First Aid Kit Tickets

The first image most people saw of First Aid Kit was of two Swedish teenagers sitting on a log in the woods. It was 2008, and sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg uploaded a video of them covering Fleet Foxes’ Tiger Mountain Peasant Song to YouTube, unaware of the viral attention that was headed their way. The close harmonies and woodland setting would prove an accurate representation of a band that won over fans with a homespun, earnest charm.

First Aid Kit were already well on their way to becoming a big deal in their home country, even prior to their online success. Their first song Tangerine had earned radio play in Sweden and the ensuing EP Drunken Trees had them earmarked for success. When UK label Wichita picked up the EP for release, they wisely added the Fleet Foxes cover to the tracklisting, connecting the dots between viral fame and the girls’ own potential as songwriters.

First Aid Kit’s debut album, The Big Black & The Blue followed in 2010 and a queue formed of big names eager to work with the sisters. Jack White invited them to record at his studios and Conor Oberst took them on tour with Bright Eyes, resulting in his bandmate Mike Mogis producing their second album, 2012’s The Lion’s Roar.

If “potential” was bandied about liberally in relation to the sisters’ earliest recordings, The Lion’s Roar saw them deliver in spades. In particular, the single Emmylou, with its invocations of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash and June Carter, cemented their talent for drawing on classic country and spinning it into heart-rendering indie folk.

First Aid Kit’s close connections with Bright Eyes continued with both sisters appearing on Conor Oberst’s solo record Upside Down Mountain and Mike Mogis again returning to produce their third album, Stay Gold. Released in 2014, their first album for a major label expanded further on their existing success and sound, reaching No.1 in Sweden and Norway and entering the Top 25 in the US, Canada and Australia. 

The Söderbergs headed into the studio with an envious list of collaborators for their next album, including Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Glenn Kotche (Wilco), Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket) and McKenzie Smith (Midlake). Recorded in Portland in the midst of an ice storm and released in January 2018, Ruins was the band’s most personal yet and was widely praised for its searingly honest approach to heartbreak. An EP, Tender Offerings, followed later that year.

In June 2022, the group dropped the first single from their fifth album before performing it for fans at Glastonbury that same year.