Fountains of Wayne will be performing concert dates this year for the first time since 2013, and the shows are proceeding with the blessings of the family of the band’s co-founder, the late Adam Schlesinger, according to reps for the group.
Plans for a reunited iteration of Fountains of Wayne to do at least two festivals in 2025, and most likely more, were revealed Thursday. Chris Collingwood, who divided songwriting duties in FOW with Schlesinger and handled all the lead vocals, will be back as frontman for the new dates after 12 years of dormancy for the group, which split up well before the 2020 death of Schlesinger.
Most Fountains fans took to the news eagerly, although some wondered whether Schlesinger’s family was happy with a reunion taking place in the absence of its co-leader. According to the band reps, the family is indeed down with Schlesinger’s rich catalog of Fountains songs being brought out for public performance again alongside those penned by Collingwood.
Only two shows have been announced so far: a gig July 4 at Milwaukee’s Summerfest, followed by one at Ocean City, Maryland’s Oceans Calling Festival on Sept. 26.
Popular on Variety
Two dates might seem like a modest reunion tour, but an announcement said the band members “are now poised to return at last, bringing their singalong choruses, technicolor harmonies and ringing melodies to stages across America and beyond.” Sources close to the reconstituted group say that no tour announcement is imminent, but that Collingwood and the other members are indeed considering other opportunities to perform this year.
This lineup of Fountains of Wayne finds Collingwood joined by two mainstays of the group, lead guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young, plus their touring keyboardist Steven M. Gold and a new conscript, bassist Max Collins (of Eve 6).
Since the group members went separate ways after doing their final live shows in 2013, there had been only one official Fountains of Wayne performance — a livestreamed “Hackensack,” solemnly done as part of a Jersey 4 Jersey online benefit at the height of lockdown in 2020, as a tribute to Schlesinger, with Sharon Van Etten filling the missing member’s shoes on bass.
Fountains of Wayne released five original studio albums during the band’s lifetime, beginning with 1996’s eponymous debut and ending with 2011’s “Sky Full of Holes.” Collingwood and Schlesinger wrote their songs almost entirely separately from the start of the group’s career, though they were co-credited on all of the material, a la Lennon and McCartney. The two band leaders were open in their interviews about creative differences, especially on the group’s last two albums. But for fans, having two such creative talents both lending equally strong songs felt like a welcome rarity and a bonanza.
Schlesinger died of complications from COVID on April 1, 2020. He wrote some of FOW’s best known songs, including their breakout hit “Stacy’s Mom.”
Some of the more popular tunes penned by Collingwood for the band, meanwhile, include “Valley Winter Song,” “Radiation Vibe,” “Leave the Biker,” “Please Don’t Rock Me Tonight,” “Survival Car,” “Red Dragon Tattoo” and “A Fine Day for a Parade.”