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Fun Fun Fun Fest Preview - Revival Tour
Revival Tour featuring Tim Barry, Ben Nichols, Chuck Ragan and Tom Gabel
Performing Sunday on Stage Two at 3:00
Old punks don’t die; they just reinvent themselves as tattooed troubadours. That seems to be the motto of the Revival Tour. Tim Barry,
Ben Nichols, Chuck Ragan and Tom Gabel are arguably four of the best wordsmiths of their generation, so it seems only natural that they would shed the boom and bang of their full-time bands for stripped-down solo settings, flirting with bluegrass, country and folk.
Tim Barry’s career began in the 1990s with Avail. That band hasn’t released a record since the seminal Front Porch Stories (Fat Wreck Chords) in 2002, but a great songwriter never stops writing songs and Barry’s best work has come in the years since. On “South Hill,” “Avoiding Catatonic Surrender,” and the rest of Manchester, his new solo release, Barry sings the stories of the everyman, and makes the everyday seem beautiful.
Whereas Barry’s Avail is all but done-for, Chuck Ragan’s Hot Water Music still pops up a couple times a year to play huge sell-out shows around the country (like the sweatfest at Red7 this past SXSW). Ragan’s gravely voice on seminal Hot Water albums like Fuel For the Hate Game and Caution defined a genre, a scene and a sound. And if it seems like Ragan is the leader of this Revival Tour, in many ways he is, the first punk to unplug and go solo some might say. Feast or Famine, Chuck Ragan’s new solo record, was released in August on Side One Dummy.
Tom Gabel may be the most (commercially) successful artist on the Revival Tour. His band Against Me! released their last record New Wave on Sire/Warner Bros., spawning several radio hits. That band began with Gabel sitting on a stool, guitar in hand, playing anywhere he could around his native Gainesville, and in many ways it has now come full circle, as Gabel takes a break from the major league toil to tour solo in support of his new record Heart Burns. 
While alt-country may be a new thing for Barry and Ragan, Ben Nichol’s Lucero has long defined that genre, making him a perfect edition to the Revival Tour cast. Nichols has a lot to celebrate these days – Lucero recently signed with major label giant Universal Records and the songwriter will be putting the final touches on his first solo album, a 7 song mini-LP inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, following the conclusion of the Revival Tour.
So, expect solo performances, expect Barry, Nichols, Ragan and Gabel to take the stage together to perform on each other’s songs, expect to sing-along so learn the words now – but bottom line: expect a good time.