The Del Fuegos 11-City Reunion Tour
Closes at CCANH
Original members Dan
Zanes, Warren Zanes, Tom Lloyd and Woody Giessmann run wild through East Coast
and Midwest
A Portion of all
proceeds from this reunion show will benefit The Friendly Kitchen
CONCORD, NH: After disbanding
in the late 1980s, the various members of the Del Fuegos went on to lead
remarkable second lives. In the New Year, however, all four original members of
the acclaimed Boston quartet will come together for a 12-city tour, closing with
a performance at Concord’s Capitol Center for the Arts on Sunday, March 4,
7:30pm. Tickets start at $26.00.
The Del Fuegos are among a handful of legendary rock and roll exports from
Boston, Mass. Recording alongside X, the Blasters, Los Lobos, and others for
L.A.’s Slash Records, the Del Fuegos burned brightly through the 1980s. They
played more than 200 dates a year internationally and released albums that were
consistently favorites of audiences and critics alike. Even before they released
their first record, Rolling Stone named them a band to watch. Touring with
groups ranging from the Kinks to the Replacements to INXS, ZZ Top and Tom Petty
and the Heartbreakers, the Del Fuegos played a style of rock and roll that
knocked down the door, stole your girlfriend, and won your heart. Over six busy
years, they built a reputation. And then they disappeared.
Of course, not every disappearance is of the same kind. In the case of the Del
Fuegos, it ‘s the character of their disappearance that is finally so
intriguing. After breaking up, none of the band members took a job at a bait
shop. Neither did any of the band members take jobs at Guitar Center. The Del
Fuegos dispersed . . . widely. In time, some reports filtered in: two of the
band members earned PhDs, one launched a drug and alcohol rehab, and one started
a new movement in family music. No one would have called it. Four members . . .
and each one reinvented himself. And now they‘re back, if only for a short
visit. Why?
Blame it on a wildly successful summer 2011 reunion show in Boston that sold out
almost overnight, with extra shows added. Blame it on the audience reaction to
this celebrated return. Blame it on the fact that the band came out hitting on
all cylinders, somehow seeming younger than when we last saw them. Blame it on
the fact that every member was able to get time away from his day job during the
same two weeks. Blame it on the pure joy of elemental rock and roll.
According to Warren Zanes, “I did a motive check when the idea of reforming for
a tour came up. Was I having a breakdown? Was I strapped for cash? Was there a
girl in Minneapolis I couldn‘t get off my mind? The good news is that I felt
like ‘no ‘ was the answer to all those questions. Musically, you have to be
doing this stuff for the right reasons or the audience can sniff it out. And I
think we all wanted to do this so that we could turn the amps up one more time.
It was pretty simple . . . though Woody did mention something about a certain
Mary in Scranton.” Brother Dan Zanes also had to ask himself a few hard
questions. “I couldn’t be more committed to the family music that I’ve been
playing for the past dozen years and yet when we reunited I realized I’d been
secretly missing the raw teenage emotion in the songs. And the old camaraderie.
And the cursing. I also realized, much to my surprise, that this was one of
those rare instances in which maturity among the band members actually seems to
have helped the rocking out process. In the 80’s we probably cared too much
about everything. Now we’re just looking for a loud vacation.”
The Del Fuegos handpicked the cities they remembered best from years of touring.
Where the memories linger, the band is now returning. Playing the best-loved
songs from their catalog and keeping a few tricks up their sleeves, a little bit
of Boston is, once again, making the rounds.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 603-225-1111, online at
www.ccanh.com, and at the box office on
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 11
a.m. to 2 p.m. Ticket are $36.00 for Orchestra/Mezzanine and $26.00 for Balcony.
A portion of all ticket sales will be donated to the Friendly Kitchen, the only
soup kitchen in the Concord, New Hampshire area. Since the Friendly Kitchen
first began in 1980, it has served over 600,000 meals and has seen a steady
increase in guests from year to year.
How the members of the Del Fuegos spent their vacations:
Guitarist Warren Zanes earned a Ph.D from the University of Rochester in Visual
and Cultural Studies. Having established himself as a professor and writer,
Zanes then re-entered the music business when signed as a solo artist by the
Dust Brothers, making his debut with Kings of Leon producer Angelo Petraglia.
Shortly thereafter he was hired as Vice President of Education and Programs at
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and named Visiting Professor at Case Western
Reserve University. With several books to his name and a third solo recording
just released, Zanes is currently the Executive Director of The Rock and Roll
Forever Foundation, a non-profit started by Little Steven Van Zandt, and at work
on an authorized biography of Tom Petty, for whom Zanes has done several writing
projects.
Guitarist and Singer Dan Zanes earned a Grammy for his widely celebrated family
album, Catch That Train! With a decade of international touring behind him and
appearances in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the
Somerville Theater (where he returns every year), and hundreds of other esteemed
rooms, Zanes helped rewrite the possibilities of children ‘s music by creating
an organic, folk-based sound geared toward family listening and participatory
music-making. He is known for a dozen recordings, several DVDs, and a handful of
books, and is these days nothing short of a household name. Always collaborating
in a way that further extends the possibilities of his art, he has recorded with
the Kronos Quartet, Lou Reed, Philip Glass, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the
Pilobolus dance company, and many more.
Bassist Tom Lloyd earned a Ph.D from Caltech in Environmental Engineering
Science, after which he continued his research on biologically mediated
geochemistry of transition metals (of course, right?). Following that, he worked
as a consultant at McKinsey, focusing on the intersection of media and
technology in the non-profit sector. After leaving McKinsey, Lloyd became the
Interim Executive Director at My Friend ‘s Place, a non-profit center for
homeless youth based in Hollywood. Today he works as an investment analyst at
Capital Research. A classically trained cellist, Tom remains active as a
musician, these days favoring the string quartet but always keeping a guitar
handy.
Drummer Woody Giessmann started Right Turn in March of 2003 as a freestanding
addiction treatment program in Arlington Ma. Through his experience as a
creative person with a history of addiction, Woody developed a unique approach
incorporating evidence-based treatment and an emphasis on the arts and
creativity, an approach that remains at the heart of Right Turn Outpatient
services. Right Turn brings creative people together in a safe haven, where they
can explore their art and preserve their creative gifts. Still active as a
musician, Woody recently released a solo recording and remains a fixture on the
Boston scene.
