I had deliberate this piece to advertise Wheatus’s upcoming UK and Eire tour, set to happen in September and October this yr, however possibly I’m virtually too late. Each time I click on on Wheatus’s Twitter feed, I see them saying they’ve bought out extra dates.
Wheatus haven’t toured our shores for numerous years; their final time was again in 2019, and the Covid-19 pandemic put paid to any additional touring till now. Wheatus frontman, Brendan B Brown says,
“We toured the UK, Eire and Europe eighteen years in a row from 2001-2019, some years greater than as soon as. The pandemic has paused that custom since 2020. This chance to return is extra valuable to us than all the opposite years mixed and we’re gonna throw the kitchen sink at it.”
Since then, they’ve had a little bit of a renaissance courtesy of TikTok, the place final summer season, their most well-known track, ‘Teenage Dirtbag’, was used because the backing observe for a development of individuals evaluating and contrasting their fashionable selves with pics from their teen years. Once I say development, I imply, like, a full on viral occasion. It wasn’t restricted to TikTok both, it unfold (like most TikTok tendencies) a couple of weeks later to Instagram, and and was the topic of many a narrative throughout the mainstream media “explaining” the development, thus prolonging its viral state. Everybody acquired onto the development – and Wheatus was proper there compiling a listing of as many individuals they may see doing it, which was a feat in itself, contemplating it had greater than TWO BILLION views in beneath a month.
Brendan spoke to Observer in regards to the track’s “flare up”, saying they have been “the luckiest band on earth”:
“Our reserving agent, Alex, he texted about it. He’s like, ‘What the hell is that this?’ And I used to be like, ‘I don’t know, dude. I don’t know.’,” Brown mentioned.
The track has been shared and celebrated by the likes of Lil Nas X, Madonna, Paris Hilton, Girl Gaga, Chevy Chase, Jon Bon Jovi, Victoria Beckham, Alice Cooper, Millie Bobby Brown, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brooke Shields, Mark Ruffalo, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera, Heidi Klum, Mark Ronson, LL Cool J, Tony Hawk, Sammy Hagar, Nick Kroll, Lupita Nyong’o, Machine Gun Kelly, Anderson Paak, Jessica Alba, Mick Fleetwood, Sheryl Crow, Chris Pratt, Steve Aoki, Lindsay Lohan, and Jamie Lee Curtis – amongst numerous others all pushing the hashtag #teenagedirtbag.
After all, Wheatus are way over a one-song band. Thus far, they’ve launched 5 studio albums, two EPs and eight singles, the latter of which embody the sensible cowl of Erasure’s ‘A Little Respect’, ‘Lemonade’, and ‘Wannabe Gangster’. They’re additionally extra than simply Brendan B Brown, with the band moreover comprising Matthew Milligan on bass, Brandon Ticer on keyboards, KC Marotta on drums, and Joey Slater and Gabrielle Sterbenz each on backing vocals. For all their enjoyable and fierce independence, Wheatus are a severe musical group that operates like a well-oiled machine, and their dwell shos are a murals.
Along with their UK and Irish tour, Wheatus are additionally set to launch a particular expanded 20-track version of their debut album, ‘Wheatus’, on 1 December this yr. Talking in regards to the album, Brendan mentioned,
“We discovered demos of ten extra songs from all through the band’s historical past that had such an album-one vibe that they by no means made it onto our newer data. So now we’re giving them a correct likelihood to be heard. The brand new twenty-song expanded model of the album will characteristic the initially conceived tracklisting and sequence, plus the additional ten songs which have lastly discovered a house on a document.”
Tickets for the next UK & Irish dwell exhibits went on-sale Thursday sixth April, and can be found right here – however if you wish to go see Wheatus this yr, you’d higher hurry as they’re promoting out quick!
- 15 September Manchester – Gorilla
- 16 September Mexborough – Imperial Music Venue
- 17 September Leeds – Brudenell Social Membership
- 18 September York – The Crescent
- 19 September Nottingham – Rescue Rooms
- 21 September Wolverhampton – KK’s Metal Mill
- 22 September Blackpool – The Waterloo Music Bar
- 23 September Newcastle – The Grove
- 26 September Tarbert – Tarbert Village Corridor
- 27 September Glasgow – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
- 28 September Dunfermline – PJ Molloys
- 29 September Buckley – The Tivoli Venue
- 30 September Hull – The Welly
- 1 October Leicester – The Soundhouse
- 3 October Bridgwater – The Palace Theatre
- 4 October Cardiff – The Globe
- 6 October Liskeard – After Hours SW
- 7 October Perranporth – The Watering Gap
- 10 October Milton Keynes – The Craufurd Arms
- 11 October Gloucester – Guildhall
- 12 October Grimsby – Docks Academy
- 13 October Stoke-on-Trent – The Sugarmill
- 14 October Hertford – Corn Trade
- 15 October Bristol – Thekla
- 17 October Margate – Olby’s Artistic Hub
- 18 October Southend-on-Sea – Chinnery’s
- 19 October Worthing – The Manufacturing facility Stay
- 20 October London – The Storage
- 21 October Guildford – The Boileroom
- 22 October Swansea – The Bunkhouse
- 24 October Belfast – Limelight 2
- 29 October Dublin – Whelan’s
You will discover out extra about Wheatus and their music on-line on their official web site, Instagram, TikTok, Fb, Twitter, and YouTube. You possibly can assist assist Wheatus and get entry to exclusives through Patreon as effectively.
Learn our interview with Brendan B Brown from 2016, and in addition take a look at our assessment of their 2016 present at London’s Brooklyn Bowl.
