Judah & The Lion

– Judah & The Lion

Judah & The Lion is riding a wave that’s been building with year-round touring, a smash radio hit and high-profile support slots, and the genre-bending Nashville band’s spring headline tour is mostly sold out in advance.

The band, whose Folk Hop N’ Roll LP also loosely describes its sound, scored a No. 1 alternative chart hit with the anthemic “Take It All Back.” Creative Artists Agency’s Jeff Krones saw similarities between the group and one of his arena-headlining clients.

Jason Moore – Judah & The Lion

“I think a band like Twenty One Pilots kind of paved the way for bands like Judah to just go and be, and not be put in a box of any kind as far as genre, to go do whatever you want,” Krones told Pollstar. “The guys in Twenty One Pilots became fans of Judah’s music and said they’d love to have them come out (on tour).”

That put Judah & The Lion in major arenas coast to coast from January into the beginning of March.

Krones said, “It’s hard to make an impact as the first of three acts on a tour, and I really think they stepped it up.”

Tickets for the band’s spring headline run of large clubs and theatres went fast, with multiple shows being moved from 700-seat rooms to 2,000-capacity venues “with no resistance,” Krones said.

– Judah & The Lion

The band just announced a fall headline tour that takes in venues like First Avenue in Minneapolis and the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Krones says to expect more and bigger headline dates in 2018, with venues up to the 5,000-capacity range, as well as overseas dates. 

This summer the band is lending support to Incubus’ tour and has some festival plays, putting the band in front of more people.

“It’s not just about a radio story, although that’s really building and that feels good,” Krones said. “It’s very exciting and motivating to see them work so hard and do all the extra things that you don’t think every artist is going to do and then to see it work and react, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s how you break an artist.’”