Think about this for a second: 1 billion global streams.

In a world where artists are no longer measured by radio airplay or platinum records, Rainbow Kitten Surprise has managed to fashion the kind of career that 999 out of 1,000 Bandcamp artists can only dream of. Which explains why some acts end up playing 200-capacity rooms their first, second, third, and 10th time through town, and others find themselves headlining the 5,000-seat Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre after three albums.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise will do the latter on September 24, with Live Nation announcing today that tickets go on sale here at 10 a.m. on April 14.

After a half-decade in the indie trenches, the Nashville-based, Boone, North Carolina-spawned quintet officially crashed the mainstream in 2018 with How To: Friend, Love, Freefall, produced by Jay Joyce (famous for his work with everyone from Cage the Elephant to Emmylou Harris).

Coming up with a label is sometimes harder than others. For Rainbow Kitten Surprise, start with psych-strafed country, alternative-jacked folk, and space-jam pop. And then accept that that only begins to describe things.

Flash forward a year after the release of How To: Friend, Love, Freefall, andm, on the back of the hit single “It’s Called: Freefall”, Rainbow Kitten Surprise was headlining the fabled Red Rocks Amphitheatre, scoring invites to Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, and making a name for itself as one of the most progressive bands to ever come from the American South.

(Alright, admittedly that doesn’t sound like much of a compliment, so here’s a short list of organizations that Rainbow Kitten Surprise has partnered with and supported during its ascension: Sandy Hook Promise, Abortion Care Tennessee, Music Health Alliance, food banks across America, and LGBTQ+ causes around the world.)

How To: Friend, Love, Freefall has proven to be a record with legs, as Rainbow Kitten Surprise continues to not only tour the album five after its release, but fill rooms one step removed from major hockey arenas. Expect new material at Doug Mitchell in September, including the just-released-today single “Drop Stop Roll”, which you can check out here. Yes, 1 billion global streams is only the start.