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This summer is seeing the return of Creed -- one of the biggest music acts of the late 1990s. The band has recently completed a pair of cruises and now embarks on an extensive tour that visits outdoor amphitheaters this summer and arenas in the fall.
It’s not the first time Creed has reunited. The first time, in 2009, the band’s reunion tour the following year saw fairly lackluster ticket sales. But this year, the cruises were instant sellouts and ticket sales for the tour have been robust. What’s more, the band’s 2004 greatest hits album has been re-released and is climbing the charts for multiple rock genres.
Guitarist Mark Tremonti offered his take on why Creed is enjoying this renewed wave of popularity.
“I think ’90s music in general is having a resurgence,” he said in an early July phone interview. “I think people want to go back and relive some of their younger years when they were going through college or whatever it was and want to get back out and relive those days. So I think people just want to get back together with their friends and go see the concert that they saw 20 years ago.”
It’s not just fans who bought some of the more-than-20 million copies of the first three Creed albums -- “My Own Prison,” “Human Clay” and “Weathered” -- that are snapping up tickets for the tour. A new generation of fans has discovered Creed on Tik Tok and other online sites, through the use of the Creed hit single “Higher” by last season’s Texas Rangers as the team’s theme song and via a popular Super Bowl ad that included Tremonti and singer Scott Stapp.
It turns out our largest fan base of the tickets that have been sold is between 25 and 35 years old,” Tremonti said, citing data the band receives from ticketing outlets. ‘Those are (mainly) people that wouldn't have quite been old enough to experience a Creed concert.”
Fans will be seeing the classic Creed lineup of Stapp, Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips. That unit formed in 1995 in Tallahassee, Florida, made a big splash with its 1997 debut CD, “My Own Prison,” which sold six million copies and spawned four number one hits on “Billboard” magazine’s Hot Mainstream Rock Hits chart.
The follow-up, 1999’s “Human Clay” (which is getting an expanded deluxe reissue in August) was an even bigger blockbuster, selling more than 10 million copies and producing multiple hits, including “Higher” and “With Arms Wide Open.” That latter song won the 2001 Grammy for Best Rock Song.
The third CD, “Weathered” became another big hit, selling six million copies, but after that CD was released in November 2001, things started to go off track for the band when Stapp was involved in a 2002 car accident that delayed a Creed tour. The singer then developed nodules on his vocal cords and was prescribed prednisone to combat the inflammation. Unfortunately, he began having anxiety issues as a side effect of the drug, and hoping to counteract his anxiety attacks, began drinking to excess.
A couple of embarrassing public incidents – the release of a sex tape he made with Kid Rock and some willing female participants and a drunken performance at a Creed show in December 2002 in Chicago – only made things worse, and in 2004 the band called it quits, with Tremonti, Marshall and Phillips moving on to form Alter Bridge with singer Myles Kennedy.
Tremonti said the four musicians are hoping this second reunion sticks, and there will be Creed albums and/or tours every few years. Creed’s activities will have to happen between other projects (Stapp and Tremonti both continue to release solo albums) and projects by Alter Bridge, which very much remains an active group.
“I think at this point now we've all seen enough, we've all been in enough bands, we've all had all our projects, to know that we're all going to be busy doing all our own things throughout the years,” Tremonti said. “We're going make it a best effort to be able to continue to keep Creed active at least every few years.
“We just have to plan way ahead, just gotta make sure that everybody has all their T’s crossed and I’s dotted in advance so we can make sure that everybody's other projects have their time and a life as well,” the guitarist said.
For now, Creed will tour, and fans can expect to hear the songs they know and love.
“Our setlist will initially start out pretty similar to what we had done on the cruises, playing the hits along with some of the favorite album tracks,” Tremonti said.
“As the tour goes on…(we’ll) probably dive into a handful of songs that we didn't play on the cruise and then from there as the tour goes on we'll just keep on adding songs.”
Creed plays at Darien Lake Amphitheater on Friday, September 27.
When Lynyrd Skynyrd arrived at the Ryman Auditorium in November 2022 for a concert that was going to be filmed and has now debuted in select theaters nationwide, the veteran band’s core members – guitarist Gary Rossington, singer Johnny Van Zant and guitarist Rickey Medlocke, along with a guest performer for that evening, former 38 Special singer and Van Zant’s brother, Donnie Van Zant -- had something of a full-circle moment before taking the stage.
