Welcome to Concert Memories May! All of my Monday blog entries this month will be about memorable concerts.
Toadies had to tread a long and winding road on the way to getting their second full-length album released. That's a strange thing to write, and is indicative of how much nonsense comes with the music business. Toadies had a massive radio single and a platinum album, but still had to fight with their label to get Hell Below/Stars Above released. The release was unsupported by their label, which never made any sense to me. I think it's a stronger album than their debut. For me and a few of my friends, it was certainly highly anticipated. Once the album was released, Toadies hit the road to support it. They played three shows in Ohio. I attended all three.
My memories of these shows are too thick and convoluted to write into a cohesive narrative. I think a bullet list would better fit here. Here are just some of the things I remember:
- Driving to Columbus, meeting up with friends, then driving to the show in Cleveland
- Meeting Diffuser, conversing with Lawrence, the bass player, and him remembering us at future shows
- Seeing "Dollskin" live for the first time
- Walking down the street with Toadies after the show because we had parked in the same general direction as the tour bus
- Stopping for a snack in Lodi and having that stop be longer than anticipated because the keys had been locked in the car
- Learning all of the Diffuser songs by the next time we caught the show
- Talking to Toadies about Bands on the Run
- Realizing that "Paper Dress" was making a serious challenge as my favorite Toadies song
- Enjoying the Toadies' nod to their influences, as they covered "Where Is My Mind?" every show
Here's a picture with my friend Brandy after the Cincinnati show, with Mark and Clark from Toadies.