to the 8 p.m. concert event is $30, and tickets are available by visiting CodfishHollowBarnstormers.com.
