Rocky Mountain Collapse – Boulder Weekly
The Revivalists were supposed to be on the main stage at the 2015 Telluride Blues & Brews Festival in less than an hour, and the band was still on its way into town. As lead singer and guitarist David Shaw recalls, they were cruising around in a Chevy Express – and the mile-high terrain was not at all kind to that old bruiser.
“If there’s any weakness in something, the mountains in Colorado will expose it,” Shaw says.
And on that day they did. Car problems slowed them down and they were screaming at the Telluride at the last possible second. The Chevy was hitched right across the bridge to get to the artist’s staging area. But an enthusiastic volunteer stopped them in their tracks.
“If you’re unloading for camping, I’m going to have to put a mark on your windshield,” Shaw remembers saying, waving a dry-erase marker.
From behind, the mane of the driver of the front car stuck out between the driver and passenger, and a polite smile appeared on his face. He could have reacted with anger or frustration. But instead, with characteristic Shaw honesty, he explained: “Look, man, we’re revivalists, and we’re… truly “You’re late for our group.”
The band arrived in time – despite car problems and a stop on the bridge – but just barely. And it was a killer show. The Revivalists are listed at number nine in the lineup, following their third album Men among the mountainsfeaturing the hit single “I wish I knew you.” This track went double platinum, hit #1 on the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart, and set a record in 2017 for the most plays ever recorded within a week for any track on alternative rock radio ever (or at least since 1988), when the Mediabase tracking system was created.
Men among the mountains It launched The Revivalists into a new phase of their career in more ways than one. Shortly after its launch, they bought a Mercedes Sprinter truck and got rid of the Chevy Express. Looking back on that near miss the first time they played Telluride Blues & Brews, Shaw says Telluride remains one of the most beautiful places he’s ever played. But the 40-year-old Southerner is quick to add that Boulder is probably his favorite.
“Every show we did at (The Fox) always felt like a special,” he says. “Those shows stuck with me. The crowd was always ravenous.”
“Nothing is given”
The Revivalists played their last show at the Fox Theater in 2016, and made their Red Rocks debut two years later. They have returned to the iconic venue every year since, and will do so again on September 14 when the band takes to the hallowed stage for the sixth time. This same weekend, they will return to the Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, this time as headliners. And they’ll be bringing a new album with them.
Released earlier this summer in June, Pour everything out at night It is the band’s fifth album and the first in five years. To say it was well received would be an understatement. The album’s single “The Kid” returned the band to No. 1 on adult alternative radio – the band’s fourth chart-topping single.
Shaw says people seemed excited about the new music as they toured across the United States this summer.
“I feel like the crowd’s voices get a little louder every night,” he says. “They’re learning those words a little bit more.” “It definitely makes you feel good. It makes you think, well, this resonates with people.
Most Pour everything out at night It was written during the coronavirus lockdowns in 2020. Shaw says he just finished building his own home studio, which he describes as a godsend — and not just because it was difficult to get into a commercial studio at the time.
“It would have been difficult,” Shaw says. “My wife was doing therapy sessions in the same room I was playing music in, and I don’t know how that would have happened.”
In a sense, Shaw and the band’s co-founder, Zach Feinberg, were doing their own therapy in Shaw’s backyard studio. The new album tackles big themes like new fatherhood, marriage, social division, and of course the personal obstacles brought on by the pandemic.
“(During lockdown) I had a creative surge and was writing a lot, spending a lot of time alone with my thoughts. And sometimes that’s good. “Sometimes that can be bad,” Shaw says. “But I learned a lot about myself, and I knew I needed to do a lot of work on myself. And I came out the other side a changed man, a better version of myself.”
Ennahda supporters have been fighting for nearly 16 years. But most of the ground they covered was in the quarter-finals, in the Mercedes Sprinter that replaced the old Chevy. And if he succeeds Pour everything out at night Any indication that the band still has a long way to go.
“I’m really grateful for all of it. Honestly, it’s crazy. Nothing’s a given,” Shaw says. “I’m glad I’m still doing what I’m doing. And I think I speak for all of us when I say that.
