Toad the Wet Sprocket Deserve a Second Act
The feel-good 90s alt-rock band transcends time
I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole this week and stumbled upon a live stream from a few months ago.
Toad the Wet Sprocket, one of my favorite bands of the 90s, had a new album out this past summer. They put on a fantastic set full of new music and old classics, along with a bit of banter and fan q & a’s.
Suddenly I felt 16 again, eagerly watching this band soothe and thrill me with their unique brand of alternative rock. This is the same band that wrote back to me with a signed poster and personal note when I sent them a fan letter in high school; they were the most darling of all the bands.
Named after a Monty Python sketch, the band have said of their quirky moniker:
As their first gig approached, the band still had not chosen a name. The members facetiously adopted “Toad the Wet Sprocket” because they thought it would be “hilarious.” Vocalist Glen Phillips later called it “a joke that went on too long” and, according to their website, “it was probably meant to be temporary at the time.”*
The 90s: More Than Grunge
I have often felt like the slightly lesser-known American bands of the 90s got a bit swallowed up by the whole…
