Mr. Blotto

jam band · rock · folk rock

Mr. Blotto is a jam band formed in Chicago in 1991 around the brother songwriting team of Paul and Mike Bolger, who had played together in garage rock bands in high school and regrouped musically after attending different colleges. Paul Bolger sings lead and plays acoustic guitar and Mike Bolger plays bass, and the long-running lineup also includes Mark Hague on lead guitar, Alan Baster on drums and Steve Ball on Hammond B-3, keyboards, mandolin and harmonica; earlier members included keyboardist Dave Allen and drummer Tony Dellumo. The band's name comes from a phrase overheard at a Grateful Dead concert, and its music blends hard rock, southern rock, folk and country rock with extended improvisation, drawing on influences as varied as the Grateful Dead, Crosby Stills and Nash, Aerosmith and Husker Du. The group has permitted soundboard taping since its earliest shows, and hundreds of concert recordings dating back to 1993 are archived publicly. Its studio albums include Parking Karma (1992), Bad Hair Day (1994), Ancient Face (1998), Cabbages and Kings (2001), Barlow Shanghai (2006) and Thread (2013), followed by the Rules of the Road EP (2016); Barlow Shanghai was made in collaboration with John Perry Barlow, the Grateful Dead's longtime lyricist. From 2000 to 2018 the band hosted Blottopia, a two-day camping festival held in northern Illinois along the Fox River, first at Vasa Park in Elgin and later at Hideaway Lakes in Yorkville, where it became known for closing with a surprise full-album encore of a classic record by acts such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or the Beatles. It has since staged an event billed as Hotel Blotto. Mr. Blotto tours mainly the Midwest, has appeared at festivals including Wakarusa, and works a circuit of Chicago-area clubs, breweries and distilleries.

Official site

Subscribe to this calendar

Upcoming shows in Illinois

Past shows in Illinois

Where they play in Illinois

Upcoming shows

Past shows

Where they play

Upcoming shows in Indiana

Past shows in Indiana

Where they play in Indiana