Rainbow Kitten Surprise

Rainbow Kitten Surprise brings the Thanks For Coming Tour to The BayCare Sound with special guest Michael Marcagi! As if channeling another dimension where genres simply don’t exist, Rainbow Kitten Surprise finds harmony in unpredictability – weaving together lyrical poetry, hummable melodies, and a rush of instrumental eccentricities. Now boasting over 2 billion global streams across platforms, the band first began building their devoted fan base with independent albums SEVEN + MARY (2013) and RKS (2015). In May 2024, Rainbow Kitten Surprise released their first album in six years, LOVE HATE MUSIC BOX. Produced by Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves) along with Konrad Snyder (Noah Kahan) and lead singer Ela Melo, the record is the band’s most vulnerable project yet, and has been met with critical praise from Billboard, Consequence, Paste, and more.

LOVE HATE MUSIC BOX follows the band’s breakout full-length debut for Elektra, HOW TO: FRIEND, LOVE, FREEFALL, which arrived in April 2018. Produced by GRAMMY® Award-winner Jay Joyce (Cage The Elephant, Lainey Wilson), the album featured RIAA-certified Platinum single It’s Called: Freefall, earned widespread praise from Billboard, TIME, Vice, and NPR, and saw the band make several national television appearances, including performances on CBS Saturday Morning, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and PBS’s Austin City Limits. After gracing the bills of Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Osheaga, to name a few, RKS moved 80,000 tickets of their own on the sold-out 2018/2019 Friend, Love, Freefall Tour.

Following a sold-out run of underplay shows in May, Rainbow Kitten Surprise returned to the road this fall for the LOVE HATE MUSIC BOX Tour, which notably marked their largest tour to date. The 35-show run included multiple arena headline dates, a stop at Radio City Music Hall in New York, and two nights at the iconic Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise is: Ela Melo (she/her; lead vocals), Darrick “Bozzy” Keller (he/him; guitar, vocals), Ethan Goodpaster (he/him; lead guitar, vocals), Jess Haney (he/him; drums).

Cincinnati singer-songwriter Michael Marcagi’s ascent is a homegrown success story. With a career built largely through grassroots social media support, the folk-rock singer has demonstrated that listeners are hungry for earnest storytelling rooted in age-old American musical traditions. Marcagi announced himself with The Other Side, a depiction of the claustrophobia of small-town life, but it was his cinematic tribute to taking a leap of faith— Scared to Start —that pushed his TikTok view counts into the millions. In a few short weeks, he had built a legion of eager fans and secured a record deal with just two songs to his name. His debut Warner Records EP, American Romance, expands on that promise, highlighting the timeless sound and engaging sense of emotional truth that has made Marcagi’s music so immediately compelling.