Denver-Born Band Tapped to Play Tool Festival, Live in the Sand

If you went back in time and told the teenage Harry Springer that one day his band would play a festival headlined by Tool, he would have thought you were crazy.

"About a month ago, Tyler Fey reached out to me and said, 'I'm putting on a big event in the Dominican Republic. Would you be interested in playing it?'" recalls Springer, who sings and plays guitar in the riff-heavy rock outfit Moon Walker, which formed in 2021 from the remnants of the Denver-born group the Midnight Club. "I said, 'Wow, yes, of course.' Then about a week later, he told me it would be with Tool. I definitely wasn't expecting that. It was insane. The whole lineup is amazing. It's all these bands I grew up with as a kid."

Tyler Fey is the son of the late Barry Fey, one of the most legendary concert promoters of all time. Feyline, his Colorado-based company, started booking acts such as the Doors and the Grateful Dead in Denver in the late ’60s. From there, he organized the first Led Zeppelin concert in North America, at the Denver Auditorium in 1968. After his career took off, he went on to work with everyone from the Rolling Stones to U2.

A year before Barry's death in 2013, Tyler bought Feyline with more of a focus on hip-hop and EDM shows in Colorado. But he's always wanted to venture into the rock arena, a space that his father helped carve out decades ago. With his first foray, he's aiming big: Titled Live in the Sand, the Tool-headlined festival will take place March 7-9 next year in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Not only is Tool topping the bill, but the beloved progressive metal band also helped curate the rest of the lineup, which includes such popular groups as Primus, Mastodon and Coheed and Cambria.

"This is kind of Feyline's step back into rock and roll," Tyler says. "That's our history with my dad and everything he did in Colorado and beyond. That's Feyline's legacy."

Live in the Sand is an ambitious destination festival sure to make many a rock fan salivate. Among its impressive roster of world-class bands, however, is a name that is nowhere near as well known: Moon Walker.

"Touring-wise, most of the big rock acts these days are the old ones, like the Rolling Stones," Tyler says. "Because of the way the music industry and the record companies are, there's not a lot of money to develop new rock acts. Rock acts need to be developed and discovered, like my dad did with Led Zeppelin.

"I've come across some really great rock bands lately, some of them in Colorado," he continues. "That's why we put Moon Walker on the Tool bill. That was purely a move because Harry makes phenomenal music and needs to be heard."

Even a month after accepting Feyline's invitation to perform at Live in the Sand, Springer is pinching himself. "I've never played on a stage that big," he says from New York City, where he's recording a new album. Ahead of its completion, he's releasing a single, "New God," on November 8. The song's choppy thrust and anthemic vibe make it easy to see why Tyler is confident that Moon Walker, regardless of its modest stature, can make one giant leap to Tool's stage.

"I've rarely done anything bigger than headlining club shows. Even just the idea of playing in front of Tool's audience is intimidating and amazing," Springer says. "But we also get to go and play a show in the Caribbean and hang out on the beach and watch some of our favorite bands."

If an up-and-coming rock group has to take a working vacation, it can't get much better.

Pre-sale tickets to Live in the Sand are available now at toolinthesand.com. Moon Walker's upcoming single, "New God," is already streaming. For more information, go to listentomoonwalker.com.