The news took the music world by storm, with totally unexpected results. The two shows sold out and grew to three, then four, then five, spilling over into Boston's Paradise Rock Club (whose management once told Mission of Burma that they could never play there again because their audience was too small). An unannounced warmup gig filled the now-defunct 608 Club in Somerville beyond bursting, a condition that somehow recurred at the other shows. Then three more dates were announced - in England, no less. Two of these were on successive wekeends of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, curated in 2002 by Shellac of North America, with one additional date in between at the Garage in London. By all accounts, these shows were every bit as well-received as, and better attended than, the ones stateside - astonishing results, considering that Mission of Burma had never played in England before then. And that was the end of that.

Or not.

Ten months after that first announcement, Mission of Burma return to the West Coast of the United States of America for the first time in over two decades.

Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles: Prepare to be obliterated.