Hopefully the tour doesn’t fall into the hands of a corporation hoping to dust off a solid brand name and repackage a shitty product. I especially hope they don’t try to cash in on the summer festival craze that is quickly becoming laughably fickle. “Dude, I got my Coachella ticket!” “Coachella? HA are you serious?! Coachella was cool LAST year. You might as well go to Austin City Limits loser!”
H.O.R.D.E. the sequel should stay true to Horizons Of Rock Developing Everywhere and avoid at all costs becoming Heartless Organizers Ripping Dollars from Everyone.
Kevin Smallwood
I heard H.O.R.D.E. originated after John Popper realized it was way too hot and he was way too sweaty to be playing in tiny clubs during the summer. In fact, rumor has it that one night in August of 1989 it was so hot inside the (now defunct) Wetlands that John Popper was knocked unconscious for 11 minutes due to the heat-induced scent of patchouli emanating from the crowd.
In the years since H.O.R.D.E. the live music landscape has changed dramatically – for the better. There are literally hundreds of music festivals all over the US that showcase up-and-coming talent along with big time headliners, both representing a variety of genres. This juxtaposition creates a powerful cross pollination of musical exposure unavailable in almost any other setting.
In 2012 H.O.R.D.E. may try to reappear within the market it helped pioneer – but why? From a business perspective, a traveling niche-genre festival has the odds stacked against it. Not only will H.O.R.D.E. compete with the strategic pricing and diverse lineups of major festivals, but its biggest obstacle will be the high-grossing tours of the very bands it helped to popularize. (Pause, reflect and absorb the irony).
The closest event I’ve seen – in spirit – to the original H.O.R.D.E. tour was 2005’s Big Summer Classic. Keller Williams, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Yonder Mountain String Band, Umphrey’s McGee and New Monsoon traded sets throughout the day and The String Cheese Incident headlined. The particular event I witnessed took place within a beautiful local venue on the Western Connecticut University campus and to this day remains one of my favorite music experiences; members of different bands played together, fans brought in their own coolers, Bill Nershi played bluegrass gospel between sets – hell, Ryan Stasik from Umphrey’s ended up bumming a beer and hanging out with us on the lawn for a while.
Unfortunately, that tour never happened again. Somehow I doubt they made the kind of revenue necessary to support the logistical cluster-fuck that grouping five or six bands can create. And if we’re being realistic, success or failure in this industry is based on money. If H.O.R.D.E. 2012 wants to be successful and sustainable, it will be forced to break away from its original model and become a hybrid of big headliners and smaller acts. And when I say big, I’m not talking about the Smashing Pumpkins or Blues Traveler. To ensure success, H.O.R.D.E. might try to align itself with the tours of its various alumni and utilize their otherwise empty venues during the day; meanwhile they can cash in on the draw of the scheduled headliner each night. Not only would this recreate the community experience in which H.O.R.D.E. was originated – but it would also complete the circle it began almost 20 years ago.
How many bands would you sit through to see a set from Phish, Widespread Panic or the Disco Biscuits? Or, in all honesty – how much of that day would you spend partying in the lot? Either way, what is the mission here? I thought H.O.R.D.E. was supposed to be a way for a collection of Davids to rise above the touring Goliaths – not rely on them.
What is going to keep H.O.R.D.E. 2012 from being a brand of traveling nostalgia for balding Gen X’ers in their ‘93 tour shirts? We all saw what happened to Woodstock. Why mold an experience out of ashes when you have the power to create something totally new?
Jonathan Kosakow
At this point, nearly 20 years after its incarnation and 13 years since its final bow, the H.O.R.D.E. Tour is just as much of a distant memory as the Jets winning the Super Bowl or Kevin Smallwood’s boyhood dream of one day growing a mustache. My first reaction when I heard that H.O.R.D.E. might be coming back was straightforward excitement. Then, it settled in and I remembered that we live in a world where money is king, and no matter how much I wanted to believe H.O.R.D.E. 2.0 would follow its roots and bring music back for music’s sake, I realized how unlikely that would be without the potential for profit.
But there’s hope.
In 2001, three years after the final H.O.R.D.E. show and just after Kevin decided he’d never be able to grow that long-sought after mustache, the Wetlands Preserve closed down. In New York City, that venue had played home away from home for a lot of the same young and aspiring bands that populated the first couple years of H.O.R.D.E., not to mention a few others. To this day, John Popper is still interviewed about his love for the Wetlands about as much as Chris Jericho talks about his love for the ’90s on VH1.
But thanks to the rise of Tribeca as a trendy place to be in New York, there was no longer a patchwork welcome mat in front of the venue – instead there were just angry neighbors. The first decade of the new millennium was one of financial greed and rewarded musical formulas, which unfortunately spelled a dip in all encompassing love and music – at least from where I was sitting – and for that reason and many others the Wetlands was forced to close its doors.
It didn’t take long though, for the spirit of music to return to the City. In 2009, Pete Shapiro, a previous owner of the Wetlands Preserve, opened the Brooklyn Bowl – and I don’t have to tell any New Yorkers reading this how much of a success it has been. Though there may not be anymore couches in the basement or a constant cloud of smoke, Brooklyn Bowl has brought that sense of community back to a New York music venue. And with the planned opening of the Chicago Bowl, that feeling seems to be spreading. If it worked in New York, there is no reason for it not to work in Chicago. And if it works in Chicago, then why can’t this idea go on the road?
The fact of the matter is that H.O.R.D.E. was as much about bringing bands to the forefront of musical society as it was about creating (and fostering) a sense of community. For a while, I’ll admit, I’d lost hope that we’d ever again see something so musically and communally special as we had in the ’90s and early part of this millennium. But now I see the possibilities returning, and my only wish is, if H.O.R.D.E. 2.0 becomes a reality, then it should be headlined by the Spin Doctors. Yup, the Spin Doctors.
8 Responses
The Spin Doctors are the only HORDErs I can’t love. ’92 Dave is very sweet, love the ARU, Phish, etc.
Remember the Freddy Jones Band, whatever happened to them?
Spin Doctors were the only ones to fall victim to the corporate death trap. Blues Traveler kind of managed to escape it…
I like to clown on the Spin Doctors but Pocket Full of Kryptonite is actually a pretty good rock album. It’s $1 in every store that has it. It’s worth revisiting now that they are all driving cabs some where
HORDE was awesome.
loved Freddy Jones Band & Spin Doctors. Not to mention the biggies – WSP and Phish. Great memories.
still nothing like a GD concert
I bet HORDE 2012 tour > 1994 dead tour.
The 1999 Summer Sessions tour was what most closely reminded me of H.O.R.D.E. Galactic, Mule, moe. and SCI all rotating as to what spot they would come on each night so the crowd had to be in just in case your favorite band was coming on first. It got everyone amped for some great sets and fantastic sit-ins. I agree that this could be a nice springboard for a lot of 600 person capacity bands to try and make the leap to larger rooms if they get invited on this tour in 2012.
Kacktus should definitely headline W.H.O.R.D.E.
I think that the 2012 HORDE should include Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors and ARU on every stop, plus 1-2 old school bands (GSW, New Potato Caboose, AoGR, etc.) and another 2-3 up and coming bands (ALO, TLG, Bridge, etc.), interspersed, without any known, set schedule. (I’d even go so far as to make the bands sign deals with penalty clauses if their show-times came out ahead of time.) They could play the old, smaller sheds and maybe a couple of new soccer/MLS stadiums along the way for bigger dates with WSP, Phish, DMB, etc.