“Gary, Johnny, myself and Donnie, we had this small little dressing room,” Medlocke shared in a mid-July phone interview. “We kept laughing about how it reminded us of the real old days when you had these little dressing rooms and all of these people in them. You couldn’t hardly turn around and get dressed. We kept laughing about it. It was like the brothers in there sharing a moment. That will forever last with me, that Gary was in there with us.”
That show at the Ryman turned out to be the final performance by Rossington with Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s captured in the aforementioned film, titled “The 50 th Anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd.” The last remaining original member of the band, the guitarist passed away in March 2023, after having for years soldiered through a myriad of health problems, including heart conditions that had required major surgeries, a pacemaker and multiple stents to maximize his blood flow.
In 2018, Lynyrd Skynyrd had actually announced a farewell tour. Rossington and his bandmates wanted to end Skynyrd on their terms, while the band could still perform at a high level. But that final extended outing got interrupted in 2020. When the pandemic eased, Lynyrd Skynyrd returned to the road, but with the tour rebranded as the Big Wheels Keep on Turning tour, not a farewell outing. Rossington’s health issues, though, prevented him from participating in nearly all of the tour.
Still, Lynyrd Skynyrd moved forward, announcing a co-headlining tour with ZZ Top that began this past summer and continues this winter and spring, only to see Rossington pass away in March of last year.
The guitarist’s death is still a raw subject for Medlocke, who was actually in the early lineup of Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1971 to 1972 – as the drummer -- before departing to start his own band, Blackfoot. He had grown close to Rossington since rejoining Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1996.
“I mean, you don’t spend that long of a time with a guy that all of a sudden something happens that you’re not really, you’re hit square in the face with it,” Medlocke said.
But for now, the guys in Lynyrd Skynyrd are looking ahead, having been told by Rossington’s wife Dale (herself a long-time member of the Honkettes, the backing female vocal trio that remains part of Skynyrd’s touring lineup) that Rossington wanted the band to continue bringing their music to the band’s loyal fans.
“Right now there’s really no plan at this point to ever call it, to call it a day,” Medlocke said. “As long as the fans keep coming out and they keep wanting to hear the music and they’re asking for it, we’ll continue to go out.”
So the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd, one of the most tragic and eventually triumphant sagas in rock music history, continues, as today’s band -- Van Zant, Medlocke, Michael Cartellone (drums), Mark Matejka (guitar), Damon Johnson (guitarist/singer in Brother Cane, who has taken over for Rossington), Peter Keys (keyboards) and Keith Christopher (bass) – hit the road with ZZ Top.
The original band is widely credited with pioneering the Southern rock genre, with early hits like the signature epic “Free Bird” and radio favorite “Sweet Home Alabama” helping the group gain an early foothold. Lynyrd Skynyrd appeared to be hitting a musical peak with their fifth album, the 1977 release “Street Survivors.” But the album had been out only three days when an October plane crash claimed the lives of singer/songwriter and band leader Ronnie Van Zant, as well as guitarist Steve Gaines and backing singer Cassie Gaines (Steve’s sister), among others.
It looked like Lynyrd Skynyrd had come to a sudden, premature and tragic end. But in 1987, surviving members Rossington, guitarist Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboardist Billy Powell and drummer Artimus Pyle decided to revive Skynyrd, bringing in guitarist Ed King (who was in Skynyrd from 1972 to 1975) to replace Gaines and singer Johnny Van Zant to replace his late brother, Ronnie, in the new edition of the group.
Lynyrd Skynyrd have been together ever since, releasing eight studio albums and several live releases. What’s more, a box set called “Fyfty” was released in October 2023. It features 25 songs from the original band and 25 from the post-’87 unit and there’s talk of doing a new album.
For now Medlocke is excited to be on the road with long-time friends ZZ Top. Fans can expect many of their favorite songs and a few surprises from Lynyrd Skynyrd on the tour.
“You always like to try to do some standards, but also dig down into the catalog and try to pull out things that normally you wouldn’t do, just to let the fans hear it,” Medlocke said.
ZZ Top performs at Darien Lake Amphitheater on Thursday, September 12.
