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UPDATE: 14 February 2019 The 2019 US Grammy Award winning rockers have rescheduled their recently cancelled New Zealand show for September!
They’re bringing their “March of the Peaceful Army World Tour” to the Logan Campbell Centre on September 10th, 2019 in Auckland – you don’t want to miss it! Fans who purchased tickets for the cancelled show will have access to an exclusive pre-sale for the new show, head to Ticketmaster from 3pm February for more details.
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Greta Van Fleet Are Making Rock’n’roll Cool Again…..
A trend in recent years with the help of social media and fandom culture is young artists finding massive success early on in their careers. However, some have argued that the genre of mass-appeal rock music has become increasingly dormant. Then, small town Michigan-based rock’n’roll band Greta Van Fleet step in to fill the void and awake the sleeping beast. They have fans in Justin Bieber, Dave Grohl, Tom Hanks and Slash to name a few. Just two EPs and a debut album is all it took for the band to become the most talked about classic rock band in recent years, gaining mainstream and international attention.
We’re happy to announce the album has been @tomhanks approved. pic.twitter.com/Pw6JExAxJ8
— Greta Van Fleet (@GretaVanFleet) April 25, 2018
The band consists of brothers Josh Kiszka (lead-singer), Sam Kiszka (bass) and Jake Kiszka (guitar), alongside their good friend Danny Wagner (drummer), all aged between 19 – 22. With youth and natural talent on their side, they had an explosive 2017 and an even better 2018. From topping the Billboard rock songs chart 3 times, 4 Grammys noms, wracking up millions of streams, multiple TV performances, appearing on some of the biggest festival lineups to sold out shows around the globe. Here’s 5 things you need to know about them…
1. Band members Sam and Danny were still attending high school when they signed their record deal as they wanted to wait until they turned eighteen and were a legal adult.
2. They are named after an 87-year-old elderly lady called Gretna Van Fleet, a resident from the band’s hometown of Frankenmuth, Michigan. Josh suggested that they drop the ‘n’ so that it rolled off the tongue better. She later came to a show and gave them her approval to continue using her name.
3. They’ve sparked a polarizing debate for their comparison to the legendary Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant (lead singer of Led Zepplin) caught wind of these whisperings and said that the band sounds exactly like their 1969 debut Led Zeppelin 1 album. He then went on to compliment lead vocalist Josh saying he is a “beautiful little singer, I hate him!”
4. Elton John is a superfan! He personally invited the band to his Academy Awards party earlier this year and asked them to play their own song “Edge of Darkness,” from their 2017 From the Fires EP. He then accompanied them on the piano to his song, “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.”
Elton says that the band are “the best rock’n’roll I’ve heard in twenty fucking years!” and Sir Elton is NEVER wrong.
Greta Van Fleet are four guys just wanting rock’n’roll ‘to set your soul free’. They are the torchbearers of a new wave of traditional rock bands to hit the mainstream, and have the huge task of keeping it alight. But just in case it doesn’t work out they’ve joked that they’ll name their next project after a different lady and try again. But we have a feeling that this won’t need to happen any time soon.
