Summer is family reunion season for Toad the Wet Sprocket

It’s become a rite of summer, Toad the Wet Sprocket on the road and not just preaching to the converted, but introducing new fans around the U.S. to their music. Or as bassist Dean Dinning puts it, it’s like seeing family.
“In many ways, we built this audience one at a time on a very personal level, and we’ve come to know a lot of them over the years and going out on the road every summer is a bit like a family reunion,” said Dinning, who, along with Glenn Phillips, Todd Nichols and Randy Guss, will be at NYC’s City Winery on Sunday, July 23.
This summer’s tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of their fifth studio album, Coil, a collection that still holds up remarkably well today and that holds a welcome place in the heart of Dinning and his bandmates.
“It’s good that we aren’t marking the anniversary of some ambitious thing that we tried to do that was poorly received and was ill-conceived,” he laughs. “Generally, I think if you look at our albums over the years, there’s a real growth that happened from the start to when we broke up the first time in ’99, and Coil was definitely a part of that. It was a big step forward for us and we did a lot of things that we had never done before. In that way it’s cool to look back and say, ‘Look at how we were pushing ourselves,’ and then give yourself a little pat on the back.”
Not many albums from 1997 are still relevant in 2017, though, and to explain the longevity of Coil, Dinning believes it’s because they weren’t making an album for 1997, but an album to stand the test of time. Mission accomplished.
“We were trying to make something that would stick and it looks like we did,” he said. “I think we could release that right now and it would still be relevant. We were never really following the trends. We were a little bit out of our own time and I think that’s helpful in terms of longevity. Making something real that’s going to have an impact on people, I think that always works, and our audience is able to look back on where they were in their lives when they were first enjoying it, and we’re doing the same.”
Albums are a different animal, though, as they capture a particular moment that will never be repeated. Twenty years later, voices change, age becomes a factor, and bands from the 90s don’t often have the same appeal on stage as they did. Yet TTWS is one of the few groups that has made a seamless transition into the next chapter on stage.
“Part of it, I think, is the fact that we still have the same four guys that we had when we started the band,” Dinning said. “That’s gotta be a big part of it. When you’ve got the same people playing the same songs, and everyone can still sing, it’s great. We’ve been fortunate, we’ve taken good care of ourselves over the years and we take it seriously when we go out there. We don’t party too much and then fall down in front of the crowd and go, ‘It’s rock and roll.’ We respect our audience so much for sticking with us over the years and showing up for us the way they do.”
They’ll be there in NYC, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, California and everywhere else they’ll be playing this summer. Now that’s a family reunion.
“Our formula was never that adventurous,” Dinning laughs. “Two guitars, bass, drums and three people singing. But the songs were relevant then, they’re personal, and people connected with them when they were in their 20s and the themes are so true that they’re able to be impactful even as some of us are entering our 50s.”
Toad the Wet Sprocket play City Winery in New York City on Sunday, July 23. For tickets, click here