ZZ Top’s “Raw” is as close to being an accidental album as it gets.
The album, which was released in July 2022, is drawn from a session at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas in which singer/guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard played versions of such familiar songs as “La Grange,” “Tush,” “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Legs” in the most live, spontaneous and basic setting possible.
The performances were filmed for use in the recent ZZ Top documentary celebrating the band’s 50-year history with its classic lineup, “That Little Ol’ Band from Texas.” When the trio unplugged and left Gruene Hall that day, they thought it was mission accomplished. The footage was shot and recorded, end of story.
“The tunes on that occasion unfolded quite in the moment,” Gibbons said, recalling the session in a new e-mail interview. “Our director, Sam (Dunn), wanted a sequence where we played in the present day as a balance to the film’s historical narrative. We got in there and did what we did and later, much later, realized we had an album.”
As Gibbons indicated, upon further review, the performances captured something that was worth hearing in its entirety – the unmistakable Texas blues-rock boogie of ZZ Top in its most authentic state. And the “Raw” album became a reality.
The album figures to take on some significance as one of the last live documents of ZZ Top with Hill, who passed away in July 2021. Long-time guitar tech Elwood Francis had stepped in on bass on occasions when Hill had injuries or health issues that prevented him from touring.
When Hill died, the band barely took time off before resuming the tour, knowing that’s what Hill would have wanted.
Nevertheless, Hill’s death came as a shock.
“It was quite sudden and we remained under the assumption he’d rally, recover and rejoin us,” Gibbons said. “There was no anticipation mental or otherwise. We just had to deal with the reality of departure and the quick turnaround helped reinforce “the show must go on” ethos. Our crew, our friends, fans and followers have been a huge source of comfort.”
Now ZZ Top, with Francis considered a long-term third member, are back on tour, doing a summer co-headlining run with Lynyrd Skynyrd, playing a show that touches on all 50-plus years of the band’s history.
“We know we’ll go as far back as possible… perhaps ‘Brown Sugar’ or ‘Just Got Back From Baby’s’ from the cleverly titled ‘ZZ Top’s First Album’ or even Willie Brown’s ‘Future Blues’ that predates us by 40 plus years,” Gibbons said. “Of course, (we’ll include) a few of the ones well known like “La Grange” and “Legs.” What’s certain is the famed adage of ‘something old, something borrowed and most definitely something blue’ (will apply).”
ZZ Top’s longevity is notable enough, but the fact that the classic lineup remained intact for 50-plus years makes ZZ Top a rare example of stability and sustained creativity and quality in what is often a volatile reality of being a rock band.
The ZZ Top story is told quite colorfully in “That Little Ol’ Band from Texas,” during which Gibbons, Hill and Beard take viewers on a trip through ZZ Top’s 50-year history. The film hits a lot of highlights, including how the trio came together, how the group got its distinctive high-powered sound and their initial commercial breakthrough. From there, the film visits a late ‘70s period that included a hiatus and Beard’s battle with addictions and moves onto the 1980s, when ZZ Top incorporated synthesizers and sequencers into their sound and hit a commercial grand slam with the 1983 album, “Eliminator,” before reaching into the present day.
ZZ Top made their first big impact with the 1973 album “Tres Hombres” and its single, “La Grange.” Subsequent early hits like “Tush,” “Tube Steak Boogie” and “Cheap Sunglasses” helped the band notch a string of five gold or platinum albums during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Then a convergence of factors – the arrival of sequencers and other recording tools, the debut of MTV (which aired the groundbreaking videos for the hit songs “Legs,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’” and “Sharp Dressed Man”) and some inspired songwriting – made ZZ Top mega-platinum superstars (with Gibbons and Hill debuting their newly grown outsized beards).
But since reaching their commercial peak with “Eliminator” and the sonically similar “Afterburner” (1985) and “Recycler” (1990), ZZ Top have returned to more of a stripped back bluesy guitar sound on their most recent albums -- “La Futura” (2012), “Mescalero” (2003)” and “XXX” (1999). Sales of those albums have fallen off, but ZZ Top remains a touring powerhouse.
With Francis on board, Gibbons considers ZZ Top a band that still has plenty to say musically. He’s hinted that an album of new material could happen.
