Blind Melon Tour Western Canada

09/09/08 2:10pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Blind Melon are heading out on the road for a western Canadian tour.

The band reformed two years ago with new singer Travis Warren — who replaced the late Shannon Hoon — and released their first studio album in 12 years earlier this year. Warren, multi-instrumentalist Christopher Thorn, guitarist/pianist Rogers Stevens, bassist/flautist Brad Smith and drummer Glenn Graham will play through Canada's west in support of For My Friends, their first album with Warren (who sounds somewhat like Hoon) on vocals.

Smith and Thorn met Warren, a singer/songwriter and "diehard" Blind Melon fan, when he asked them to produce some of his songs. Smith and Thorn were so impressed with him that they invited the rest of the original band members to meet Warren, which led to Blind Melon's reunification.

"We couldn't have planned this and we certainly couldn't have forced this," says Thorn. "We weren't waiting around for Travis to show up in our lives. But when we met Travis, we just knew Blind Melon had to reform and be a band again. We feel so lucky to have this second chance, this new beginning."

Blind Melon originally formed in 1990 and released two albums before Hoon was found dead on the band's tour bus of a cocaine overdose in 1995. Blind Melon released Nico a year later and then officially split in 1999.

Here are Blind Melon's western Canadian dates:

Sept. 29 Winnipeg, MB @ Silverado's
Sept. 30 Saskatoon, SK @ The Roxy On Broadway
Oct. 2 Regina, SK @ The Drink Nightclub
Oct. 3 Calgary, AB @ Stampede Casino
Oct. 4 Edmonton, ON @ Jet Nightclub
Oct. 6 Banff, AB @ Wild Bill's Legendary Saloon
Oct. 8 Grand Prairie, AB @ Rock City
Oct. 10 Vancouver, BC @ Plaza Club