Walking on stage very casually the Toadies didn’t waste any time before ripping right in the all too familiar riffs of “I Come From The Water”, fans cheered and sang along with Todd Lewis and Clark Vogeler as they began what was to be a truly awesome night. I have waited more than 10 years to see the Toadies live and it was proved to be a wait well worth it.

From one hit to another the crowd only seemed to get louder and louder as they went through their set list playing the songs that haven’t been heard in Houston in five years. The set list seemed more like a hit list of rock radio from the 90’s that included “Away”, “Backslider”, “Tyler” and “Hell Below/Stars Above”.

With no big light show or huge production behind them the Toadies offered their fans just pure striped down rock. And while big lights are always nice, it’s great to see a band that doesn’t need them to impress fans. Being my first time to see the Toadies live I was truly impressed by Lewis and Vogeler’s guitar playing as well as Mark Reznick on the drums.

For most fans this day was thought to never come again, after the Toadies breakup in 2001 due to then bassist Lisa Umbarger leaving the group. It was then that Todd Lewis decided they could not continue without her. Since then Lewis has gone on to other projects such as “The Burden Brothers” as well as Reznicek going on to play for the band “Eleven Hundred Springs”.

I didn’t want the evening to end knowing that this could be one of the last shows the Toadies play in Houston. But the night was ended well as the undeniable riff to one of my all time favorite songs “Possum Kingdom” was strummed across Lewis’s guitar the crowd went fanatical as we all screamed chorus lines and lyrics to a song I couldn’t have imagined being any better live than it was on this night.

Since there has been a few reunion shows last year and this small mini tour. There is hope for more Toadies music to come but as of now there is no word on anything in the works as members are also busy touring with their other projects. All we can hope for is that somewhere somehow they find a way to bring it all together again and bring back a Texas band that is loved by so many…
Just a side note if you want to see Todd Lewis’s group the Burden Brothers, they will be performing on 4-28-07 in Spring, TX at the city’s Crawfish fest. No word on a Houston date as of yet.