During the turn of the century, Fort Wayne, and specifically Piere’s Entertainment Center, was a hotbed of activity for up-and-coming bands being introduced to the world by Ozzfest’s second stage. 

The acts would come to town on off days from the tour or circle back after the summer trek to capitalize on the momentum they had built. It wasn’t uncommon to see several of those bands packaged together to create additional excitement and entertainment value. It was also not uncommon for those shows to sell out. 

Well, the Back to the 2000s Tour, complete with its post-apocalyptic Back to the Future-inspired logo, aims to bring back some of that excitement, hitting many of those same venues two decades later. 

Featuring The Union Underground as headliners, the tour also boasts Soil, Ra, and Flaw on the bill and will stop at Piere’s on Wednesday, March 6.

Returning to their heydays

Back to the 2000s is the brainchild of The Union Underground frontman Bryan Scott and Soil guitarist Tim King. 

In a recent interview with Whatzup, King said the bands hit the road together as Soil was beginning the touring cycle for their 2001 hit album Scars and The Union Underground were finishing up touring in support of 2000’s An Education in Rebellion. 

“It was a great tour and we became great friends that have been friends ever since,” King said. “We’re talking August/September 2001, so this has been a long time coming.”

Scott and King decided early in the planning stages that they should include a couple of other bands from the era to complete the package. 

“We wanted to kind of relive those Ozzfest days, when things were a lot simpler and a lot more fun,” he said. “All our bands had big records at the time, so we grabbed Ra and Flaw and put the package together.”

Strong response

The tour kicks off March 1 in The Union Underground’s hometown of San Antonio, but King was able to tell us the response to the tour has been great, with many venues having sold out in advance. 

“We just sold out The Machine Shop in Flint, Michigan, and most of the other dates are close to selling out,” he said. “So, it’s going to be a great tour for us.” 

While there are tickets remaining for the Piere’s show March 6, it would not be good advice to tell you to wait until the day of the show to get yours.

King is confident the Fort Wayne show will be one you won’t want to miss. 

“Soil have always done fantastic there,” he said, “(Frontman) Ryan (McCombs) is from (Muncie) and (98.9 FM) The Bear has been such a great station and supporter of our band for so long that it has become like a second home to us. We’re really excited about coming back.”

Trip down memory lane

All four bands are planning to approach the tour the right way, with the majority of their setlists coming from the albums that made them popular. 

Ra, with Fort Wayne resident Sahaj Ticotin at the helm, will play a lot of their 2002 album From One. Flaw will lean heavily on their 2001 album Through the Eyes. The Union Underground have only one album, so it would be expected they will play most if not all of that album. 

As for Soil, King said they are calling this All Scars, All Tour, as they will play only songs from Scars. They won’t be able to play the entire album, he said, since they are direct support and are limited on time, “but we will be playing most of that record and only songs from that record. 

“It should be a treat for fans because we haven’t done that since that album came out.”

The show will, for sure, be a nostalgic trip back in time to when these bands were enjoy-ing loads of press and radio airplay. It’s not lost on King just how much staying power the music they created two decades ago still has since you can still hear the hits from these bands on rock stations across the country. 

“I’m so happy we were able to bring all these bands together for what is sure to be a great re-introduction to this genre of music,” King said. “It’s really an honor and it’s really fantastic and it is one of the main reasons why we wanted to put together a package of some of the same like-minded bands.

“We all had those one or two songs that have withstood the test of time and continue to be played and thought about all this time afterward. For us to have a song like ‘Halo,’ for instance, that’s still played all over the place to this day, it is just mind-blowing. I, for one, never knew if Soil were one of those bands that was built to last, but we have. I attest it all to the fan base. If it wasn’t for the great fans that have stood by our band, we wouldn’t be talking about this right now.”