Big crowd expected at Franco Center for Rustic Overtones Friday, April 26

LEWISTON — The most popular band to ever come out of Maine, if one is using album sales as a yardstick, will perform at 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 26 at the Franco-American Heritage Center.

is a seven-piece group whose unique sound comes from vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Dave Gutter’s throaty, distinctive voice and the band’s three-piece horn section.

Formed in the early 1990s while Gutter and bassist Jon Roods were still students at Gorham High School, the band appeared to be on the brink of national stardom in 2001. Their album “Viva Nueva!” was produced by David Bowie’s long-time producer Tony Visconti and featured Bowie’s pronounced backing vocals on a couple of tracks.

But then the band’s record label, Arista Records, went through a major reorganization that left the label’s founder and the band’s primary supporter – the legendary Clive Davis – shut out of the label he ran for 25 years. The shake-up also left the album and the band languishing in a sort of musical limbo.

An independent subsidiary of Warner Brothers, Tommy Boy Records, eventually released the album, but Warner and Tommy Boy parted ways in 2002, leaving the band without a label to call home for the second time in two years.

The band broke up that same year, but reunited in 2007 to play a series of concerts, including one in downtown Portland that drew several thousand fans to Monument Square. At the same time, they released a new album called “Light at the End,” sparking a renewed energy that they’ve maintained ever since.

Their seventh and most recent full-length album, “Let’s Start a Cult,” was released last summer to critical acclaim and the band is about to begin a tour that will take them throughout northeast cities.

Show is open to 18 years and older. Tickets are $15 in advance and $17 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased online at www.francocenter.org, by phone at 689-2000, or at the Franco Center box office, Oxford St.

The Franco Center will cordon off a section of its bar where adults over the age of 21 can buy and consume alcoholic beverages and still enjoy direct sightlines to the stage. Doors open one hour prior to the show and the concert hall opens one half-hour prior to the show.