Business is getting back to normal for Southern California trio Slightly Stoopid, frontman Miles Doughty and the band’s manager, Matt Phillips, tell Billboard. That means getting back out on the road where the band has long made its living.
The group returns with their Summer Traditions tour, which includes a hometown performance Sept. 3 inside the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park, along with Pepper, Common Kings and Fortunate Youth. Also on the schedule is California Roots Music and Arts Festival in Monterey, Calif., on May 28 and the Reggae Rise Up Festival in Baltimore, Md., on July 31.
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During the pandemic, Slightly Stoopid’s business turned from a tour-heavy schedule to selling merch online. “It was kind of crazy,” says Phillips of Silverback Music Management. “It was almost like they took their concert money and put it into merch for the year. We were doing astronomical numbers we’ve never done before.”
The band was able to return to the road in small doses in 2021, with two dates at Red Rocks Amphitheater outside Denver, and hosting its annual Closer to the Sun festival in Mexico in December. The entrepreneurial band and its team have been organizing Closer to the Sun since 2014 with Cloud 9 Adventures, which also works with other artists at the same venue, the Hard Rock Resort Riviera Maya near Cancun — Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky festival and Brandi Carlile’s Girls Just Wanna Weekend, among others.
Phillips says of the Hard Rock Resort and Cloud 9 Entertainment, the festival’s producers, “We couldn’t ask for better partners. I know a lot of people try to do it, but you got to do it right and deliver that experience for the fans for it to really take off like Closer to the Sun has.”
“We’ve played a million festivals,” adds Doughty. “We’ve traveled everywhere. And there’s no experience like it. It’s turned into such a family vibe too. When you go there, every stage sounds absolutely amazing. The light shows are absolutely amazing. They don’t spare a single dollar in terms of bringing in the best of everything — which makes it even better for all the bands. When the bands come down, they leave going, ‘God, I didn’t know how insane this was going to be.’”