Dan Zanes - vocals, guitar; Warren Zanes - guitar; Tom Lloyd - bass; Woody Giessmann - drums
The Del Fuegos were on the verge of considerable commercial success when they went out on their 1986 tour to promote their second LP, Boston, Mass. Originally formed in Beantown in 1980, the feisty alternative music band took four years before they had garnered enough press and radio hype to land a national deal on Slash Records. Spearheaded by Dan Zanes and brother Warren on guitars, the Del Fuegos had built up a considerable following of celeb fans, including The Replacements and Tom Petty, by the time this recording was made in April, 1986.
Most of the songs on Boston, Mass. are featured in this broadcast for the King Biscuit Flower Hour Radio Concert Series. The group had spent the last five years touring all over the U.S. and were preparing for an upcoming national tour opening for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. They were still very much a cult act when this recording was made, and the audience is obviously thrilled to be experiencing a musical event that they clearly felt was special. Dan Zanes was always able to build a solid interaction with the band's audience and this show is no exception.
The buzz surrounding the band was building to the point that shortly after doing this tour, they were hired to appear and write a jingle for a national beer company's TV commercial. From that point on, they seemed to lose some of their hip rating, since several journalists wrote that the band had sold out commercially.
The records that followed this tour sold less with each release, to the point where Warren Zanes and Tom Lloyd departed in 1989. The band regrouped and released one more album before disbanding in 1990. Dan and Warren Zanes are both solo artists who continue to tour and record. Highlights include "Longest Day", "Mary Don't Change," "Slipped, Tripped, Fell In Love," "Don't Run Wild" and "It's All Right."