Toad the Wet Sprocket

Toad the Wet Sprocket
with Augustana

Outdoor Amphitheatre at Arvada Center
August 11, 7:30 p.m.

Any music fan who grew up in the ‘90s, before the rise of streaming platforms, will tell you that when a record store clerk made a music recommendation, you took it seriously. Often, well-studied music nerds, these unsung tastemakers had their finger on the pulse of lesser-known, excellent bands. So it speaks volumes that many of Toad the Wet Sprocket’s earliest champions were record store clerks who put the Santa Barbara quartet’s early albums into unsuspecting listeners’ hands, convincing them to overlook their unusual band name and give them a shot, perhaps comparing them to R.E.M.

These four friends who met in a high school theater group were still just kids when they named themselves after a fictional band from a Monty Python skit and recorded Pale. Unbeknownst to many who thought they were fresh-faced and mild-mannered, Toad the Wet Sprocket had a grass roots DIY aesthetic, refusing to be pushed around by their record label and insisting on doing things their own way – an independent spirit they still maintain to this day.