If you know grandson, you know the man can tell a story - it's in his lyrics, his music that effortlessly blends rock, hip hop and pop. If you don't know grandson - well, we think you're going to get a kick out of these stories, anyway. He's got a Mumford & Sons moment in a forest, at a music festival; he's got a "Get Him To The Greek"(but in this case it's The Shrine)-style story for a sold out show with his friend Dom Dolla; and we've got a mysterious music fight club, where Irish Heritage Month brings the larger-than-life voice of Hozier to a very intimate setting. Watch:
Mumford & Sons
"The year is 2012. I'm 19 years old. I'm on acid for the very first time. It was my very first music festival of this scale. I'm walking through the crowd waiting for it to kick in. Kendrick Lamar starts playing and I really have to pee, so I go into this forest and I'm pissing, on acid, waiting for it to kick in, and suddenly it feels like I'm conducting like a symphony. The trees are kind of swaying to the music and "Money Trees" comes on. I am officially having the best day of my life. I dance so hard, I forget that I have feet. I'm just floating and closing out the night is Mumford & Sons. They start going into it. ♪ It was not your fault, but mine ♪ And I'm just crying at this point. I don't even realize I'm crying. 20, 30, 40,000 people knowing every word. A big, big community, family of music. And I think that that was the moment that I realized that this was what I wanted to spend my life pursuing."
Dom Dolla @ The Shrine
"Last year, I went all over the world and back and the only way that I could get through it was telling myself, if there's big moments I need to be there for, for my personal life, I'm gonna do whatever I can to be there. Me and Dom go back, and Dom announced that he was playing The Shrine, sold out. All of my friends that were in L.A. were gonna go. I was on tour though, so I had told myself, I can't make that show. But about a day before the show, I'm looking at my master tour and I realize that I've got a couple days off afterwards and I go, I think I might be able to make this work. I'm opening for Bring Me the Horizon. We're playing 5,000 people in Arizona the same night. So I play my set and while I'm on stage, my tour manager, Dan, books me an Uber."
I finish the show. Still in my stage clothes. I don't even bring a bag. I don't even bring my toothbrush. I'm like, we're gonna figure it out. I gotta get to The Shrine.
"So I hop in this Uber and it's about a 15 minute drive and when I tell you that me and this Uber driver became brothers, we were connected. He asks me if I smoke weed and I'm like, 'I do, yeah.' And so he pulls a joint out and he can't find a lighter. So he is looking under his seat. We start swerving on the highway. I tell him to concentrate. We start missing the exit and I'm like, 'Dude, we're gonna miss the plane.' He pulls into a gas station. As he gets up, I see he's been sitting on the lighter the whole time. He lights the joint. We hotbox his car on the way to the Phoenix Airport. By the time I open the door, smoke is pouring out. I don't even know what the hell's going on. Get on this plane. It's about an hour and a half, Phoenix to L.A. Boom. Pick up my friends. Everybody's feeling good. I can't believe I've made it. None of them can believe I'm there. We get there as Dom is hitting the first note. There's lasers, pyro, everyone's wearing sunglasses inside. Very, very cool time. I probably lost a week that night of my life and that's what it's all about."
Hozier
"So I don't know if I'm supposed to tell people this, but in Los Angeles, there's like a very, very small intimate setting where some of the biggest artists in the world play. I guess you could call it like a "Music Fight Club." A good friend of mine runs a place called the Winston House. He was the one that gave me the call and said, 'We're doing something for this Irish Heritage Month. If you're in town, you should come. It's gonna be a good time.' He kept it really vague. So I showed up. It was maybe 25, 30 people in a room and on stage walks this like, titan, this absolute musical behemoth, six foot eleven and his voice is even bigger. And he goes on stage just armed with him and an acoustic guitar and he was personable, incredibly talented, and smart and worked through old songs, new songs, off his new album. It was one of the most incredible displays of just, a man and his guitar on stage. It was just a really, really special moment."
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grandson tour dates:
June 2nd – Toads – New Haven, Connecticut
June 3rd – Webster Hall – New York, New York
June 4th – Franklin Music Hall – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 5th – Roxian Theatre – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
June 6th – Egyptian Room – Indianapolis, Indiana
June 9th – St. Andrews Hall – Detroit, Michigan
June 11th – House Of Blues – Chicago, Illinois
June 12th – Palace Theatre – St. Paul, Minnesota
June 13th – The Rave – Milwaukee, Wisconsin
June 15th – The Admiral – Omaha, Nebraska
June 16th – The Factory – St. Louis, Missouri
June 17th – Boulevardia Festival – Kansas City, Missouri
June 19th – Mission Ballroom – Denver, Colorado
June 20th – The Complex – Salt Lake City, Utah
June 22nd – Revolution Concert House – Boise, Idaho
June 23rd – Showbox SoDo – Seattle, Washington
June 24th – Roseland Theatre – Portland, Oregon
June 26th – Warfield Theatre – San Francisco, California
June 27th – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, California
June 29th – Van Buren – Phoenix, Arizona
July 1st – Diamond Ballroom – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
July 2nd – Growlers – Memphis, Tennessee
July 3rd – Bogarts – Cincinnati, Ohio
July 5th – Empire Live Underground – Albany, New York
July 9th – Aura – Portland, Maine
July 10th – The Met – Pawtucket, Rhode Island
July 11th – Wally’s – Hampton Beach, New Hampshire
July 17th – Corona Theatre – Montreal, Quebec
July 19th – History – Toronto, Ontario
July 21st – The Bronson Centre – Ottawa, Ontario
July 22nd – London Music Hall – London, Ontario
July 24th – Guelph Concert Theatre – Guelph, Ontario
July 27th – The Park Theatre – Winnipeg, Manitoba
July 28th – Roxy – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
July 29th – The Palace – Calgary, Alberta
July 31st – Union Hall – Edmonton, Alberta
August 2nd – Harbor Event Centre – Vancouver, British Columbia
August 3rd – Capital Ballroom – Victoria, British Columbia
August 11th – Foro Indie Rocks – Mexico City, Mexico
September 7th – Opium Rooms – Dublin, Ireland
September 8th – Stylus – Leeds, United Kingdom
September 9th – SWG 3 – Glasgow, United Kingdom
September 10th – O2 Institute2 – Birmingham, United Kingdom
September 13th – Academy 2 – Manchester, United Kingdom
September 15th – Electric Ballroom – London, United Kingdom
September 17th – Den Atleier – Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
September 19th – Trabendo – Paris, France
September 20th – Carlswerk Victoria – Cologne, Germany
September 23rd – Backstage Werk – Munich, Germany
September 24th – Astra – Berlin, Germany
September 26th – Proxima – Warsaw, Poland
September 27th – Aunsee – Leipzig, Germany
September 28th – Roxy – Prague, Czech Republic
September 29th – Durer Kurt – Budapest, Hungary
September 30th – SIMM City – Vienna, Austria
October 3rd – Magazzini Generali – Milan, Italy
October 4th – Dynamo – Zurich, Switzerland
October 5th – Zoom – Frankfurt, Germany
October 6th – Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands
October 8th – Trix – Antwerp, Belgium
October 10th – Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, Denmark
October 11th – John Dee – Oslo, Norway
October 12th – Debaser – Stockholm, Sweden
October 13th – Pustervik – Gothenburg, Sweden
October 15th – Apolo – Helsinki, Finland
October 17th – Helitehas – Tallinn, Estonia
October 18th – Kablys – Vilnius, Lithuania
