The Tubes to Perform Entire ‘The Completion Backward Principle’ live

In 1981 The Tubes will perform their 1981 corporate rock spoof ‘The Completion Backward Principle’ for the first time in its entirety on their upcoming US tour.

Singer Fee Waybill says he came up with the concept of the album after finding a 1950’s motivational record in a San Francisco Record bin. “The Completion Backward Principle album was a spoof of corporate rock,” Fee said in a statement. “The sales technique was that ‘imagination creates reality,’ which it turns out, was a metaphor for someone like me, who grew up singing Beatles songs around the house dying to be in a band.”

The album was the sixth studio album for the proto-punk band. They took the project so seriously that they even recruited pop producer David Foster to corporatize the sound. Foster’s job immediately before The Tubes was producing Earth, Wind & Fire. “David had just produced Earth, Wind & Fire’s Boogie Wonderland, and we loved that album,” says Fee.

The Tubes came after Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart but shared a common goal of theatre with all three. “We were parody, we were comedy, we were tragedy, we were satire, we were a big theatrical presentation,” says Waybill.

Waybill 2019’s Tubes includes original members; drummer Prairie Prince, guitarist Roger Steen and bassist Rick Anderson along with longtime keyboardist David Medd.

TOUR DATES
April 4: Arcada Theatre, St. Charles, IL*
April 5: Medina Entertainment Center, Medina, MN
April 12: The Rose, Pasadena, CA*
April 13: The Canyon Montclair, Montclair, CA*
May 16: Paramount/Hudson Valley Theatre, Peekskill, NY*
May 17: My Father’s Place at the Roslyn Hotel, Roslyn, NY*
May 18: Riviera Theatre, North Tonawanda, NY*
August 9: Aretha Franklin Theatre, Detroit, MI
August 10: Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Greenwood Village, CO
August 24: Theatre at Grand Prairie, Grand Prairie, TX
September 6: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
September 7: Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, Las Vegas, NV

• = Performing Completion Backward Principle