The rest of the US now remembers what SC never forgot: Hootie & the Blowfish matter

There was a monumental moment at the Hootie & the Blowfish concert that wasn't something to be heard.

Instead, it was a message shared in four written words, projected some two stories high onto the screen behind the band on the Colonial Life Arena stage in Columbia.

"Greetings from South Carolina."

With a popular national tour this summer and new music this fall, Hootie & the Blowfish are, once again, sharing the spotlight with South Carolina. This is nothing new for the hometown heroes who never really left their hometown.

Even when "Cracked Rear View" sat atop the Billboard album charts, the foursome kept a band office in Columbia, just steps from the bars where they first played R.E.M. covers for free beer and loose change. They all lived in the tree-lined neighborhood just up the hill, too. 

It was about 25 years ago that frontman Darius Rucker wore a Gamecocks hat as he accepted the group's Grammy for Best New Artist. And here he was Wednesday night, wearing yet another University of South Carolina cap as he belted out bluesy, roots-rock melodies for the first of three sold-out crowds at the school's arena.

This sort of state ambassadorship goes beyond the stage. The easygoing pop-rockers have starred in a Myrtle Beach tourism summer TV spot this year, and Rucker penned a Charleston guide for September's Golf magazine.

The tour T-shirts feature a graphic that blends the stars and stripes with South Carolina's sabal palmetto and crescent moon. 

Hootie's America is South Carolina.

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This week's concerts — just a couple miles from the dorms where guitarist Mark Bryan first heard Rucker's rich baritone bouncing off the concrete walls — are a grand finale. These are the last headlining dates in the band's 44-city summer U.S. tour in honor of the 25th anniversary of "Cracked Rear View."

A new album, the first in a decade, is slated for a November release. 

The shows sold like it was 1994. The group, made up of four friends from the University of South Carolina, sold out two nights at Madison Square Garden. They packed the Hollywood Bowl. Most dates on the tour were sold out or close to selling out. 

In Columbia, fans quickly snatched up all the seats for the originally planned Friday show at the 18,000-seat arena. Promoters then added Thursday's sold-out appearance. They fit in another show Wednesday night, which — you guessed it — also sold out.  

These are Hootie & the Blowfish's first ticketed shows here in 18 years.

All of these tickets and tour dates also add up to another accomplishment: The band is introducing a new generation to a certain slice of South Carolina culture, one feel-good four-minute ditty at a time. 

In Columbia, that looked like the father and son standing on their feet with the first notes of "Hannah Jane." The mother and daughter who swayed to "Hold My Hand."

Another mother held the hands of her children as they walked the hallways of the arena. Both wore small neon shirts proclaiming, "This is my first concert." 

The media mea culpa

The anniversary has also prompted the generation that was around the first time Hootie & the Blowfish headlined arenas to rethink the band's legacy.

The band's reputations have been damaged, for decades, by the intense backlash that followed the massive success of the debut album. Subsequent albums fizzled, but the band played on, just for mostly half-full concert halls into the early 2000s. 

They went on hiatus in 2008. Rucker pivoted toward a successful country solo career.

One woman addressed the backlash directly Wednesday night: She wore a shirt to the show that said, "I still like Hootie, (expletive)."

Elsewhere, tastemakers like The New York Times published a profile back in June titled, "Hootie & the Blowfish, Great American Rock Band (Yes, Really)." Esquire magazine took it a bit further with its "How Our Cruelty Killed Hootie and the Blowfish – and Damaged Our Souls." Consequence of Sound did a new review of "Cracked Rear View," noting there "wasn't a real miss on the album," celebrating its bright lyrics, muscular guitar riffs and sing-a-long hooks. 

At the time, Hootie was "an alternative to the alternative," said Michael Miller, a former entertainment writer for The State. The music from decade-defining grunge acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam was darker, more introspective, he said. 

And then "this band from South Carolina came along with more uplifting, bright, positive songs," Miller said. "People connected with them."

Of course, no one knew it in 1994, but "Cracked Rear View" would be the last monster rock album of the age. And maybe ever, considering that people just don't consume music that way anymore, one CD purchase at a time at the local music shop. 

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The debut album sold 21 million copies, making it the ninth-highest selling album ever, according to the RIAA’s Gold & Platinum Program ("Cracked Rear View" is tied with Garth Brooks' "Double Live"). 

It's the highest-ranked debut album and the only Southern entry in the top ten, too. (Garth Brooks was technically born in Oklahoma — more Western than Southern.)

Hootie & the Blowfish's name is listed in the history books now with the very bands they spent years covering, like Led Zeppelin. 

South Carolina, the fifth band member 

Miller covered Hootie in the early days, when they played rowdy sets for bars and frat parties, hoping for just enough gas money to get to the next gig. They matured in this process, Miller said. They discovered their own original sound that is a reflection of this region, too, blending gospel, R&B, country, roots-rock and Southern rock.

Miller watched how Columbia itself gave the group a boost as they marched toward massive success. "They were able to play a lot in Columbia," he said. "They could do it a good pace and not break the bank. They could afford to live here."

They made it big here, too, Miller noted. Unlike other South Carolina musical successes like R&B icon James Brown or jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, the members of Hootie & the Blowfish didn't leave the state to find their big break. 

"There were very much devoted to this state and to this school, and they still are," said Miller, who wrote a book on the band called "Hootie!." "I think that's what endears them, especially to South Carolina. They are proud (to be from here)".

Miller can't think of another contemporary band as devoted to its home — or a home as devoted to one band.

South Carolina, it seems, was there as each new fan picked up the album or watched them on TV in 1990s, whether they realized it or not.

The album cover for "Cracked Rear View" features photographs shot around Columbia. The music videos for that album's singles were shot in old barns and mills just outside of town. When MTV Unplugged wanted to film a Hootie & the Blowfish episode, the group insisted they come to Columbia.

They convinced Willie Nelson to stage a version of his fundraising festival, Farm Aid, here. 

It's not surprising that Columbia will host the final night of U.S. shows Friday. But this will not be the end of the tour. 

The European leg of Hootie & the Blowfish's tour will launch in October with a date in Dublin, Ireland.

Still, the message from the stage that night will be the same. 

"Greetings from South Carolina."