Thursday July 27th 8 pm (7:30 pm door)

The Samples
with special guests The Roamin Gabriels

The Samples have been the definition of success for a touring band despite the lack of major label support. Celebrating twenty years together, The Samples begin their summer tour next month and have plans to release a brand new album in early 2007. All tour dates are shown below and interviews are available upon request.

Music being one of the most abstract of the popular arts, it is hard to know exactly why some bands succeed and others fail. This much we do know: The Samples was once a band teetering on failure. It was the early ‘90s, and The Samples were playing competent post-folk rock reggae in the tradition of The Police and Neil Young. And in the post-folk rock tradition, the group was widely ignored. After a two-month affiliation with a major label, The Samples had its contract revoked. The band was deemed not only hopelessly un-commercial but also hopelessly
uninteresting.

Lead singer-songwriter Sean Kelly had a degree in nothing, only odd construction and painting jobs to fall back on, but as he says now, “What else was I supposed to do?” Instead of sending out resumes, he wrote many heartfelt songs about ongoing reflections of love and celebration. He also kept on writing and shuffled the band’s lineup. Then in one of those moments that make up for all the Rock Brain children in the world, The Samples stumbled onto a sound of its own.

The Last Drag, the 1993 reanimation of The Samples, was a brilliantly minimalist rock album about love (or the lack of it). It was hardened but not ironic, tense but not jagged, smart but not so smart that Kelly couldn’t sing, “Every Time!” to get his point across. The songs were about small things—girlfriends, Marilyn Monroe and little silver rings—but they contained a multitude of emotions, and the music was so melodic that listeners were reminded just how great rock could be.

CD titles and songwriting that make up The Samples musical journey are as emotional and pure as the first Colorado snow. Titles such as The Samples self the titled Blue CD, Underwater People, The Last Drag, Autopilot, No Room, Here and Somewhere Else, Outpost, The Tan Mule, Light House Rocket, Transmissions from the Sea of Tranquility, Sparta, Landing On The Sidewalk, Return To Earth, Anthology In Motion, Seventeen (CD and DVD) and the most recent Black and White, unpretentiously captivate the listener.

For more information, please visit www.thesamples.com

Tickets: $22 in advance, $25 at the door
Tickets available at www.ticketmaster.com

Tickets will be available on 2/24