After nearly 20 years as a jamtronic workhorse on festival lineups and in clubs and theaters across the country, Papadosio will go on indefinite hiatus from touring. The Ohio-born, Asheville-based quintet will cease touring after 2025 but will continue to write and record music.
“We are writing to you all today to announce that we will be taking an indefinite hiatus from touring. For the past 2 decades, Papadosio has played thousands of shows far and wide,” the band wrote in its announcement. “We are deeply grateful for the experiences that we have had and for the amazing people who we have met along the way. We want to emphasize that we are not breaking up as a band. We will continue to write and record music, as well as explore other musical avenues that our constant touring may have previously hindered. That said, 2025 will be our last year of shows for an indefinite amount of time.”
Papadosio has almost two dozen tour dates on the calendar, set to run from this weekend in Covington, KY (1/24–1/25) through the Dosio-curated Kicksville festival in Avenue, MD (5/9–5/10). The inaugural event will host five sets of Papadosio—including an acoustic set—in addition to performances by Octave Cat (ft. members of Dopapod and Lotus), Chalk Dinosaur Ensemble, Soohan, and more. The band did not specify whether additional tour dates will be announced.
“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for your love and support, your consistent words of encouragement, your cheers, and your ears,” Papadosio wrote in conclusion. “We have never felt like we have deserved any of it, however you continued to show up night after night and we couldn’t have asked for better friends, fans, or family. Stay tuned for more details as to what is sure to be a VERY proper send off, and we can’t wait to see you all at our remaining shows. Love, Anthony, Sam, Rob, Mike, and Billy.”
This news comes amid an ongoing wave of indefinite hiatuses for jam bands that emerged in the mid-to-late 2000s. On this past New Year’s Eve, Dopapod took its final bows after 16 years. Prior to that, Twiddle said farewell in November 2023 with Aqueous hanging it up just a few months before that.
“It’s a tale as old as time,” Dopapod guitarist Rob Compa told Live For Live Music about the trend of hiatuses. “There’s a ton of different generations of bands and most of them have a certain shelf life. … If you look in the past decades, in different generations of bands and all sorts of genres, bands just play, and then they don’t play, and then there’s other bands. And round and round we go.”
Since emerging from the Appalachian hippie enclave of Athens, OH in the mid-2000s, Papadosio has risen through rigorous touring and consistent studio output to become one of the 21st century’s leading voices in livetronic jam music. The band used its status to pull up other artists, hosting annual festivals Rootwire and Resonance (RIP) for years, oftentimes at the Midwestern jam band hub of Thornville, OH’s Legend Valley. Resonance ultimately became a wandering festival from 2019–2022 and held its “Last Dance” at Ohio’s Nelson Ledges in 2023 (without Papadosio). Over the years, Papadosio developed close bonds throughout the jam band community, including with Dopapod and The Werks, teaming up for a lauded recreation of Pink Floyd‘s The Dark Side of the Moon at The Werk Out in 2014 and following it up with The Wall five years later at the same festival.
Around the time of Papadosio’s celebrated 2012 double album T.E.T.I.O.S., the group relocated to Asheville, NC, which band members Anthony Thogmartin, Sam and Billy Brouse, Mike Healy, and Rob McConnell all call home. In recent years, the band hosted curated festivals in its adopted hometown, headlined the city’s emerging AVLFest, and most recently staged the three-night Holidosio run at the city’s newest immersive multi-media venue, Third Room.
Find Papadosio tour dates on its website and catch the band live while you still can.
Papadosio — PA Set (All-Improv) — Park Street Saloon — Columbus, OH — 12/19/14 — Full Audio
[Audio: Dose Trump]
Papadosio — “Garden”, “The Bionic Man Meets His Past” — The Werk Out Music & Arts Festival — 8/7/15
[Video: Chubbys Video & Audio]
Papadosio — “Vactrollio” — The Bluestone — Columbus, OH — 12/31/21
Papadosio — “Cue” — Okeechobee Music & Arts Festival — Okeechobee, FL — 3/5/22
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