“Daniel and I have a 23-year-old daughter, and her friends are interested in music from the ‘90s, and they’re like, ‘You’re parents are in Ida?! What?!’” says Elizabeth Mitchell of herself and husband Daniel Littleton, co-founders of 1990s indie rock legends Ida. This past weekend, Ida kicked off their first tour in more than a decade. The tour has them paired with longtime friends and fellow ‘90s legends Tsunami, who haven’t actually toured since 1998.
Ida and Tsunami are currently amidst the Coin Toss tour, which has the bands double-headlining, sharing equipment and van space, and determining each night’s set order by the flip of a coin. “I think it’s gonna have kind of a celebratory feel, more than just a two-band bill,” Mitchell tells me of the show, which will be at Underground Arts this Friday, March 28th. Tsunami co-founder Kristin Thomson chimes in: “I almost made a shirt that said, ‘Expect Whimsy!’”
I’m chatting with Elizabeth and Kristin via phone, who recount the bands’ origins together, which began in the early ‘90s, when Ida was based in NYC and Tsunami in DC. Tsunami’s own Simple Machines record label released Ida’s first three albums (1994’s Tales of Brave Ida, 1996’s I Know About You, and 1997’s Ten Small Paces) and the two acts regularly found themselves touring and collaborating together throughout the decade. “It will be a very Gen X time!” Thomson jokes of the Coin Toss tour.
“Because Tsunami released our first three LPs and first took Ida on the road, you could say there would be no Ida without Tsunami… We were playing to the same twenty people in New York City [laughs]… They set the bar for us as the way to live in the world as musicians,” Mitchell tells me, before going on to explain that their roots go back even further than that: “Daniel is a longtime friend of [Tsunami co-founder] Jenny [Toomey] and played with her in a band, Slack, before Ida, and they’ve done lots of work together since.”
The two bands last played the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection together in 1998 at Silk City Diner, a short walk from Underground Arts, but Thomson [who now lives in Philadelphia] also notes a plethora of shows at The Khyber, in addition to gigs at The Troc and Swarthmore, and a slot opening The TLA for PJ Harvey. Mitchell mentions being a big fan of The Church and remembering playing with Low in 2000, noting, “I’ve played Philly a lot… The crowds in Philly were always a bit rowdier than other cities, which was fine [laughs].”
However, Elizabeth and Kristin admit that the performances themselves aren’t necessarily their most vivid memories of those days. “I remember our first out of town show ever was with Tsunami at Lounge Ax in Chicago, a legendary venue owned by Sue Miller. Those sweet beginnings are always some of those special times,” says Mitchell, with Thomson adding, “Sometimes it’s not the shows that are so special, but just being on the road, which is like being in summer camp!” Mitchell quickly confirms: “Yeah! I don’t remember the show, but I remember spending the day at the venue [laughs].”
These reunions date back to 2023 at the Numero Group’s 20th anniversary, which included performances by both bands, in addition to acts like Codeine, Karate, and Unwound. “Numero Group can take responsibility for all of this,” Mitchell tells me, laughing. “My favorite show of 2023 was Ida in Woodstock, a one-off before the Numero Group show,” says Thomson, with Mitchell explaining, “We did our warmup show at Levon Helms Studios and I think we probably played for three hours, and for the Numero Group show, we played for 30 minutes… [The Coin Toss Tour] will be somewhere in-between [laughs].” She then goes on to quickly return the compliment, saying that she’s recently been listening to Tsunami’s Loud Is As box set nonstop.
The 5xLP box set, which dropped last November, is comprised of nearly all of Tsunami’s recordings and was put out by Numero Group, who next month will be releasing a 4xLP/5xCD box set of Ida’s 2000 full-length, Will You Find Me. “Numero had asked each of us to do reissues back-to-back,” Thomson explains, with Mitchell going on to clarify, “We’re just getting started with Numero with one album, and we have plans to put out more.” And while Tsunami doesn’t have a ton of remaining material to release, Thomson says that she does have plenty more releases that Numero Group could put out: “We did the box set with almost all of the music, but with Simple Machines, we have a pretty robust catalogue of non-Tsunami stuff.”
Curious about the future of Ida and Tsunami, Elizabeth quickly proclaims, “There will be more music and more shows in the future, yes!” And she says that what fans hear on the Coin Toss tour will definitely represent an evolution of Ida: “Our approach in Ida is that when we reconnect with an old song, we always try to find a way to knock things off their axis and reapproach it… It’s interesting to see which songs spark more in 2025.”
While Kristin is a little more hesitant to commit to the future of Tsunami (“Maybe we could play more shows… that would be fun!”), she tells me, “This tour is a good test of who wants to see more,” admitting that they have certainly had fun revisiting and relearning the songs, even if some of them do tend to ring of the band’s former selves: “When we started making music, in like 1991, it was a little rudimentary, a little bratty, but whatever [laughs]… We try not to favor any version of Tsunami, and play something from every little era… But there are definitely some songs where it’s like, ‘This was obviously written by a 26-year-old [laughs].’”
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