Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
10,000 Maniacs to play at 2017 Mushroom Festival
KENNETT SQUARE » One of the most critically acclaimed bands of the past three and a half decades, the 10,000 Maniacs, will play the 2017 Mushroom Festival in Kennett Square on Saturday Sept. 9 at the Special Events Tent. The concert will be presented by The Kennett Flash and will serve as a benefit for the Non-Profit Performing Arts Center and Music Venue, which is also located in Kennett Square.
10,000 Maniacs were founded by Robert Buck, Dennis Drew, Steven Gustafson, John Lombardo and Natalie Merchant in the fall of 1981. Jerry Augustyniak joined in 1983. Together with artists like R.E.M. they defined college rock and are credited with creating the first wave of alternative rock bands and what became known as the alternative rock format on FM radio.
Advance tickets are available through The Kennett Flash website at www.kennettflash. org and will be available starting at 10 a.m. on Friday July 21st, 2017. General Admission tickets are $45, and a limited amount of VIP Seating tickets are available for $65. Seating for the concert begins at 7 p.m. and the performance will start at 8 p.m.
Writing and performing powerful, danceable and socially conscious original material in and around their hometown of Jamestown, N.Y., the group toured extensively and produced two independently released records. By producing, manufacturing and marketing their own recordings 10,000 Maniacs were one of the original “indie” bands before signing with Elektra Records and making their major label debut The Wishing Chair in 1985 with producer Joe Boyd (Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, REM). After touring extensively with REM and throughout Europe John Lombardo left the band in July of 1986.
In 1987 the Maniacs recorded and released “In My Tribe.” The album broke into the Billboard charts and stayed there for 77 weeks, peaking at No. 37 and selling over two million copies. The album featured the hit singles “Don’t Talk,” “Hey Jack Kerouac,” “Like The Weather” and “What’s The Matter Here?” It was voted one of the 100 most important releases of the ‘80s by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Their 1989 release “Blind Man’s Zoo” hit No. 13 on the Billboard charts and went platinum. It featured the hit singles, “Trouble Me” as well as “Eat For Two.” The impending tour included a renowned Fourth of July appearance playing with The Grateful Dead in front of 80,000 people in Buffalo, New York.
“Our Time in Eden” was released in 1992 and featured the hit singles “Candy Everybody Wants” and “These Are Days”. The album sold over three million copies. Rolling Stone gave the album a 4 star review.
10,000 Maniacs have the distinction of launching the career of singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant. Their MTV Unplugged album was released in 1993, a couple months after her departure, and included the remake of Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen’s “Because The Night”. The album sold over 4 million copies. 10,000 Maniacs continued without Merchant, bringing back John Lombardo and adding Mary Ramsey in 1994. Ramsey had performed as an additional musician on the MTV Unplugged and was in the duo John & Mary with Lom-
bardo during Lombardo’s time away from the band.
The new lineup released Love Among the Ruins in 1997 featuring a cover of Roxy Music’s “More Than This”, which went to #24 on the Billboard Singles Charts, the highest charting
single of the band’s career.
In December of 2000, founding member Robert Buck died at the age of 42. After a three-year hiatus the Maniacs returned in 2003 with long-time friend and former guitar tech Jeff Erickson on lead guitar.
In 2013, 10,000 Maniacs released their first fulllength album in 13 years. Music From The Motion
Picture, was hailed as a beautiful affirmation of the band’s classic poetic lyrics and dreamy Americana blend.
The band released their most recent studio album, their ninth, Twice Told Tales in 2015. The album is a collection of traditional folk songs from the British Isles compiled and arranged by founding member John Lombardo.