NEWTON — Blues Traveler will bring their trademark sound to the Newton Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 20. Their shows draw from blues, psychedelic, folk, soul and southern rock.
Blues Traveler have played to about 30 million people and upwards of 6,000 live shows around the world over the band’s 25 year history. Beyond the commercial success of their recordings, which have sold in excess of 13 million combined units worldwide, Blues Traveler has long been known for the extensive use of segues, multiple song mash-ups and extensive instrumental jams in their live performances.
Blues Traveler’s road to posterity moved from the burbs of Jersey to New York City in the late ’80s, where they became part of a jam-band scene and shared bills with groups like Spin Doctors and Phish, founding the Horde festival and pioneering the subsequent movement of neo-hippie jam music. Represented early on by legendary Bill Graham and son David, Blues Traveler’s live reputation led to a deal with AandM Records; their 1990 self-titled debut eventually going gold simultaneously with the album Four.
The band has kept up an average touring pace of 250 shows per year, whether there has been a new release attached to the jaunt or not. Blues Traveler launched 2012 with a joyfully exhaustive look back on a quarter century since they first gathered in a Princeton basement and laid the foundation for all that followed. As one of their more notable EPs states, they are likely, for all intensive purposes, on tour 17 years after scoring the Grammy Award winning, harmonica laced Billboard Top Ten breakthrough hit that came to define pop music in the mid-90s.
Blues Traveler are still finding unique ways to ensure that they don’t give their legion of worldwide fans the “Run-Around.” On their musically expansive 11th studio album, Suzie Cracks The Whip, they remain creatively focused while dramatically expanding their musical horizons upon celebrating their 25th anniversary as a band.
Tickets for Blues Traveler are on sale, ranging from $47 to $67, at the Newton Theatre Box Office 973-383-3700 and through the theatre’s Web site at www.thenewtontheatre.com.
Newton Theatre is located at 234 Spring St. in Newton.