GRATEFUL SHRED
Grateful Shred has announced a new and extensive run of spring tour dates entitled, Go East III, in commemoration of the Los Angeles-based band’s third proper tour to the East Coast. The 21-date cosmic trek kicks off on April 22 in Ventura, California and goes east from there, hitting Tempe, Boulder, Denver, Cleveland, Philadelphia and more, before it lands at the Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY, for a three-night-stand on May 6, 7 and 8. Shred will also make stops at Brooklyn Bowl’s Philadelphia and Nashville locations on the run that concludes at Chicago’s Thalia Hall on May 15.
Go East III will be co-presented by Grateful Shred Industries, Relix and PHILM and will be Grateful Shred’s largest tour to date and follows last year’s Shred 420: Live at Liberty Hair Farm broadcast and sold out concert tape plus a 2021 west coast run that included sold out headline plays at the historic Libbey Bowl in Ojai, Roaring Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains and New Year’s Eve at The Regent in Los Angeles.
After a meteoric rise from obscurity to a national touring band, Grateful Shred has made the most of its time in the spotlight. The initial lineup alongside Shred core two, Austin McCutchen and Dan Horne, woke the Grateful Dead cosmos with a unique laid-back harmony driven sound. The band literally went from playing the Shakedown Street vendor area prior to Dead and Company shows to touring the United States.
The moment that sent the band’s popularity soaring is the now infamous “Busted at the Bowl,” a YouTube video that features Shred members starting an impromptu set in the parking lot of the Hollywood Bowl before a Dead and Company show in 2017. They don’t get too far before drawing so much attention that the police shut them down. Instant “Shred-Cred.”
This past pandemic year, McCutchen and Horne decided to shake things up within. Their biggest move was adding a second drummer to the lineup; Alex Koford (Phil and Friends, Terrapin Family Band) joined longtime Shred collaborator Austin Beade on drums as the band doubled down on its rhythm section. Koford’s vocals were a huge benefit to the band and by the end of 2021 performances, his contributions were prominent throughout the nightly setlists.
Another huge part of the 2021 lineup was keyboardist Adam MacDougall. MacDougall, a member of Circles Around the Sun with Horne, brings even more credibility along with his spacey keyboard grooves and yet another vocal to the mix.