Santa Cruz to play Rockfest in Finland on June 7th

Santa Cruz to play Rockfest in Finland on June 7th

It’s been just over a year since three of the four Santa Cruz band members quit the group mid-way through a tour of the USA in mid-March 2018. Santa Cruz frontman Archie Cruz was left as the lone man standing when guitarist Johnny Parkkonen, bassist Middy Toivonen and drummer Tan Fagerstorm apparently kicked him off their tour bus and advised him that they were no longer part of the band. This forced Santa Cruz to cancel their festival show appearances scheduled for the summer of 2018. Within a month of the departures of Parkkonen, Toivonen and Fagerstorm, Santa Cruz frontman Archie Cruz announced that guitarist Brody DeRozie had joined the band. This did not last long as by July 10th, DeRozie was replaced by 19-year old Russian guitarist Pavel. Since then, Santa Cruz have been relatively quiet.

KISS, Slipknot and Def Leppard will be headlining Rockfest, which takes place in Finland from June 7 to 9, 2019 and Santa Cruz are among the other bands scheduled to be there. The New Wave of Hair Metal announced via their Facebook page earlier today that Santa Cruz are scheduled to play on June 7th.

Santa Cruz‘s last album Bad Blood Rising finished at #8 on the Sleaze Roxx Readers’ Top 20 Albums of 2017 to which Sleaze Roxx stated: “Santa Cruz score the highest finish on the Sleaze Roxx Readers’ Top 20 Albums of 2017 of any “newer” bands out there. However, can Santa Cruz really be considered a “new band” when Bad Blood Rising is their third full-length studio album and the sleaze rockers’ debut full-length album Screaming For Adrenaline landed the #1 spot on the Sleaze Roxx’s Top Ten Albums of 2013? Whatever the case, Santa Cruz have not been around for a decade (or a few decades) compared to the bands that garnered more votes than them via the readers’ poll this year. Bad Blood Rising sees Santa Cruz continue their modern sleaze rock take but with quite a bit of variety. It’s also the highest charting album from any band this year that has yet to be reviewed by Sleaze Roxx. After the shock of the modern sounds on Santa Cruz‘s second self-titled album, it appears that Sleaze Roxx readers have warmed up to the group’s change in sound given that Santa Cruz finished a rather low #20 on the Sleaze Roxx Readers’ Top 20 Albums of 2015 while 2017’s Bad Blood Rising was close to cracking the readers’  year end top five albums.”