Grandaddy returns with new music, Modesto show

Modesto indie band Grandaddy is playing a reunion show in town this weekend.

Tickets are sold out for the intimate show at the Prospect Theater Project in downtown Modesto on Sunday, which was announced this past week. It will be the group’s first full Modesto performance together since the five-man project broke up in 2006. A limited number of tickets were available to the public and they were gone in less than two minutes, said Prospect Artistic Director Jack Souza.

This is the second time the band has reunited. It came together in 2012 for a series of concerts in California and Europe. Frontman Jason Lytle has been working on solo projects and producing other artists since then. In the fall, Lytle announced he was working on a new Grandaddy album. Lytle, who now lives in Portland, Ore., told Stay Wild magazine it would likely be the band’s last album.

“The only reason I’m making another record is because I’m pretty convinced I’ve got a cool thing to offer in the name of Grandaddy. I’ve got one last project up my sleeve,” he told the publication.

The Modesto show is a warm-up for the band’s upcoming European reunion tour, which kicks off Thursday in Dublin, Ireland. The six-date jaunt will take Grandaddy through clubs and festivals in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

Lytle, along with bandmates Aaron Burtch, Tim Dryden, Jim Fairchild and Kevin Garcia, formed Grandaddy while all lived in the Modesto area in 1992. The group headlined X-Fest in downtown Modesto in 2001 and 2005. Over the years, the band became an indie darling and released a series of critically acclaimed albums. The last was 2006’s “Just Like the Fambly Cat.”

While it landed two albums on the U.S. Billboard charts, Grandaddy has done even better internationally. Perhaps its best-known song, 2003’s “Now It’s On,” hit No. 23 on the U.K. singles chart.

This story was originally published August 12, 2016 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Grandaddy returns with new music, Modesto show."