STEVE WYNN (USA)

Already on our stage in 2015, one of those artists who have made the history of our great little Club returns. Steve is certainly one of the most relevant world figures in the music scene of the 80s, if we consider that with his Dream Syndicate, together with other groups such as REM or The Replacements, he actually invented the American Indie Rock scene. A singer-songwriter of the first magnitude, Wynn will perform solo, accompanying his voice with the electric guitar, for an unforgettable and intimate journey into timeless rock.
"One of the true heroes of underground rock." (Philadelphia Weekly)
"The former Dream Syndicate frontman is a true academic treatise of timeless rock songs." (Chicago Tribune)
"A force not to be underestimated and loved." (London Sunday Times)
"No contemporary makes classic rock records like Wynn." (AllMusicGuide.com)
"A first-class songwriter in the simple yet profound tradition of Lou Reed, Neil Young and John Lennon post-Beatles, [with] an ear to balance his pop sensibility with artistic dissonance." (PopMatters.com)
In 25 years, Wynn has released at least as many albums and has seen over 300 of his songs recorded. He has performed in over 2,000 shows in more than 25 countries. His songs have been recorded and/or performed by REM, Luna, Concrete Blonde, The Black Crowes, Yo La Tengo and Eleventh Dream Day, among others; his "That's Why I Wear Black" became the No. 1 single of 1993 in Norway as the opening track of Somebody's Darling's debut album. He has featured prominently in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Uncut, Entertainment Weekly, People, The Los Angeles Times, New York Times and countless other publications around the world. Or maybe he's known for his pioneering work with The Dream Syndicate, a band that, along with REM and The Replacements, pretty much invented the American Indie Rock scene of the 80s. Perhaps Wynn is known for his critically acclaimed 90s solo albums, which were a 'must' on many Modern Rock radio stations across the US. Or it could be for his highly publicized side project Gutterball that at his fifth concert he found himself under contract with Mute/Elektra and on a national tour with The Black Crowes. Or maybe for his recent "Desert Trilogy" and for the almost legendary shows with his current backing band The Miracle 3. Or maybe because of when he played on the Late Show with David Letterman as part of The Baseball Project in early 2022. "What he took from punk has more to do with attitude, noisy energy, emotions bordering on the abyss and musical riskiness, qualities, of course, present in the best rock-and-roll of any scene, era or subgenre" (Trouser Press Music Guide).
Steve Wynn was born in 1960 in Santa Monica, California, and received his first guitar (an acoustic with nylon strings) when he was nine years old, shortly after he wrote his first song "Sing My Blues". He formed his first band The Light Bulbs that same year and the band performed throughout the circuit of parties and school gatherings; The oldest member of the band was ten years old. By the age of 13, Wynn had played in bands with such colorful names as Purple Passion and Sudden Death Overtime, alternating his early original songs with songs by Neil Young, The Rolling Stones and The Who. In the years that followed, Wynn found himself distracted by his strong desire to become a sports journalist. Ditching his electric guitar for a notebook, a pen and a typewriter, Wynn found himself on the other side of the interview, talking to football, basketball and baseball players and dreaming of one day seeing his name on the Sports Illustrated headline. During his high school years, Wynn nurtured the idea of becoming a sports journalist, but the excitement and immediacy of the 1977 punk rock explosion brought him back into the world of songwriting and live performances. He found himself writing and playing guitar for the Suspects, pioneers of the New Wave of UC Davis (near Sacramento), a band for which Wynn has written over 100 songs, none of which he has performed since. The return to Los Angeles with Suspects singer Kendra Smith was the first step towards the formation of The Dream Syndicate, the band with which Wynn would gain national and finally international acclaim. Dream Syndicate played together for the first time in December 1981 and in three weeks recorded their first self-titled EP. The album was released in April 1982 and was followed six months later by the band's debut album "The Days of Wine and Roses", an album that fans and critics still consider one of the best and most important rock albums of all time. Those early years are well represented by the songs "When You Smile" and "That's What You Always Say", songs that were covered by Concrete Blonde and Luna respectively. The band was almost immediately signed by A&M Records for whom they recorded the historic "Medicine Show", a record that was recently named one of the 40 greatest rock albums of all time by the London Guardian and whose songs have been covered by REM and The Black Crowes among many others. Several years of touring around the world followed (including several trips to Europe, Japan and Australia) before the band broke up in late 1988. Wynn said: "As proud as I was of The Dream Syndicate, our music and our accomplishments I felt we had reached our peak and everything that followed would have been a disappointment. I wanted to be a band that broke up while we were still doing our best work." In 1990 Wynn returned to the scene with his first solo work, "Kerosene Man", an album of incredible diversity that showed his enormous growth as a songwriter and record producer. The songs "Carolyn" and "Tears Won't Help" were among the most played songs that year on Modern Rock radio stations and the video for "Carolyn" was in regular rotation on MTV for six weeks. The follow-up "Dazzling Display" was Wynn's most elaborate production to date, a dizzying synthesis of the best rock music of the last 30 years with the talents of, among others, Peter Buck of REM, Johnette Napolitano of Concrete Blonde and members of The Bangles, The Turtles and the traveling bands of Lou Reed and Tracy Chapman. A four-day writing vacation in Richmond, Virginia, with Bryan Harvey of House of Freaks turns into the supergroup of side project Gutterball, which releases two albums, gets an overwhelming response from the press and builds a frenetic cult following; The Black Crowes hired the band to open their concerts before Gutterball's first record was released. Wynn followed Gutterball's success with the more introspective "Fluorescent", an album whose single "Carelessly" garnered major radio coverage in both the U.S. and Europe. In 1994, Wynn moved to New York. He harnesses the excitement and energy of his new home on his album "Melting in the Dark". The two albums that followed, "Sweetness and Light" and "My Midnight", saw Wynn settle into the sound that defines the next phase of his solo career. In 2001, Steve went to Tucson and recorded the double album "Here Come the Miracles", which was a huge critical success. The album is seen as an extraordinary comeback and appears in many year-end critical polls along with winning the American Federation of Independent Music's Best Alternative Rock Album award. The album is followed by "Static Transmission" and "... Tick... Tick... tick", also recorded in Tucson with his new backing band The Miracle 3 and are part of a "Desert Trilogy" considered by many to be the best work of his career. But Wynn has never been the type to settle on easy or predictable rhythms. Since the last Desert Trilogy he has recorded "Cast Iron Soul", a new Danny & Dusty album with Dan Stuart of Green On Red, joined forces with his wife and drummer Linda Pitmon and legendary Spanish producer Paco Loco to generate the pop project "Smack Dab" and collaborated with Chris Eckman of the Walkabouts in Slovenia in the lush and sumptuous "Crossing Dragon Bridge", a record that formed a tandem of new releases in 2008 with "The Baseball Project", a cycle of songs dedicated to baseball created in collaboration with Pitmon, Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck of REM and Minus 5. In the midst of such a prolific recording career, Wynn still found time for an average of over 100 shows a year around the world. He was welcomed triumphantly in Rome, Oslo, Athens, Brussels, London and Madrid as well as in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. And for the devoted fans he has generated in these and many other cities, his extensive music discography reflects the general opinion that Steve Wynn is one of the most adventurous, accomplished and exciting songwriters of recent decades. If all this is still new, all that remains is to put on his latest CD and get ready to join the legions of people who have enjoyed Wynn's dazzling performance of songs for the past 25 years.
"Maybe it's Wynn's irrepressibly human voice or maybe the clever phrases that stick in your head and refuse to leave... no matter what way, you simply can't deny that these songs work" (Album Network).