James Booth & The Return

We're a lively and energetic take-no-prisoners live act that blends power pop, folk rock, lo-fi and progressive rock into psychedelic jams. James always makes a point of engaging with the crowd, singing his heart out as Max, Taylor and Chad play within an inch of their lives.

Each time we play, the setlist is completely different. We do try to make a point of never playing the same show twice, and limiting the number of covers to a bare minimum; we sincerely believe that bands should try to introduce the audience to something new and, hopefully, encourage them to purchase the music and merch. In any case, we aim to please with what we believe is a lost art in this increasingly disingenuous scene.

If you book us, we'll bend over backwards to be there and put on a fantastic show, the way only a world class rock and roll band used to.

JAMES BOOTH & THE RETURN is an exciting, dynamic and wholly original rock and roll outfit. The self-described “Prog-Rock Prophets of the Paisley Underground” are led by James Booth on vocals and guitar, with Taylor Kropp on lead guitar, Max Goldman on bass and Chad McKinsey on drums. This four-piece plays a blend of progressive rock, power pop and psychedelic jams, centered around James’s sophisticated songwriting and howling, wide-ranging vocals.

Originally hailing from New Jersey, the first James Booth & The Return album, titled ‘This Makes The Dead Walk’, was (save for two electric tracks) largely a DIY anti-folk record.

Their second release ‘Hard Strokes Of Velvet Redux’ drew from such diverse genres as power-pop, acoustic blues, New York punk and spoken word. After this came the goth- inspired ‘The Sky Hurts My Eyes’, the progressive rock adventure ‘In The Gardens Of Knight’, and the hubris- soaked odyssey of ‘Third Star In The Sky’. This run of albums concluded with ‘Songs From A Doll’s House’, the indie-est of indie rock records, a raw and unpolished collection of love songs and torch ballads. When not recording, James and his crew bounced up and down the Eastern Seaboard playing in venues like John & Peter’s in New Hope, Pennsylvania, as well as The Bitter End and the Delancey in New York City.

In 2019, James moved to Los Angeles and teamed up with super-producer Fernando Perdomo to produce the band’s seventh release ‘Postcards From The New Frontier’, an epic psych-rock record about doomed relationships set against a backdrop of quasi- cosmic imagery. Three songs from the record, “Heartbreak Hill”, “The Afterimage of Love” and “A Message for The King” received airplay on Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s Underground Garage channel and 88.5 Bilingual Sounds in Southern California, among others.

When the band plays live, James commands the stage with humor and authority when not singing his heart out. His vocal range is expansive, capable of singing everything from the most sensitive acoustic ballads to the heaviest rockers that verge on classic metal. His bandmates in The Return include alt-country veteran Taylor Kropp on lead guitar, punk stalwart Max Goldman on bass and metal virtuoso Chad McKinsey on drums. They’ve been electrifying audiences up and down Los Angeles, playing in such storied venues as the Whisky-A-Go-Go, The Viper Room, The Mint, The Hotel Cafe, The Venice West and Molly Malone’s. Anyone lucky enough to catch them in one of these venues will tell you: there simply isn’t a rock and roll band quite like them around today.

What’s more is that James designs each and every piece of artwork for the band, making not only the album covers but the posters as well, drawing from the public domain and twisting long dormant visuals into retro-futuristic, pop-art inspired collages.

In addition to all this, James has recently been featured providing vocals for the track “Sun King” on the tribute album ‘Abbey Road Reimagined’, alongside British guitar legend Albert Lee and keyboardist Geoff Downes from YES. James can also be seen as a talking head in the upcoming documentary Welcome To Dreamland.

The band’s most recent album ‘An American Warlock In Holywood’ released on January 24th. If that weren’t enough, the band also found time to release ‘An April Fool’s Extended Play’, a light-hearted comedy record, on April 1st of this year.

What more do you expect from Southern California’s only Prog-Rock/Power Pop/Grand Slam Jam Band? Tune in, take the ride, and come out the other side knowing that Rock & Roll Never Forgives.

Realistically, the only thing we need as a necessity are microphones and monitors. We can, hypothetically, bring our own gear (pain in the ass that may be) but a backline with the "bare-bones" is always appreciated.

We have a fairly minimal setup; Two Guitars, Bass guitar, Drums. Drums, as always, are in the back, but across the stage from left to right it's guitar-bass-guitar. Our bassist, Max, is always in the middle. I'm not picky about which side of the stage I'm on, I just need to be able to look at everyone in one glance if need be.