(NEW YORK, NY) -- Lily Vakili will celebrate the release of her Live Wire EP on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at The Francis Kite Club. Doors are at 8:00pm; Showtime is 8:30pm.
Off the heels of her 2025 full-length release Oceans Of Kansas and East Coast tour, comes Vakili's first live EP, Live Wire. This is an in-studio, live audio and video recording of songs named for what fans and critics alikesay is a perfect description of her charismatic performance style.
On this stripped down and intimate six-song release, Vakili reimagines old favorites and introduces two new songs showcasing her emotionally raw, livesound – a genre-blending fusion of blues, rock, and art rock elements, backed by poetic storytelling.
She released the official video for "Heart's Afire" - the second single from the EP - on April 30th. The EP is available for pre-save here.
Lily Vakili and her band will perform Wednesday, May 6th at The Francis Kite Club (40 Loisaida Avenue in East Village, NYC). Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the show. Tickets are available for purchase online. Show is 21+.
Coming off the release of Oceans of Kansas and her recent tour, she wanted to capture the distinctive sound of performing this collection of songs with her touring band: Eric Burns on guitar (Super Yamba Band, Robert Finley), Joseph Yount on drums (Super Yamba Band), and Drew Hart on bass (The National Reserve).
"I've finally understood that what makes my music most compelling is when I perform it live with a band," says Vakili. "This is the message audiences have been telling me for a long time, so I decided to try to capture that experience in a live in-studio session."
The timing felt right because she'd just come off touring with the same group of musicians who she would be recording the EP with so, she called upon her collaborator, the Grammy-Award winning, Emmy-nominated producer/engineer Reed Turchi, to produce the EP at his studio Second Take Sound in New York City and to, as Vakili says, "get the gang back together."
"It's tremendously exciting to do this because the live element (with the entire band in the same room - think The Raconteurs - From The Basement) increases the challenges of getting a good recording considerably. It is an intense, collaborative experience that is a bit of a gamble, a risk - and requires a lot of logistical and mental preparation. All things I enjoy by the way," says Vakili.
