by M. De Santiago

photographs by Joey Lozano

Before the night’s performance, Clark Vogeler, guitarist for The Toadies, summed up his thoughts on EP.

“Good people. Good food. Hot as fuck.”

The Toadies, along with the Willowz, played to a packed house on July 12, Sunday night at Whiskey Dicks located on 1580 George Dieter.

“It surprises us that people still come out in big numbers,” Vogeler said. “There’s also a whole lot of younger kids coming out now who got into the Toadies since we broke up, so that was a pleasant surprise for us.”

The Toadies went on a little after 10 p.m. and captivated their audience with their big riffs and brash sing along choruses. Without a doubt or complaint, the Toadies are a great live band. They know how to be loud and are masters of the power chord.

Vogeler is quite possibly one of the most unassuming lead guitarists out there. An obvious feedback addict, the flourishes he adds to the songs, his wild solos and whammy bar theatrics show that he definitely has chops and an unrivaled imagination.

Todd Lewis, the group’s lead vocalist, is in great form and can still shout like a twenty two year old. At times, his yells and howls sound a bit like The Pixies and Pavement.

Drummer Mark Reznicek has a certain way with his rhythms; he ably mixes punk, basic rock and roll with a dash of arena rock and creates a heavy backbeat that can cut through the big sounding chords of the band’s guitarists.

As the group tore through the gems and hits in their catalog, you begin to notice how and why the Toadies were proto-alterna-buzz rockers who happened to find themselves in the midst of mainstream success in their formative years. Along with their buzz, everyone secretly knew that these guys were great (much like Weezer’s first disc, which was one of indie and alternative rock’s best kept secrets for a number of years) and fans and critics knew it would be a crime to let the group fade away.

Vogeler explained how the Toadies came back into existence from their post- 2^nd album hiatus.

“Todd was taking a break from his band, Burden Brothers,” Vogeler said.

“He started writing songs that came out sounding like Toadies songs, so he called me and ‘Rez’ to see if we wanted to get back and do it. We thought it’d be fun to do, and so here we are.”

Although the Toadies unwittingly provided a template for bands that came after them, their bastard children come nowhere near the depth and feeling of their singing and playing.

For those unfamiliar with The Willowz, their live show is a great way to get acquainted with these rock and rollers. Their songs are quick good ol’ boy loud rave ups with vicious breakdowns, almost reminiscent of early Kings of Leon. Their gritty, bravado laced rock and roll was well received by the audience and was a great-unexpected warm up before the headliners.

“Those guys are fucking awesome; we like to see them every night,” Vogeler said. “They’re young, they’re hungry, fresh faced and we can certainly remember being like that when we hadn’t yet had the weight of the world crush our spirits. It invigorates us to have young bands on the road.”

After witnessing their live performance, it seems like the Toadies are really back with a vengeance and still have the bite of a young group. But Vogeler isn’t too sure where the legacy of The Toadies ultimately lies.

“To be honest, around Texas it feels like we’re an institution, but we get across those state lines and it’s a little different, we’re just a band,” Vogeler said.

“But it’s amazing to feel like that in Texas. We just started doing this thing last year called Dia De Los Toadies, it’s our own festival. The long-term goal on that is twenty years from now we’ll still be doing it once a year.”

Possum Kingdom, No Deliverance, I Come From The Water