Toadies: Done Playing Possum The Vent talks to Vaden Todd Lewis
Great Scott!! Park the DeLorean and carefully store that plutonium, we all miss the Toadies but, now there’s no need to travel back in time. December 18th (2007!!), The Toadies will be bringing their reunion tour to the ghetto of Corpus Christi for a stop at Concrete Street Amphitheater. Okay, so it was only six years ago when the Toadies “officially” broke up. But, it’s been about 13 since the release of “Rubberneck” the record that reached platinum status and launched these Texas favorites to national notoriety and made them one of the greats of the grunge era. Recently, I stepped into my time-traveling phone booth and dialed up Toadies (and Burden Brothers) lead singer, Vaden Todd Lewis and talked to him about the inspiration behind the tour and the past and future of his two bands. “I always have to work and we had a couple of guys in my other band the Burden Brothers decide to bow out which lead to us to not be able to tour for a while and, quite frankly not wanting to tour a while because we had busted our balls for a straight year and it was time to take a break. But after sitting at home for a couple of days I just got antsy and called up the guys to see if they wanted to do it, and they did so we decided to put it together,” said Lewis. “The guys” he’s referring to will be drummer Mark Reznicek, guitarist Clark Vogeler and Mark Hughes on bass, who took over bass duty on all Toadies’ farewell shows and reunion shows since 2001 when Lisa Umbarger left the band. This tour shouldn’t be too much for the guys to handle. Over the last two years they’ve met up for a handful of spot dates and another mini-tour earlier this year. But, with the band coming back together so much recently and the Burden Brothers on an “indefinite hiatus”, could this tour be the tip of the comeback iceberg? If so, Lewis isn’t letting on, “Right now I’m kind of just looking at it as a tour. We’ve got these shows and then we’ve got a couple more right after Christmas. That’s enough to occupy my time for now…but definitely I’m not putting the Burden Brothers down permanently…the Burden brothers are taking a break and I’m doing this in the interim, that’s the way I approach it.” So, if you’re a Toadies fan this show will have to satisfy the hunger you’ve had for years, and, take in as much as you can because Lewis has no promises on a new record in the future or even new material at the show. “We’re gonna try to mix it up a little bit, we’ll see what happens. Maybe throw in some curves, we always try to throw in a little something in there that’s out of leftfield or for the hardcore fans.” On December 18th, we’ll see if there are any surprises that we can base assumptions on. As for Lewis’ other project, The Burden Brothers, and their indefinite hiatus, “sure there’s a contract for another record but its not anything that anyone’s gonna get bent out of shape about. My management company and my record label are the same people and there job is to keep me busy and they’re doing a great job,” says Lewis. Send your thank you letters to Kirtland Records. Maybe if you guys get a little more “bent out of shape” we’ll see even more of these guys. The Toadies will be rocking Concrete Street Amphitheater along with Girl in a Coma and Lions. Show starts at 7pm.
page ten
The Vent Daily is giving away a pair of tickets to the Toadies show. Go to myspace.com/theventnation and send a message with your name and phone number for your chance to win.
myspace.com/theventnation
theventnation.com