Oklahoma’s BRONCHO (bron-cho, not bronco, as in the Denver NFL team) are known to perform in the oddest places: a convenience store, the middle of the street, in a record store. Okay, so the latter is pretty common, but when their raw and dirgy garage rock splashes against the art deco walls of Denver’s Paramount Theatre on February 9, the ghost of ’20s past may flee in fright. Opening for Billy Idol, the bad boy of 80s new wave, will definitely throws things over the balcony.
BRONCHO had a good 2014. Their second album, Just Enough Hip to Be Woman, came out in the fall followed by a flurry of praise that jumped the pond from the US to the UK and Europe.
BBC 6 Music DJ Tom Ravenscroft gushed during the band’s in-studio interview about their fall tour. First asking BRONCHO about their tour in the U.S., then correcting himself to mean the U.K., then thinking that they were joking about touring with Billy Idol, and when corrected, exclaiming with the overly-used American adjective adopted by the Brits in the last year and half, “Awesome!” It was pretty cute.
Tongue placed firmly in cheek, frontman Ryan Lindsey indicated they were able to secure this opening slot with Idol through ‘favors’ and such. Satire aside, Ravenscroft and many others embraced and became obsessed with Just Enough…, with over 1.5 million plays on Spotify and numerous sold-out shows.
In the way that fava beans go perfect with a nice Chianti, BRONCHO’s rock and roll energy can shoot your “Woo!” mood into the sky, or pull you out of your Morrissey mope, giving you that shot in the ass to take a shower, for God sakes, and go among the living.
The fan favorite single of the album, “Class Historian,” hits your ears in the way a cold beer, with layers of crystalline ice, hits the back of your throat on a hot day. Perfect for a Chuck Taylor shuffle ‘cross the diner floor is “NC-17,” and Lindsey’s vocals drop a few octaves and the song slips a few decades back on “China,” when rents were cheap in the LES and CBGBs wasn’t a fucking men’s fashion store.
In addition to this tour with Billy Idol, BRONCHO returns to SXSW once again to play a series of shows. Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but they’d fit nicely in a line up with Howler, Ty Segall, Tame Impala and Fat White Family. Not that any of those bands are playing SXSW…just a wish list.
Full Tour Dates:
North American * w/ Billy Idol:
01/22 Atlanta GA – The Tabernacle*
01/23 Richmond VA – Strange Matter
01/24 Philadelphia PA – Tower Theatre*
01/25 Washington DC – Lincoln Theatre*
01/26 Brooklyn NY – Rough Trade Records
01/27 Kingston NY – BSP
01/28 New York NY – Beacon Theatre*
01/29 Montclair NJ – Wellmont Theatre*
01/30 Saratoga Springs – Vapor Night Club
01/31 Boston MA – Orpheum Theatre*
02/03 Montreal QC – Metropolis*
02/04 Toronto ON – Massey Hall*
02/06 Detroit MI – Fillmore*
02/07 Chicago IL – Riviera Theatre*
02/08 Omaha NE – Slowdown
02/09 Denver CO – Paramount Theatre*
02/10 Salt Lake City UT – Kilby Court
02/12 Vancouver BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre*
02/13 Seattle WA – Paramount Theatre*
02/14 Portland OR – Bunk Bar
02/15 Oakland CA – The Fox Theatre*
02/18 Los Angeles CA – The Wiltern*
02/19 Los Angeles CA – The Wiltern*
02/21 Las Vegas NV – The Cosmopolitan*
