A little over a year since a bus accident nearly prevented him from ever walking again, Dryden Mitchell and Alien Ant Farm are ready to strut their stuff on a monthlong U.S. tour.
The singer and his bandmates – Terry Corso (guitar), Tye Zamora (bass) and Mike Cosgrove (drums) – will hit the road starting July 5 in Las Vegas and ending 21 dates later in Houston, according to their DreamWorks publicist.
Although they performed a show in December and another impromptu gig last month, the tour is the band’s first since a May 2002 bus accident in Spain in left Mitchell with a broken back and injured the rest the band.
The singer is confident his band will pick up where it left off. “I think it should be pretty good. We’re a well-rehearsed band,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to start to rehearse in about a week. I guess the idea behind it is to be tight and not try and get tight a few weeks into a tour that only lasts a month.”
Along with favorites from their 2001 major-label debut, ANThology, the Southern California quartet are expected to play selections from their follow-up, truANT, due August 19. The album was produced by Stone Temple Pilots’ Dean and Robert DeLeo.
The first single will be “These Days,” which Mitchell described as a “driving rock ditty… about guy-girl stuff” that the band wrote years ago and incrementally improved over time since. An early version appeared on their sarcastically titled Greatest Hits debut. Mitchell said the band plans to work again with “Smooth Criminal” video director Marc Klasfeld on the clip for “These Days.”
The frontman came up with the 12-track LP’s title, or at least he believes he does. “Everyone had some input, and at the end of the day no one really knew what was what anymore,” he said. The title ties into the album’s scholastic theme, he explained, and the album’s cover art will resemble a PeeChee folder.
Alien Ant Farm Tour Dates, According To DreamWorks:
- 7/5 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
- 7/6 – Phoenix, AZ – Bash on Ash
- 7/8 – Salt Lake City, UT – Xscape
- 7/10 – Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
- 7/11 – Palo Alto, CA – The Edge
- 7/12 – Sacramento, CA – Boardwalk
- 7/14 – Seattle, WA – Graceland
- 7/15 – Portland, OR – B Complex
- 7/16 – Boise, ID – Big Easy
- 7/18 – Minneapolis, MN – Quest
- 7/19 – Chicago, IL – Metro
- 7/21 – Detroit, MI – Shelter
- 7/22 – Toronto, ON – Opera House
- 7/23 – New York, NY – TBA
- 7/25 – Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of Living Arts
- 7/26 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
- 7/27 – Boston, MA – Axis
- 7/29 – Atlanta, GA – Cotton Club
- 7/30 – Jacksonville, FL – Jack Rabbit’s
- 7/31 – Tampa, FL – State Theatre
- 8/2 – Dallas, TX – TBA
- 8/3 – Houston, TX – Engine Room
