“Taste the sweat”.

The Knife’s Shaking The Habitual hijinks are set to continue with a string of bizarro shows across Europe. The pair have outlined their plans for all their dates from Bremen on April 26 through to Oslo on May 15 – and they’re a sight to behold.

On all dates from April 26-May 1, plus May 12, 13 and 15, the shows will feature an “Absurdist Aerobics” class taught by “master-teacher-guru-shaman-dictator-aerobics instructor” Tarek Halaby. Hallaby’s class is apparently a “communal/political/conceptual/imaginational workout experience”, and concertgoers are invited to “taste the sweat”.

May 16-17 will see feminist collective ÖFA offering ‘Danceoke’, which allows participants to dance along to music videos on a specially designed dancefloor. Cool Pans, meanwhile, are “the biggest steel band in Scandinavia!”, and will offer steel drum music with a Caribbean flava.

The news arrived in a typically obscure press release, replicated in all its giddy insanity below:

We just have to go faster we mean breakneck we mean “like crazy”

We are never faceless, not even in the most grey anonymous streets of the city. We will never stop being responsible, being extensions, of one another. We will never stop longing for each other, and for something else.

We, The Knife, will be performing live. We will be there, on stage, all seven of us, sometimes all ten of us, or even more.  We have worked hard, together. Things, ideas, concepts have been tried, tested, discarded, evolved, perfected and discarded again.

We know of the performative parts of power (Hegemony! Hi!), the on-going upholdance of everything through the performance of everyone. The habitual dance of the ordinary, the narratives of the normal. We know how the norm functions. But this is not every day. We have put on our glitter, we are ready to sparkle. This is special, if we were birds, (maybe we are) our feathers would shine (they do). We are building a place, a scene, a moment. But the blocks aren’t set, the pieces move. We slipper and slide around it, under it, above. Shaking our habitat.

With raging lungs we breathe, exhausted but enthralled. We sweat and smile and frown, laughing at the future, crying at the past, holding on. Legs astride, one foot yours, one foot ours.

You have the most beautiful way of putting one foot in front of the other

Being horizontal is wonderful most things we love are open ended

Kick, kick, left leg back, turn, kick, right leg. Stay. Things get blurry, that’s ok. We’ll move. Open arms, twisted ankles. We will be performing live.

All of us

How at 5am that warehouse beat is coming up like sour steam.

All over the dance floor we’re asking: can this DNA turn into something else?

It’s not metaphorical. It’s explicit.

No habits!

Of course we’re growing restless.

The Knife play London’s The Roundhouse on May 8-9. Full tour dates are below.

Dates
Fri 26th April, Germany, Bremen – Pier 2
Sat 27th April, Germany, Hamburg – Docks
Mon 29th April, Italy, Milan – Alcatraz
Tues 30th April, Switzerland, Zurich – Komplex 457
Weds 1st May, Germany, Munich – Muffathalle
Thurs 2nd May, Germany, Cologne – E Werk
Sat 4th May, France, Paris – Cite De La Musique
Sun 5th May, Belgium, Brussels – Ancienne Belgique
Mon 6th May, Holland, Amsterdam – Paradiso
Weds 8th May, UK, London – Roundhouse
Thurs 9th May, UK, London – Roundhouse
Sat 11th May, Germany, Berlin – Columbiahalle
Sun 12th May, Denmark, Copenhagen – Vega
Mon 13th May, Denmark, Copenhagen – Vega
Weds 15th May, Norway, Oslo – Sentrum Scene
Thurs 16th May, Sweden, Stockholm – Hangaren Subtopia
Fri 17th May, Sweden, Stockholm – Hangaren Subtopia
Fri 24th May, Spain, Barcelona – Primavera Festival
Fri 14th June, Denmark, Aarhus – Northside Festival
Fri 19th July, Germany – Melt Festival
Sat 20th July, Czech Republic, Ostrava – Colours Festival
Weds 7th Aug, Finland, Helsinki – Flow Festival
Fri 9th Aug, Sweden, Gothenburg – Way Out West Festival
Sat 10th Aug, Norway, Oslo – OYA Festival
Sat 17th Aug, Belgium – Pukkelpop Festival
Sun 18th Aug, Holland – Lowlands Festival
Fri 30th Aug, Switzerland, Zurich – Openair Festival
Fri 6th Sep, Poland, Warsaw – Burn Selector Festival
Sat 7th Sep, UK, Isle Of Wight – Bestival