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Fuel Setlist
Fuel Tour Dates
06/08/2017 Denver, CO Herman's Hideaway 06/10/2017 Las Vegas, NV Fremont St 06/24/2017 Jim Thorpe, PA Penn's Peak 06/29/2017 Novi, MI Suburban Collection Showplace 07/01/2017 Mount Pleasant, MI Soaring Eagle 07/04/2017 Dewey Beach, DE Bottle & Cork 07/06/2017 Warrendale, PA Jergels Rhythm Grille 07/12/2017 Niagara Falls, NY Evening Star 07/28/2017 New York, NY B.B. King Blues Club 07/29/2017 Asbury Park, NJ Stone Pony 07/30/2017 Huntington, NY T Paramount 08/04/2017 Jacksonville, NC Hooligans Music 08/25/2017 Cabazon, CA Morongo Casino 08/26/2017 Everett, WA Xfinity Arena 08/27/2017 Wenatchee, WA Town Toyota Center Read More
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It was a three hour rock and roll road trip, where you didn’t even have to leave the metro—
Make that the Rock’n Road Trip ’17- a three-band extravaganza headlined by Fuel and featuring Marcy Playground and Dishwalla, who made a recent stop at the Medina Entertainment Center.
The experience began in the late afternoon, as local rock station 93x sponsored its Average Joe Car Show in the parking lot, a car display that literally anyone could participate in, so there were finely tuned hot rods, and your neighbor’s work commute car, next to each other, but fun was had by all in ideal outdoor temperatures.
As the sun began to set and cars’ hoods and trunks were closed, the growing crowd moved inside to the ballroom to hear the evening’s triple bill. Santa Barbara CA band Dishwalla was somewhat surprisingly, the first to play, treating the audience to a near hour-long set of radio classics and new songs from their upcoming album, Juniper Road (Pavement Entertainment) out digitally on June 16, and on CD on July 14.
The band is undergoing a sort of rebirth with this upcoming fifth studio album, and their first with singer Justin Fox. Fox often stood on the monitor speakers to interact with the audience, commenting how nice the area was, saying he could easily live here …this month anyway, as he knew about the cold and summer extreme temperatures.
The rest of the band (Rodney Browning Cravens on lead guitar; Scot Alexander on bass ; George Pendergast on drums; and Jim Wood on keyboards) are all longtime band members and remain musically on point, with Cravens’ soloing sounding even better than twenty years ago.
Fans were receptive to the new material (like upcoming single ‘Give Me a Sign’) but predictably most were eager to hear songs like 1998’s ‘Once in a While’, 1995’s ‘Charlie Brown’s Parents’ and of course, ‘Counting Blue Cars’, their best-known song that topped the Modern Rock chart in 1996.
New York by-way-of Minneapolis band Marcy Playground took the middle slot, the band named after a metro grade school singer John Wozniak attended, growing up near Dinkytown. Fellow band member, bassist, and Minneapolis native Dylan Keefe was unfortunately not present for this latest homecoming show, as his wife recently had a baby, but was dutifully filled in for by Dishwalla bassist Alexander, who simply took off his jacket as a form of costume change, jokingly saying he wouldn’t be joining Fuel to play too.
The trio hasn’t had an album released since 2012’s compendium, Lunch, Recess, & Detention but perhaps their positive reception and this latest tour, will spur more new music. Drummer Shlomi Lavie was a unique sight, in Run-DMC t-shirt and with a giant rubber rat perched on his kit, which, yes, he would tap occasionally for rhythm.
‘Saint Joe on the School Bus’ brought back memories of 1997, 1999’s ‘Rebel Sodville’ was stretched to alt-rock epic lengths, and ‘Punk Rock Superstar’ and ‘Deadly Handsome Man’ were played back to back, both from their 2003 third album, appropriately titled MP3. “I’m really glad to be back” Wozniak said, “help me out with this one” he asked as the band went into their biggest hit, 1997’s ‘Sex & Candy’ before ending with 2009’s ‘Star Baby’ and ‘Secret Squirrel’ a song about a rodent that saves the world and even fights (Marvel’s) Dr. Doom.
“What’s up everybody!” Fuel singer Brett Scallions said, greeting the crowd to start their loud hour-long set, “let’s kick some heads in”, he promised, deviating from the setlist immediately by opening with ‘Untitled’. Scallions and the band (Jason Womack – lead guitar; Phil Buckman – bass; and Shannon Boone – drums) have seemed to settle in to their second life as a band as well, without founding members Carl Bell and Jeff Abercrombie, who both carried on when Scallions left the band in the mid-2000’s.
A new album is due out later this year and the current lineup of the band works out with as much ferocity as the classic lineup, with Scallions’ signature vocal growl anchoring the songs. ‘Mary Pretends’ was skipped on the setlist, with Scallions saying “I hope no one’s had one of these today” before launching into 2000’s ‘Bad Day’. Drummer Boone took a momentary breather as an extended guitar intro took us into ‘Sunburn’ and cheers went up for 2000’s ‘Innocent’.
“How ‘bout a sing-a-long song?” Scallions asked as the band covered a classic Tom Petty song, maybe not even realizing that Petty and the Heartbreakers, who were also in town, might actually be playing the same song, at the same time, at the arena on the other side of the metro. Cell phones darted into the air for 1998’s ‘Shimmer’ the band’s initial single, followed right away with second single, ‘Bittersweet’.
“That’s music to my ears!” Scallions remarked at the cheers after playing the band’s classic songs before dipping into the new-ish ‘Puppet Strings’, about manipulative people. 2000’s ‘Hemorrhage’ ended the evening on an exclamation, the band throwing things into high gear for the final stop on this road trip.
With a retro-fueled, but forward-looking three hours, the Rock’n Road Trip ’17 was both a look into the rearview mirror, and an acceleration down the road; not afraid to re-visit the past, but also showing these bands still have one eye on their new musical highways ahead.
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93x Girls and DJ |
Dishwalla |
Dishwalla |
Dishwalla |
Dishwalla |
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Marcy Playground |
Marcy Playground |
Marcy Playground |
Marcy Playground |
Marcy Playground |
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Fuel Setlist |
Fuel |
Fuel |
Fuel |
Fuel |
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Fuel at Medina Entertainment Center (03 June 2017) |
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