Big Head Todd Launches Tour in Colorado
Before Colorado had The Fray, The Flobots or 3OH!3 there was Big Head Todd and The Monsters. Which to this day is still one of the most popular bands to ever come out of the state. Formed in 1986 in Parker, Colorado, Big Head Todd soon became popular in the Colorado rock scene and shortly afterwards their fan base spread out over the whole south west. How this fan base was built was not done by getting people to click a “Like” button or by posting a video on your buddys myspace it was done by putting 400,000 miles on a tour van they nicknamed “The Colonel”. Regional touring is actually the career killing missing piece in many bands marketing strategies today, which is ironic, because its all bands had for many decades to get the word out about their music.
In 1993 Big Head Todd and The Monsters signed with Giant records and released the platinum selling album Sister Sweetly which contained the Top 40 hits “Bittersweet”, “Broken Hearted Savior”, and “Circle”. They have worked with Jerry Harrison of The Talking Heads, John Lee Hooker, had songs in some popular movies, and once upon a not-so-long-ago time Dave Mathews was opening for them.
Big Head Todd and the Monsters
Within the last few years some very cool stuff has happened with BHTM. In 2005 they wrote the single “Blue Sky” at the request of the crewmembers of the Space Shuttle Discovery as a tribute to all the people involved in the American space program. “Blue Sky” was then snagged up by Hillary Clinton for her presidential campaign song in 2008 and was used in the introduction of Clinton on her keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008.
2010 finds BHTM working hard with a new single entitled “Beautiful” which is off of the upcoming new album Rocksteady that will be released on July 20th. There is an extensive North American tour underway to support the new album which leapt off last weekend at one of the Rocky Mountains more intriguing venues that being the Belly Up in Aspen. (July 17 finds them playing a private set at Hermans Hideaway in Denver with some radio promotions going on around that.)
The Belly Up is a very nice venue (Obviously. Its in Aspen. Even their Arbys have gold plated Horsey Sauce dispensers.) But it also has cutting edge sound, great atmosphere and pulls in some very large acts — comparable to shows Red Rocks puts on — for its 450-person capacity. If you think that is just some more Groovey fueled hyperbole then I humbly invite you to check out the list of artists who have performed at the Belly Up. Alice In Chains to ZZ Top, B.B. King to Yellowman, and if I actually wanted to spend the time Im sure I could bring the inwards collapsing alphabet dominoes right into the center with Matisyahu to Neko Case but Im just not that much of a letter geek. ps. Slash from Guns n Roses is playing there in August but that just a totally wicked awesome off track sidenote.
Back to the Big Head Tour. I think this is the tour that will bring them back to their previous form especially if the rest of the album is as strong as the single “Beautiful.” Theyll play in Laramie at the Snowy Range Music Festival on September 5th, in our neck of the woods. I especially really dig their song “Broken Hearted Savior.”