Toadies
May 29, 2026
House of Blues (Cleveland, Ohio)
By Rob McCune
The Grunge-alt-rock band Toadies have frog-hopped through four decades, forming in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1989. Now the band is touring its new and eighth studio album, “The Charmer,” born at least in part out of pandemic-era introspection.
Still led by frontman/vocalist/guitarist Vaden Todd Lewis, the Toadies, like most bands with this much mileage, have cycled through several lineup changes. Aside from Lewis, the longest-serving member is drummer Mark Reznicek, who joined the band in 1991. The band itself has also endured breakups and hiatuses, but perhaps, “so help me Jesus,” that’s how Toadies maintain that same grungy ’90s angst after all these years.
Their 23-song set, including four for the encore, encompassed 10 of the 13 tracks on the new record, but evenly divided time between the new Toadies sound and old. The 1994 breakout album “Rubberneck” occupied a third of the setlist with seven songs, including the band’s highest chart-topper “Possum Kingdom.”
Still this band wears their legacy proudly on their sleeves. Their play-on song is “Gonna Fly Now,” also known as the “Rocky” theme from 1976. And they re-emerged for their encore with a cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You,” from 1966. Their music, meanwhile, has a timeless quality born of years of experience and influences.
The Toadies’ tour stop at the Cleveland House of Blues was backed by openers who did their part in bridging the Nineties with the New.
In middle-billing, Local H, a duo of singer/guitarist Scott Lucas and drummer Ryan Harding, plays like a Lake Erie original in Cleveland, despite forming in Zion, Ill., about a six-hour drive away, in 1990. The band has a die-hard fan following and is a staple on the marquees of many of the area venues, including the HOB, which Lucas tongue-in-cheek says has hosted them “thousands” of times. Their biggest Billboard hit, “Bound for the Floor,” kept it “copacetic” and warmed up the crowd with a voracious singalong.
Before that, the Dallas-formed alt country “cow punk” group Vandoliers fired up the room with a rousing mix of fiddle and ripping electric guitar riffs. Fiery-redhead trans frontwoman Jenni Rose boot-stomped and thunderously plucked the strings of her electric guitar to endlessly catchy originals as well as a buzz-worthy cover of The Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).” This is a band on the rise and one to watch.
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