Gojira announced a one-off benefit concert in St. Louis on Friday morning, put tickets on sale at 1pm local time, and had sold the room out shortly afterwards.
The show takes place on September 18 at The Sovereign, a 1,200-capacity venue, with Locked Shut opening. Admission was set at $30 and every penny is going to Operation Food Search, which the band described as the largest independent food bank in the city. The organisation reports feeding 200,000 people a month.
The band said the night is “going to be loud and all of it goes to keeping people fed.”
A room that size is well below what Gojira have been playing. Their recent US work has been festival slots and support on large tours, and the St. Louis date was added at short notice with no wider run attached to it.
It functions as a warm-up for their only other scheduled date, Louder Than Life in Louisville on September 20.
One thing the band has not addressed is who will be behind the kit.
Mario Duplantier missed Gojira‘s US festival appearances in July after what the band described as an immigration issue that made it impossible for him to travel in time. Luigi Paraventi of Paleface Swiss stepped in at short notice for dates at Rock Fest, Upheaval and Inkcarceration. The band said at the time that Duplantier was heartbroken to miss the shows and had fought hard to find a solution, and gave no timeline for his return.
Nothing further has been announced publicly. Duplantier released a new drum solo, “Refuge“, on September 3.
Gojira have not released an album since Fortitude in 2021, though they have put out two standalone singles in the years since: “Our Time Is Now” in 2022 and “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)” in 2024, the song they performed at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics and which won them a Grammy for Best Metal Performance.
A 20th anniversary double LP zoetrope edition of From Mars To Sirius was issued at the end of July. The band are booked to tour with Metallica next year alongside Pantera, Knocked Loose and Avatar.
