With each band member sporting zombie attire, Galactic drew a crowd to the Civic eatre on Halloween this year.
Galactic isn’t new to New Orleans – they began at Loyola in 1994. They have a history of playing at Tipitina’s, but this year they wanted to change things up.
“We just wanted to do something di erent. We wanted to play a local venue with a new layout,” Galactic guitarist Je Raines said.
Three of the six members of Galactic, drummer Stanton Moore A’94, guitarist Je ff Raines and organist Rich Vogel, met at Loyola when they were students here. Moore, Raines, Vogel and Tulane alumnus Robert Mercurio began playing at college parties around New Orleans before they began touring after graduating from college.
Galactic and their opening act Dirty Dozen Brass Band are the first local acts to play in the newly reopened Civic Theatre.
The Civic is one of many theaters in New Orleans to open in recent years. Most recently, the Saenger Theatre opened in late September for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. The historic Joy Theatre on Canal Street, first opened in 1947, reopened in 2011 after being closed for eight years.
New Orleans’ oldest theater,The Civic, first opened in 1906. It has been dormant since the 1980s, but reopened this September with stand-up comedian Russell Brand.
Nineteen years and 10 albums later, Galactic has collaborated with musicians from a variety of genres.
On the band’s latest album “Carnivale Electros,” its first Mardi Gras record, Galactic collaborated on tracks with 40 pieces of the local Kipp High School Marching band, local rappers Mannie Fresh and Mystical, local R&B legend Al “Carnival Time” Johnson and Brazilian samba musician Moysés Márquez.
Beginning in February of 2014, Galactic will begin a nationwide tour, which will feature Maggie Koerner, a Shreveport native, on vocals.
(ZACH BRIEN/The Maroon)
(ZACH BRIEN/The Maroon)