“Elwood is certainly in with us for the long haul,” Gibbons said. “It’s still ZZ Top, not ZZ Top 2 or ZZ Top with an asterisk. The genuine article abides!”
ZZ Top performs at Darien Lake Amphitheater on Thursday, September 12.
Press Release:
Folk-pop duo Parris and Holly is thrilled to announce a four-night residency at Go Art!, located at 201 East Main Street in Batavia. The duo will host four Thursday night performances, starting on September 19 and continuing on September 26, October 17, and October 24. The performances will be free to the public.
Each evening will kick off with an hour-long set by a local artist from 7 - 8 p.m., followed by Parris and Holly from 8 - 9 p.m.
Featured Opening Acts:
September 19: Howard B. Owens, publisher of The Batavian LLC
September 26: Alex Feig, area musician, songwriter, and former WBTA news producer
October 17: Billy Lambert, Le Roy resident and singer-songwriter, known for his work in the bands Woody Dodge, Lambertbilly, and the acoustic duo Damn the Flood
October 24: Chris Humel, artist and frontman of the punk band Cowboy Vampires
Join us for these special evenings of music and community. No tickets are required, and all ages are welcome.
Click here for more information
Press Release:
Enjoy a free concert on a summer night at the DeWitt Recreation Area on Saturday, August 3 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Meet us at Pavilion 2 for a concert featuring the Batavia Swing Band.
Bring a lawn chair and your favorite people! First come, first served seating at picnic tables. The Pink Cow Ice Cream truck will be on hand for all of your sweet treat needs.
This concert is FREE. Made possible through generous funding by the Genesee County Association for the Conservation of Recreational and Natural Spaces (ACORNS).
Next year will mark 30 years since Kevin and Michael Bacon first performed as the Bacon Brothers. And as they approach that milestone, with a new album, “Ballad of the Brothers,” having been released and a tour cycle just starting, the brothers admit they never envisioned this musical venture would last three decades or produce as much music as it has.
“For me I don't know, I didn't really have a grand plan in the same way that I did for my acting, you know what I mean?” said Kevin Bacon -- yes, the A-list actor known for roles in such hit movies as “Footloose,” “Mystic River” and “A Few Good Men -- in a late-June phone interview.
“It was kind of like, well, let's do this show and then that show turned into another show. Of course, I would love to have success and a hit record and that would be really fun,” he said. “But it's really been more kind of driven by oh, we wrote this song. You want to play it for somebody. Oh yeah, we want go in the studio. We played it for somebody. It feels like it's getting good. Let's go in. Let's record it, you know, and put out the record. Getting something played widely has always been sort of elusive, you know. So it's hard to say is it where I envisioned it because I didn't really have that much of a wider vision for it.”
Kevin Bacon’s answer makes sense considering the idea of being the Bacon Brothers literally did start in the most modest of ways. The brothers had played music together since childhood without ever planning to do music together professionally. That began to change in 1995 when a long-time friend in the brothers’ hometown of Philadelphia who heard Kevin and Michael play offered to book them for a one-off gig at the local venue.
The show went well and word got out about the brothers -- who each had successful careers underway, with Kevin, of course, as an actor, and Michael as a songwriter, solo artist, and Emmy-winning writer of scores for film and other projects. More offers to play shows came in and eventually the bothers decided to continue writing music and performing as the Bacon Brothers.
Their first album, “Forosoco,” arrived in 1997, its title an acronym for the styles of music their songs encompassed -- folk, rock, soul and country. They’ve gone on to release nine more albums since then, while building an audience that now enables them to play large clubs and theaters across America.
Joining his brother for the interview, Michael Bacon said a few factors have helped give the Bacon Brothers the longevity they have enjoyed, including contrasting their genre-evading sound, contrasts in their writing style (he said Kevin Bacon is more groove driven, while he’s melody focused) and a shared focus on writing good songs, as opposed to emphasizing solos or other elements of the music.
“Both of us are always in pursuit of writing a great song,” he said. “We're not in pursuit of shredding (on guitar), you know. or of more octave range or whatever that happens to be…We have different ideas about music, but we both love songs yeah well that's kind of the thing you've always kept at the core.”
