Hootie and the Blowfish will be returning to the area with two local concerts in August. The first will be in Columbia, MD at Merriweather Post Pavilion on August 3rd followed by a show in Bristow, VA at Jiffy Lube Live on August 17th. This is somewhat of a homecoming as half of the band, Mark Bryan and Dean Felber, are graduates of Seneca Valley High School in Germantown.
Mark Bryan, lead guitarist of Hootie and The Blowfish, returning to Maryland for a show at The Weinberg Center in nearby Frederick in 2022. His band, “The Screaming Trojans” is a nod to the high schools the group attended. “I’m a Seneca Valley Screaming Eagle and a couple of my best buddies are Gaithersburg Trojans, so we mixed the two mascot names.” Bryan told WTOP in an interview.
Bryan, who was born at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, is a founding member, songwriter, and the lead guitarist for the band Hootie & the Blowfish. In 1986, Bryan and his friend Darius Rucker formed a duo called The Wolf Brothers while attending the University of South Carolina. Eventually, friends Dean Felber (also a Seneca Valley alumnus) and Jim Sonefeld joined the band, which led to the founding of Hootie & the Blowfish in 1989 with Rucker as the lead singer. They have sold over 21 million albums in the United States alone. Their album, Cracked Rear View, went on to earn the Billboard’s Band of the Year Award in 1996 and the RIAA’s Diamond Award for sales of 10 million units. Cracked Rear View remains the 12th best selling album in music business history, and all albums combined have moved over 25 million worldwide. Part of the video for “Only Wanna Be With You” off of the album was shot at the old pro shop/bar of the Poolesville golf course.
Photo courtesy Live Nation