.Third Eye Blind Announce Catalyst Show, Share Surf Spots

The members of Bay Area alt-hitmakers Third Eye Blind announced today that they’ll play a warm-up show for their “Summer Gods: 25 Years in the Blind” tour—which celebrates a quarter-century since the release of their platinum-selling, self-titled debut album—at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on June 19. The national tour will kick off three days later in Oregon. 

Forming in San Francisco in the ’90s, Third Eye Blind found international success with top-10 hits like “Semi-Charmed Life” and “How It’s Going to Be.” They’ve sold more than 12 million records in their career. But while other bands might ditch NorCal when they get big, frontman Stephan Jenkins stayed. 

A big part of the reason? Surfing. In fact, Jenkins says Santa Cruz, in particular, is his favorite surfing city, and when we asked about why he chose the Catalyst for the tour’s warm-up show, he gave us a list of his three favorite surf spots here. They are:

“1. First peek at Pleasure Point, when the old timers and the morning crew let me have one.  

2. Steamer Lane, midweek and a little crummy cause no one is out. 

3. I can’t tell you number 3, or I will get in trouble with the locs.”

Fittingly, the new tour will support the ocean the band loves to surf; a portion of each ticket will help the organization SeaTrees restore the kelp ecosystem along the California coast. Some parts of the state have lost as much as 90% of their kelp forests in the last 10 years due to the invasive purple sea urchins that must be cleared before kelp can be restored. 

Last year, Third Eye Blind released their most recent album, Our Bande Apart; Jenkins says it’s “the most fun we’ve ever had in the studio.”

Tickets for Third Eye Blind’s June 19 Catalyst show go on sale Friday, May 13, at 10am. Go to catalystclub.com or thirdeyeblind.com.