Matchbox Twenty, The Wallflowers to play Wind Creek Event Center
Bestselling 1990s pop/rock band Matchbox Twenty, whose 1996 debut album “Yourself or Someone Like You” is among the top discs of all time, will open its latest tour at Wind Creek Event Center.
Joining Matchbox Twenty on the tour will be The Wallflowers, the hit ’90s band fronted by Bob Dylan’s son Jakob.
The two bands will share the bill at 7:30 p.m. July 17.
Tickets, at $76-$130.50, go on sale at noon Friday at the event center box office at 77 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem, and at www.windcreekeventcenter.com.
Matchbox Twenty’s tour will be its first in nearly four years and include more than 50 dates.
Just four days after starting the tour at Wind Creek, Matchbox Twenty will play BB&T Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey, which has a capacity of 25,000 — nearly 10 times the event center’s 2,550 capacity.
Matchbox Twenty’s 1996 debut album, “Yourself or Someone Like You” sold 12 million copies and produced four of the band’s dozen hits — “Push,” “3 a.m.,” “Real World” and “Back to Good.”
The Wallflowers’ 1996 album “Bringing Down the Horse” won two Grammy Awards and had the No. 1 hit “One Headlight” and other singles “6th Avenue Heartache,” “The Difference” and “Three Marlenas.”
Neither band has released an album of new music since 2012.
Matchbox Twenty’s last disc, “North,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart — the band’s first chart-topper. It’s the band’s first disc since 2002’s double-platinum “More Than You Think You Are.” “She’s So Mean,” the first single from “North,” hit No. 6 on the Adult Chart.
“Mad Season” from 2000 went double-platinum and produced the No. 1 hits “Bent” and “If You’re Gone” and the Top 5 Song “Mad Season.” “More Than You Think You Are” sold double-platinum and had the hits “Unwell,” “Disease” and “Bright Lights.”
The band has taken extended hiatuses — 2004-07, and 2008-10 — as front man Rob Thomas worked on solo projects. Thomas has won three Grammy Awards, 11 BMI Awards and two Billboard “Songwriter of the Year” honors.
Thomas’ collaboration with Carlos Santana on “Smooth” from Santana’s 1999 “Supernatural” album was named the No. 2 Most Popular Song Ever on Billboard’s List of the 100 Most Popular songs — behind only “The Twist.”
Matchbox Twenty played Wind Creek, then called Sands Bethlehem Event Center, in 2016 with Counting Crows, and also headlined solo shows in 2012. Thomas also played the event center with solo shows in August and May 2014 and in
July, when he was promoting his fourth solo disc, “Chip Tooth Smile.”
All of Matchbox Twenty’s and Thomas’ solo shows at the event center have sold out.
The Wallflowers’ most recent disc, “Glad All Over,” peaked in Billboard’s Top 40 and had the No. 2 Adult Album Alternative chart hit with “Reboot the Mission.”
After its debut album, The Wallflowers also had a gold album with 2000’s “(Breach),” which had the Top 30 song “Sleepwalker,” and had a Top 5 song with a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes” for the 1998 movie “Godzilla.”
The band also went on a hiatus as Dylan released two Top 10 rock albums, 2008’s “Seeing Things” and 2010’s “Women + Country,” the latter of which went to No. 2.
Dylan also starred in “Echo In the Canyon,” one of 2019’s most successful theatrical documentaries, about the beginnings of the Laurel Canyon, California, music scene. The film and its soundtrack featured new studio recordings of classic songs by The Byrds, The Mamas & The Papas and others.
The Wallflowers played Sands Bethlehem Event Center in 2012, and headlined Bethlehem’s Musikfest festival in 2009.
Morning Call Lehigh Valley Music reporter and columnist John J. Moser can be reached at 610-820-6722 or jmoser@mcall.com