Toadies, The Sword, Black Angels, Ume, Quiet Company, The Orbans, others
WhiteWater Amphitheater in New Braunfels
August 27, 2011
Better than: getting chased by a serial killer around Possum Kingdom Lake.
Four years into their comeback, which has come with the creation of their own annual August festival known as Dia de Los Toadies, and there's still no sign of the Toadies slowing down. If anything, actually, things might be speeding up.
It helps that, after two years spent searching for a home, it seems as if the Toadies have found their place, both figuratively and literally. After the initial Dia de Los Toadies, held back in '08, was thrown, fittingly, at Possum Kingdom Lake and the second offering was hosted in Glen Rose, the band last year settled on this New Braunfels locale.
It's an interesting venue, WhiteWater Amphitheater, a 5,500-capacity venue/tubing facility on the edge of Hill Country and the shores of the Guadalupe, which normally serves as a touring option for the Red Dirt scene and, from time to time, a legendary figure like Willie Nelson or, just a few months back, Bob Dylan. For the Toadies and their handlers, the space boasts a number of positives -- tops of which would be the infrastructure of the stage and staff (neither of which were in place at Possum Kingdom or Glen Rose), although that's only slightly tailed by the fact that the venue also boasts a second stage.
And any doubts that the space wouldn't be able to handle the band and their festivals' harder sounds were quickly erased early on in the day.
