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Toad the Wet Sprocket played recently at the Edmonds Center for the Performing Arts. I’ve been a big fan since the 90’s and have seen Toad three or four times and each time I am more impressed with them.
I’ve attended several shows now in Edmonds and it’s a great venue. The arts center is the original Edmonds High School, built in the early 1900’s and restored into a very nice arts venue. It seats ~700 people and has an assortment of musical and theatrical events throughout the year.
Although I’ve attended multiple events there I’ve never spent any time in the city itself but this was a beautiful day so I decided to go a few hours early and wander around town. Edmonds was one of the first incorporated cities in Snohomish County. The downtown area is only a couple of blocks from the waters of the Puget Sound and is home to a ferry running from Edmonds to Kingston. It has a substantial marina, fishing pier and a waterfront park. All of this adds up to a nice little city where you can spend a few hours wandering around with an ice cream cone and then go out to dinner at one of the many downtown restaurants. I sound like an ad campaign for the city but it really is a quaint little area to spend an afternoon.
Toad the Wet Sprocket takes their name from a Monty Python comedy skit about a journalist delivering a nonsensical report about a fictitious band. The band chose the name at the last minute as a joke for their first gig in the mid-80’s and thought they would change it later but the name stuck and other than a hiatus in the late 90’s they’ve been making music together ever since.
Lots of bands make good music but I appreciate Toad’s lyrics as well. The lead singer, Glen Phillips, writes most of the songs and everything about his music would lead you to think he’s just a great guy. I assume he really is… The band’s last album, “Starting Now”, was released in the fall of 2021 and in my opinion is one of the best albums by anyone in the past five years. There isn’t a bad song on the album and all the songs are uplifting and in general make you think about life and what you can do to be a better person.
Take for example the song “The Best of Me” that sounds like it was lifted from Proverbs, talking about the good woman.
“She don’t talk when she listens
Then she says what she means
There’s no cloud of contention
She runs pure, she runs clean
Well she lives like she preaches
She is kind to the core
She remembers every word I’ve said
But she don’t keep score”
Or the lead track, Starting Now.
“I’ve wasted years
Won’t waste another instant
I fed my fears
With things that haven’t been yet
Well hope don’t mean you sit there
Just waiting for the changes
It’s fighting for the long shot
It’s getting in the trenches
Starting now
Starting now
All I own
Is borrowed from my children
I’ll leave this world
More bright than when I came in
So starting with the next breath
I’ll dig a little deeper
Live a little kinder
And love a little sweeter”
Really good stuff. Anyway, an awesome show. I heard a couple of people comment as we were leaving, “That’s exactly what I was hoping for tonight”.
Oh, and the guitarist, Todd Nichols, makes and sells his own guitars. They’re nice and if you’re flush with cash you can own one.
