Hootie & the Blowfish: Group Therapy Tour with special guest Barenaked Ladies
June 13, 2019 // 07:30 pm
06:30 pmDoors Open
07:30 pmShow Starts
06:30 pmDoors Open
07:30 pmShow Starts
With the rich, bluesy vocals of Darius Rucker and gleeful harmonies of guitarist Mark Bryan, bassist Dean Felber and drummer Jim "Soni" Sonefeld, Hootie & the Blowfish have sold over 25 million records worldwide to date after their infectious melodies hit the airwaves in 1994 with hits such as "Hold My Hand", "Let Her Cry" and "Only Wanna Be With You."
The quartet met at the University of South Carolina where endless gigs at frat houses and local bars built a major local buzz. Their blend of pop, folk, blues, soul and rock made them hard to pigeonhole, but easily accessible to anyone who loved good music.
Atlantic Records, impressed by their regional draw, signed them and released Cracked Rear View in 1994. The album had been out for six months before the band played on the Late Show with David Letterman which sent sales skyrocketing, eventually landing at No. 1 on the Billboard chart the following spring. Cracked Rear View and the band went on to win two GRAMMY Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, a Billboard Music Award, and multiple People's Choice Awards. Cracked Rear View went on to earn the band Billboard's Band of the Year Award in 1996 and the RIAA's Diamond Award for sales in excess of 10 million units. Cracked Rear View remains the 5th most certified studio album in music business history.
The band remained a top draw nationwide and released five more albums for Atlantic: Fairweather Johnson, Musical Chairs, Scattered, Smothered & Covered, Hootie & The Blowfish and The Best of Hootie & The Blowfish, as well as Looking For Lucky on their own Sneaky Long Records and LIVE in Charleston, The Homegrown Concert Event DVD and CD. The band took a break from full-time touring in 2008, reuniting annually for a variety of philanthropic events while also pursuing solo projects. 2019 will mark the band's first full-time touring year in over a decade as they embark on the Group Therapy Tour in support of forthcoming new music under a new record deal with Universal Music Group Nashville.
Over the course of their remarkable career, Barenaked Ladies have sold over 15 million albums, written multiple Top 20 hits (including radio staples “One Week,” “Pinch Me,” “Brian Wilson, “If I Had $1,000,000”), garnered 2 GRAMMY nominations, won 8 JUNO Awards, had Ben & Jerry’s name an ice cream after them (“If I Had 1,000,000 Flavours”), wrote and recorded the theme song to the award-winning TV series “The Big Bang Theory,” participated in the first-ever “space-to-earth musical collaboration” with astronaut Chris Hadfield and garnered an international fan base whose members number in the millions. In 2018, the band (vocalist/guitarist Ed Robertson, drummer Tyler Stewart, keyboardist Kevin Hearn and bassist Jim Creeggan) celebrated their 30th anniversary with the release of a dynamic new album, Fake Nudes, a much-deserved induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (with Rush vocalist Geddy Lee handling the honors) and a proclamation from Toronto Mayor John Tory declaring October 1st “Barenaked Ladies Day.” The band is currently in pre-production for a new album due in 2019. For more information, visit www.barenakedladies.com.
