A Tommy and The High Pilots Christmas

The Santa Barbara based band released their most recent EP, The Sawhorse Sessions, April of 2011, which was the follow-up to their 2010 debut, American Riviera. And through it all, the band has remained on the road full-time, with major label rockers Ludo and others (Tommy and the High Pilots are on Ludo’s Redbird Records).

Now they will return home for the holidays for a special show presented by Cantillon Entertainment Group (CEG), Friday December 23 at the Lobero Theatre (33 East Canon Perdido Street) in Santa Barbara. The show is billed as “A Tommy and the High Pilots Christmas” and will feature appearances by special guests JR Richards of Dishwalla, Tim Lopez of Plain White T’s, and others. Doors open with a bar pre-reception at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, which includes open bar, with wine provided by Oreana Winery and beer by Figueroa Mountain Brewery. In addition, jars of peanut butter will be collected at the event to donate to the Unity Shoppe (www.unityshoppe.org), and everyone who brings a jar of peanut butter will receive a free Tommy & the High Pilots CD.

“It’s a really exciting idea to have so many local heroes involved in our Christmas show,”says Tommy and the High Pilots’ front man Tommy Cantillon. “On top of that, having it at the Lobero is important to us. We all grew up attending some pretty magical events there. This should be one for the books.”

Tommy’s brother, Jimmy, is the promoter and president of CEG, and he is extremely excited as well about this show. “We’ve worked together on the past three Christmas shows,” he said. “After selling out the last two years at SOhO (the 2010 show was sold out), we felt like it was time to up the stakes.”

Tommy and the High Pilots are one of the hottest bands in the nation not on a major label, with a fresh, yet classic sound and songwriting that features two brothers who have been singing together all their lives– and are a four-piece of gifted musicians who love to play together.

The band played three performances at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas in March 2011, and the video for their debut single “Where to Start” (from American Riviera) received air time on mtvU, as well as a placement on the nationally syndicated The Nate Berkus Show.

But now they have come full circle and are thrilled as always to return home. “I want there to be some great surprises so I won’t say much about that,” said Jimmy. “I will say this though; you’d be crazy to miss this show. It’s only twenty five bucks and includes an open bar. The guest musicians are amazing. You’ll be talking about this until next year, I guarantee you that.”

For more information, including tour dates, please visit www.thehighpilots.com