The first two months of the year are usually the saddest (or maybe we’re just cold), so it makes sense that Travis are here to deliver a necessary dose of musical melancholy. Fran Healy’s veteran Scottish indie rock band released 10th album L.A. Times last summer, and now, aided by a new pub-ready single called “Avalon,” head out of the Raze The Bar Tour of North America that kicks off tonight (January 21) in North Carolina. Near the end of the run is a February 15 sing-along at Royale in Boston.
The aforementioned “Avalon” was part of the L.A. Times recording session with producer Tony Hoffer (Air, Beck, Phoenix), but it didn’t appear on the album. Healy’s got a lot to say about it, so we’ll let him take it from here.
“I owned a small sailing boat for a couple of years while in L.A. and wrote some songs in it,” he offers up. “‘Avalon’ is one of those songs. So, Catalina island is an island off the coast of Los Angeles. Its main port is called Avalon and is a sailing destination from L.A., so I was determined to sail there. At the time of writing the song, I was learning all about the terminology of sailing and so the first verse talks of ‘clews’ and ‘head’ and ‘foot’… The second verse mentions the ‘first mate’ and ‘the captain’ and ‘hard-a-lee’ which is when a boat makes a turn into the wind. In the song the real place of Avalon becomes mythologized and the journey to it, taking 14 years, is a nod to part of our journey as a band and the realization that the destination, this mythological place, was in reality, the journey all along.”
Hit “Avalon” after the tour-date jump.
Travis North American Tour 2025
January 21: The Ritz, Raleigh, NC
January 22: Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta, GA
January 24: Factory at Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX
January 25: Moody Theatre, Austin, TX
January 27: Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ
January 28: Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA
January 29: Fox Oakland, San Francisco, CA
January 31: Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR
February 1: Commodore, Vancouver, BC
February 2: Showbox, Seattle, WA
February 4: The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT
February 5: Summit Denver, CO
February 7: Varsity Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
February 8: Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
February 10: Royal Oak Music Theatre, Royal Oak, MI
February 11: Agora, Cleveland, OH
February 12: Concert Hall, Toronto, ON
February 14: Webster Hall, New York, NY
February 15: Royale, Boston, MA
February 16: District Music Hall, Norwalk, CT
February 18: Keswick Theatre, Philadelphia, PA
February 19: 9:30 Club, Washington, DC