Like their previous releases, the new album is plenty diverse. Its range spans stripped-back folk-centric material (“Dreams of the San Joaquin,”), cello-laced pop balladry (“Airport Bar”), a country-flecked examination of aging (“Old Bronco”), a bouncy pop tune (“Put Your Hand Up”), a full-bodied mid-tempo tune that splits the difference between rock and folk (“Losing The Night”) and the bluesy standout (“Live With The Lie”). And that’s not mentioning the album’s boldest song, “Take Off This Tattoo,” which gets some EDM touches via the production from Kevin Bacon’s son Travis, while a stinging violin solo that further energizes the song. Overall “Ballad of the Brothers” isn’t soft, and in fact is a bit more robust than the brothers’ other albums.
With the Bacon Brothers starting to tour in support of their new album, fans will see the brothers front what they feel is a first-rate band with three additional musicians. They plan to include a healthy number of new songs in the show.
“We like to interject new stuff,” Michael Bacon said. “After a while, you play a song for so long it's just sort of, it's rote. Whereas if we throw a new song in, you know, we don't have a ton of time to practice and the guys in our band are just, you can throw something at them at sound check and they'll play it perfectly that night. So that's a big advantage. And it's fun to put new songs in. You don't really understand how to do a song until you play it live. You learn an awful lot from the audience by doing that.”
The Bacon Brothers will be performing at Batavia Downs on Friday, July 26.
Press Release:
The Batavia Concert Band will be returning for its 100th year of free public concerts in Batavia’s Centennial Park (the rain venue is the Stuart Steiner Theatre at Genesee Community College).
Concerts will be held on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on June 26, July 3, July 10, July 17, July 24, July 31, and August 7. Light refreshments will be available for purchase, including freshly popped popcorn–an audience favorite!
The Batavia Concert Band’s repertoire has something for everyone: marches, Big Band and swing numbers, popular songs from musicals and movies, rock favorites, classical adaptations, and everything in between.
This year, the Band has some special treats and performers to honor the centennial anniversary, so check out the website and Facebook pages throughout the season.
The Band consists of 45-55 brass, woodwind, and percussion players ranging from talented high school students to 60-year veterans. Many have professional experience, and others are advanced amateur musicians, but one thing is for sure, all love to play!
Returning for his eleventh season as conductor is John Bailey, Instrumental Music teacher at Pembroke Central School District and the organization is under the leadership of General Manager Jason Smith, along with a talented group of officers and a dedicated Board, led by Board President Dan Fischer.
The June 26 concert will be conducted by Batavia native and resident Joshua Pacino, current band director at Batavia’s Notre Dame High School. The Perry High School band director, Dillon Hirsch, will conduct the July 10 concert.
Guest performers this year include BHS graduate and professional trumpet player Joey Pero, who will be joining us on July 17. On July 24, accomplished organist Jeremy Rath, and Kendall graduate and musician, will be our Pam Frisby Guest Artist.
In celebration of the Band’s 100th anniversary, local composer Larry Tallman has written a special piece for the Band, and the premiere of that piece will be at our final concert on August 7.
Founded in the early 1920s, the Batavia Concert Band has brought musical pleasure to the region every year except during World War II and in 2020 during COVID.
This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by GO ART!
Concerts are also currently supported and funded in part by Platinum Sponsors Genesee Community College, Brighton Securities, Farm Credit East, and WBTA, as well as local businesses, program advertisers, service organizations, and individual patrons. Individuals or businesses interested in supporting the Band should contact a band member at any concert.
The Batavia Concert Band is also excited to announce the return of radio station WBTA (AM 1490 / FM 100.1) as the Official Media Sponsor for our 2024 summer concert series! Be on the lookout for appearances by band members on WBTA’s “Main & Center” program, where we will go into some depth about the band’s makeup and its history. Also, be listening for weekly radio ads promoting the musical selections for the upcoming concerts and announcing our weekly sponsors.
For information, please visit our Facebook page and www.bataviaconcertband.net to learn more about the Band and our sponsors, and “we will see you in the park!”
Click here to purchase tickets!
From open mic nights and acoustic sets in restaurants and bars, to full scale outdoor concerts at large local venues- you can find it all on www.JamInGenesee.com!
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For more information on Batavia Concert Band, please click here.
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