This Band Is Leading the Next Generation of Arena Rock

It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll. Return to Dust knows that AC/DC adage, but the young up-and-coming LA band is climbing quickly, living the dream and soaking it all in as much as possible.

Only coming together in 2022, vocalist-guitarist Matty Bielawski, bassist-vocalist Graham Stanush, guitarist Sebastian Gonzalez and drummer London Hudson have recently opened for Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace and Billy Corgan’s newfound solo band, the Machines of God.

Now, the neo-grunge four-piece is currently touring with Mammoth, aka Wolfgang Van Halen’s group, and Alter Bridge frontman-guitarist Myles Kennedy. The run stops in Denver on Wednesday, December 3, at the Ogden Theatre.

That’s some elite company, and Return to Dust certainly isn’t taking any of it for granted.

“Them just having us on the tour is somewhat of a blessing because they’re giving us this shot to play in front of their crowds. Obviously, they’ve listened to the music, and we’ve gotten by the first barrier,” Bielawski says. “So just to have their blessing to be on a tour is an incredible honor, for Billy, for Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Mammoth, Myles.”  

“If anything, it’s like a test,” Gonzales adds. “You get on, and it’s like, ‘Well, your music is good, but let’s see how you can fare on stage and in front of all these people who aren’t your fans.’”

So far, they’re passing with flying colors. Armed with a new EP, Speak Like the Dead, and last year’s self-titled debut, Return to Dust is picking up the proverbial passing of the torch and winning over fans nightly.

“We do have something to prove being the opening band and no one really knows us. We’re a very, very, very new band and we’re getting these incredible opportunities to go out to these arenas, like get up there and give it your all, leave nothing behind and only get better every show because staying the same or getting worse is unacceptable, you’ll get left behind,” Bielawski says, explaining there’s typically a point where the four of them can feel the audience’s energy shift.

“You can usually tell halfway through the set when people are really latching onto it,” he continues.

“It goes from an obligatory head bob to really feeling it,” adds Stanush, who moved with Bielawski from smalltown Texas to LA in 2019 to pursue a career in music. “The first night we walked out on a very big stage, there was a moment of realization that you really have to fill the shoes of the stage and the crowd. … There’s an expectation, you’re opening the show, you got to warm them up. That’s a big responsibility that we have to navigate.”

But that’s why Return to Dust is in line to lead the next generation of rock. Latest single, “New Religion,” is the perfect example of the connective tissue between 1990s grunge, early 2000s hard rock and modern rock and roll that the band possesses. It’s familiar yet fresh, and certainly not going unnoticed.

While in Cleveland earlier this month, the group had the opportunity to play an acoustic set at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, as part of the hallowed ground’s Rock Hall Rising program that focuses on emerging artists. Needless to say, they were stoked.

“We were sitting there playing like, ‘Oh, man, this is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and I’m on Level 2 right now in this little room just playing acoustic guitar.’ Like, two years ago I was in my room playing Metallica songs by myself. It’s pretty surreal.”

“When we’re chasing the dream, sometimes it’s so hard to live in the moment and realize we’re living it,” Hudson concludes. “But that was a big one, just being at the rock hall of fame. That’s such a cool place, a place that I want to see this band. Just being in there I got a little emotional.

“We’re doing a lot of cool stuff, and we definitely don’t take it for granted. We’re very grateful.”

Return to Dust, with Mammoth and Myles Kennedy, 6 p.m Wednesday, December 3, Ogden Theatre, 935 East Colfax. Tickets are $57.