Third Eye Blind to Play Basilica Hudson October 30

Third Eye Blind, the San Francisco band whose gleaming pop hooks concealed songs about addiction, suicide, and romantic collapse, will perform at Basilica Hudson on Friday, October 30. Doors open at 7pm and the show begins at 8pm, with tickets going on sale on Thursday, August 13 at 10am.

For anyone who encountered alternative radio in 1997, the band’s arrival will likely trigger an involuntary chorus of “doo-doo-doot, doo-doo-doo-doo.” “Semi-Charmed Life,” Third Eye Blind’s maddeningly buoyant debut single, paired that immortal refrain with a story of crystal meth, sex, and spiritual depletion. “Jumper,” “How’s It Going to Be,” and “Graduate” followed, helping the band’s self-titled debut sell more than six million copies in the United States.

The album has aged better than much of the post-grunge competition surrounding it. Its songs were shamelessly melodic but more musically intricate—and considerably stranger—than their radio-ready surfaces suggested. Nearly 30 years later, Third Eye Blind claims a large audience of younger fans who discovered the band outside its original late-’90s context.

Then there is Stephan Jenkins.

Jenkins remains the band’s singer, principal songwriter, controlling intelligence, and, depending on whom you ask, one of rock’s more impressively durable assholes. His reputation isn’t based on a single backstage tantrum. It rests upon decades of fractured relationships, ownership disputes, lawsuits, and public feuds.

Founding guitarist Kevin Cadogan said he and Jenkins had agreed to operate Third Eye Blind as equal partners, only to discover that Jenkins had organized Third Eye Blind Inc. with himself as its sole owner. Cadogan was dismissed after a Utah concert in 2000 and subsequently sued, alleging fraud, wrongful termination, and withheld royalties. The case was settled before trial.

Cadogan’s replacement, Tony Fredianelli, later sued Jenkins and the band over unpaid touring revenue. In 2013, a federal jury awarded him nearly $448,000, adding another chapter to a history in which Third Eye Blind has often appeared to function less like a band than Jenkins’s privately controlled republic. A later dispute with former bassist Arion Salazar continued the pattern.

Jenkins has also feuded with members of Smash Mouth, Matchbox Twenty, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, and Eve 6. A 2022 profile in The Ringer found him mellower with age but hardly repentant: Third Eye Blind remains his vehicle, and compromise does not appear to be among its operating principles.

Occasionally, that combativeness has been put to satisfying use. Performing at a 2016 charity concert associated with the Republican National Convention, Jenkins defended LGBTQ rights, taunted the audience about climate science, and withheld “Semi-Charmed Life.” When the crowd booed, he reminded them who held the microphone.

The man may be difficult but the hooks remain undeniable. Basilica Hudson gets both on October 30.