Filter Tour Overview
Filter is an American rock band formed in 1993 in Cleveland, Ohio, by singer Richard Patrick and guitarist and programmer Brian Liesegang. The band was formed when Patrick desired to start his own band after leaving Nine Inch Nails as their touring guitarist. Their debut album Short Bus was released in 1995 and ended up going platinum, largely due to the success of the single "Hey Man Nice Shot". After the album, the band would go through the first of many lineup changes, leaving Patrick as the only consistent member across all releases.
After Liesegang's departure in 1997, Patrick recorded a follow up album with the Short Bus touring band members, who became full-time members thereafter. The resulting effort, 1999's Title of Record, also went platinum driven by the success of the song "Take a Picture". A third album, The Amalgamut, was released in 2002 with the same members, though sales stalled with Patrick checking into rehab after years of heavy alcohol and drug abuse just as touring for the album had begun.
About Filter
Richard Patrick played guitar with Nine Inch Nails during the touring for Pretty Hate Machine and in the music videos for Broken; he left the band while Trent Reznor was recording The Downward Spiral and began a new recording project with Brian Liesegang. Dubbing themselves Filter, they signed to Reprise Records in 1994 and recorded their first album, Short Bus, which was released in the following year. The album was commercially successful, and included the hit single "Hey Man Nice Shot". This song was somewhat controversial, as it was seen as capitalizing on the public suicide of Budd Dwyer. Kurt Cobain's suicide was widely rumored to have inspired the song, but the band denied this. The first single "Hey Man Nice Shot" was also included in the soundtrack for the movie Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight in 1995 before Short Bus was released. In need of a live band to tour the album, Patrick and Liesegang recruited Geno Lenardo on guitar, Frank Cavanagh on bass, and Matt Walker on drums. They would all later be featured in the video for the album's second single, "Dose".
Between Filter's first and second albums, the band became known for their soundtrack contributions, The first of these tracks, "Thanks Bro", landed on the Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files album. In 1996, Filter recorded and filmed the video for the song "Jurassitol", for The Crow: City of Angels soundtrack. They also released the home video Phenomenology in 1996, which showcased some of the band's live performances and music videos, as well as an interview with Patrick and Liesegang filmed in New Mexico.
Liesegang left in 1997 shortly after recording the Filter/Crystal Method collaboration "(Can't You) Trip Like I Do" for the Spawn movie soundtrack, due to creative differences with Patrick. In 1998, for The X-Files film soundtrack, Patrick decided to keep the Filter name and recorded a cover of Harry Nilsson's "One".
Filter Facts
- Filter has received two Grammy nominations for Best Short Form Music Video and Best Hard Rock Performance.
- The song “Hey Man, Nice Shot” was inspired by the public suicide of Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer in 1987.
- The band's debut, Short Bus, melded grunge with mainstream industrial music; music critic Greg Kot remarked that the record "finds a middle ground between grunge's world-weary sense of melody and industrial rock's icy steel-pulse rhythms."
- The band's second full-length album, Title of Record, incorporated more diverse elements and sounds,[52] drawing from folk, worldbeat and psychedelia in addition to industrial and grunge.
