KITTIE Announces Band Lineup For Reunion Shows

Canadian all-girl metallers KITTIE have confirmed the lineup of the band that will perform at Las Vegas's When We Were Young festival this fall. Joining vocalist/guitarist Morgan Lander and drummer Mercedes Lander will be guitarist Tara McLeod and bassist Ivana "Ivy" Vujic.

A member of KITTIE singer 2005, McLeod told Premier Guitar about her role in the band: "On the creative side of things, Morgan and I are very comfortable with each other because we're both naturally very shy. We just don't feel any sort of embarrassment showing each other an idea. And that makes for a much more relaxed writing session."

Morgan stated about Tara: "Tara is such a fabulous guitar player and is so invested in her instrument, and she also likes all different genres of music. She's one of my best friends. When she joined, it added a really amazing element that I think was lacking. It can get stagnant after a while, people with the same ideas. I think it was integral to the evolution of the band."

Vujic joined KITTIE in 2008 and appeared on the band's fifth studio CD, 2009's "In The Black". She also wrote and recorded bass for KITTIE's sixth album, 2011's "I've Failed You".

When We Were Young will be held on the Las Vegas Festival Grounds on the Strip on October 22, October 23 and October 29.

Officials said the "emo" festival will feature the same lineup on all three dates, with the exception of Alex G replacing Wolf Alice on October 29, and La Dispute will not perform on October 29.

The lineup also includes MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, PARAMORE, AFI, THE USED, BRING ME THE HORIZON, TAKING BACK SUNDAY, DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, ALKALINE TRIO, MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA, THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS, AVRIL LAVIGNE, WOLF ALICE, STORY OF THE YEAR, JIMMY EAT WORLD and many others.

When the lineup for When We Were Young was first revealed, KITTIE said: "Thanks for your patience with our silence friends. The truth is we've been in full on crisis mode the past week and weren't sure if we’d actually be able to make this happen but it's true and we'll be there to melt your face off and we hope you got your tickets."

After the third When We Were Young date was announced, KITTIE wrote: "Third show added! Super stoked that @whenwewereyoungfest has decided to add yet another date! October 29th 2022. We'll see you there…tickets on sale January 31st".

KITTIE has not performed since its reunion show at London Music Hall in the band's native London, Ontario in 2017, celebrating the group's documentary "Kittie: Origins/Evolutions".

Earlier this month, the original lineup of KITTIE — Morgan, Mercedes, Fallon Bowman (guitar) and Tanya Candler (bass) — reunited for an online chat to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of its gold-certified 2000 debut album, "Spit".

Candler left KITTIE after the release of "Spit" in order to finish high school and was replaced by Talena Atfield.

Bowman exited KITTIE in 2001 and started her own industrial/electronic project, AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT.

After KITTIE completed the touring cycle for 2011's "I've Failed You" album, the band entered a long period of inactivity during which Morgan focused on a marketing job for a chain of fitness clubs while Mercedes worked in real estate and more recently at a software company. The group also began work on a career-spanning documentary, "Origins/Evolutions", which finally saw the light of day in 2018 via Lightyear Entertainment in North America.

Last May, Morgan told Pierre Gutiérrez of Rock Talks that KITTIE was still "on hiatus." She explained: "Since the documentary was filmed and has been released, there's been some changes. We are no longer a signed act. So if we were going to make new music, it would be released independently. But we do still have a number of legacy-type projects that we are going to be releasing and working on for the future. We love to be able to pay tribute to the things that we've done in the past. And I know that a lot of people are even just excited for re-releases of old stuff and whatnot. We're always looking for ways to reintroduce people [to KITTIE's music] and whatnot. So we do have a couple of things coming down the pipeline. I can't really give too many details yet, but there will be announcements and it will be awesome and it should be pretty fun. But no new music as of right now."

"I've Failed You" sold 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 178 on The Billboard 200 chart.