We are headed to the east coast next week rock out NJ, CT, NY and PA. Englewood, NJ at the Bergen PAC; Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT; taking the ferry to Amagansett, NY to play the Stephen Talkhouse, then down to Reading, PA to play Reverb. Four intimate venues for fans back east…and each show is an evening with - two full sets at each show!!! Enter HERE for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the show of your choice from the list below! One winner will be announced on May 21.
Excited to announce we’re headlining The LP Tour this summer! We’re playing Sister Sweetly in its entirety, Soul Asylum is playing Grave Dancer’s Union, The Wailers are playing Legend and Matthew Sweet is playing Girlfriend - FOUR GREAT BANDS PLAYING FOUR GREAT RECORDS FRONT TO BACK! Check out the dates below and more will be announced soon. Big Head Todd and the Monsters fan club tickets are on sale tomorrow (5/7) @ www.bigheadtodd.com/tour-tickets ‘LIKE’ The LP Tour facebook page for a chance to win tickets! www.facebook.com/thelptour
Ronnie Baker Brooks joining us in Sparks at the Nugget.This will indeed be an epic weekend. AND… Todd and Ronnie will be on “KTHX Live for lunch” at 12:30PM PACIFIC TIME this FRI, APR 26. Then we load in, sound check, gamble, eat, then we ROCK. Reno ain’t hell, but you can see SPARKS FROM THERE! http://player.streamtheworld.com/_players/wilks/index.html?callsign=KTHXFM
Flew from Denver to LAX to start two consecutive weekends of shows in April. Our flight went off without a hitch, but Todd, who was coming out of Chicago, was delayed big time. He had to switch planes, so that cost him about two hours. Since I had already planned for the tour bus to pick us up, we loaded up our people and merch supplies and rolled south for 4 miles on Sepulveda to a shopping area with a Chili’s, ate some dinner and waited for Todd to land, catch a cab, and then catch up with us.
San Juan Cap - what a time capsule of a venue…. Old school roadhousey/”steakhousey”/”rusticky”, charming music club, family owned and operated by a great group of folks. Sonically, the place needs a ton of work. Not sure if they have been told that by any traveling bands, and I didn’t dare tell them either. I figure they must know. Their audio team must let them in on the fact that they need a new PA that can provide proper coverage for the entire room. I hope they ask us back when they find out I spilled the beans on their sound system.
Headed down the road to Solana Beach, stopping a few miles short of San Diego. Boy, I would have to rank this part of the country right up there with Boulder, CO, where I called home for over 20 years. That SD weather, the beach factor, the marina vibe that I have longed for now for quite some time, the consistent good weather….. No family out there, and as I learn about the importance of being close to family, all those attributes won’t be enough to get me out there permanently. But it’s sure I nice place to visit. Just to be sure, though, I DID venture down to the ocean, which was a few blocks from the Belly Up. Nice, but I’ll take South Jersey when the time comes.
The third night of the SOCAL weekend had us rolling back north to the House of Blues in Hollywood. I had us depart early in the morning rather than immediately after the Belly Up show for several reasons. The most comical one is that when we park the bus at the HOB, it’s on a very steep hill on a side street off of Sunset Blvd. The first time we woke up in our bunks with all the blood drained from our heads, it became clear that we need to be cognizant of our arrival time. On a less comical note, they don’t let us run our generator there, so it gets mighty warm in the ole coach, even with the windows open. Though I do like the fresh air…..
After that show we did a late night drive back to a hotel down the street from LAX. Sleeping on the bus ahead of a morning flight back to DEN. Home just in time to witness a 24 snowfall worth over 12 inches of powder. Fortunately, most of it melted before I broke out the shovel. Colorado in Spring can be an adventure. Snow, sun, melt, repeat.
Y’all know how much of a drag it can be to fly. But we have been doing a ton of it this winter, meeting up with the bus for mini tours in different pockets of the country. The day before our Texas run, we arrived at DIA (DEN airport) for a flight to Houston. Delayed 2 hours. Ostensibly not a big deal, but the trickle down effects can be just a real pain. Death by a thousand cuts….
Our hotel shuttle in Houston only ran until 10PM. Our Guitar tech landed on time and had to spend money on a taxi to the bus. I had to call a hotel that we weren’t staying at and convince them to pick us up and deliver us to the bus, which I had to have moved from our original hotel to this other property. The shuttle driver asked me what name our reservation was under, so I had to tell him we had no rooms, and were planning on getting some when we arrived (I lied). He responded that the hotel was sold out. Quick… Plan B. I told him we would pay him to stake us to his hotel and we would walk across the street to the adjacent hotel and seek out rooms there. He bought it. We got out of the shuttle, walked to the bus, and pulled away, heading for our original hotel, the one whose shuttle stops 90 minutes before delayed flights land. And the TGIFriday’s was open until 1AM, but we couldn’t walk from the hotel across the 8 lane highway to get there, so we drank a few beers and ate Cheetos, then fell asleep… in Humble TX.
The Houston HOB is a rather peculiar venue from the outside (up 3 floors in an elevator OR up tons of stairs), which does burn some serious calories ahead of the Lobster Mac and Cheese I had for dinner off their menu. But a pretty cool gig once you get inside and loaded in. We had another in a long list of successful VIP Meet and Greets, where fans who purchased premium tickets were able to come in to the venue before doors and meet the band, mingle, get photos and autographs, etc. And Houston was rocking that night.
Actually, all three Texas shows did well yet again. The band is always happy with the turnouts in Houston, Austin, and Dallas. The Austin show on FRI night was at the outdoor venue downtown called Stubbs. It’s the place to play. And the P.A. is among the best sounding rigs in the country. And the food is really good, too.
In Dallas, we had another HOB, and that classic “artist menu” from which to choose lunch and dinner. They make a pretty good Island Turkey Burger. Spicy! But I have to cut down on the fries. Great crowd in Dallas helped finish off a very productive and successful Texas weekend.
We flew out of DFW the next morning, and though we were delayed from landing at DEN due to some white knuckling high winds, I was home in time to see the back nine at the Masters. Well done, Adam Scott.
Headed to the Reno airport APR 25 for a fun weekend at Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks. If you are anywhere near there and want to have a great weekend of fun, we are playing two nights, and staying up late after the first night since we are staying at the hotel. And let us not forget to mention where we will be for lunch on that SAT. I forget the name of the restaurant inside the casino/hotel, but they serve what they call a PAN ROAST, and it is OUT OF THIS WORLD. Along with some oyster shots and Coronas, this is the biggest reason we do these shows!
See you there!
Jeff Wareing
Tour Manager
Big Head Todd Band
