Toad the Wet Sprocket, Live

If that title looks like it was produced by a random word generator, bear with me. It simply means that I have just secured tickets to see my second-favorite band, an opportunity I did not think I would ever get.

Toad the Wet Sprocket is one of those earnest, mellow alt-rock bands that flourished in a modest way during the late 1980s and early 1990s (see also, Gin Blossoms). The particular point of interest for me was that Toad was a Santa Barbara band, made up of kids who had gone to the local high schools just a couple years before I arrived in town. They even opened for the B52s at UCSB's Events Center in 1989, when the B52s were as hot as they would ever be. Better yet, the drummer's father was a professor of English literature at UCSB; I took two of his classes. He had a poster of Toad's breakout album, Fear, on his office door.


Pretty hip for a university professor to have a poster of an obscure indie-rock band right there in the hallowed halls of academia.

I didn't think much about it at that time, though. Finally, during my last quarter in school, the girlfriend of one of our roommates couldn't stop talking about this band and how great they were. It was not until I was out of UCSB that I purchased Fear. Of course I was hooked and instantly regretted not taking advantage of my proximity to their base of operations to see them perform at local bars and theaters (such as the Arlington, above).

Toad released two studio albums subsequent to Fear, but by 1998, they had broken up. Every once in a while, a report would surface that they had reuinited for a one-off show. They even got together for a few shows in 2002, but I never had a chance to see them. Surfing around the internet recently, as I am wont to do, I stumbled across the happy news that they have reunited again for a series of concerts through this spring and summer, all of which are at small venues. One of their few SoCal appearances will be in Orange County on a Saturday in August. As the Guinness guys say, brilliant! For a fraction of the cost of a ticket to see huge stars in the cavernous hole that is the Staples Center, we'll get to see a great band in an intimate setting, a band that I thought I would not have the chance to see live. Plus, I've never been to any rock concert in a space that didn't hold at least 12,000 people, so this should be a lot of fun. I'll try not to wear an old UCSB sweatshirt.

Incidentally, although I am now careful to specify that Toad is my second favorite band, that is not a slight. It arises from a fun time Cheryl and I shared. We participated in a Newlywed-type game with a bunch of friends not long ago, in which the guys guess how the ladies will answer certain questions about likes, dislikes, etc., and vice versa. I can say, without boasting ('cause it's simply the truth) that we crushed our competition. The only question we missed was as a result of my over-thinking it. When Cheryl was asked who I would say my favorite band was, she correctly guessed U2. When I was asked the question, I first thought U2, then over-corrected, thinking that Cheryl might try to be really clever and pick the band nobody else had heard of but she knew I liked (we had been so in tune with each other by that point, I thought anything was possible). She was right, though, and I was wrong, and we'll never miss that question again.