Back From the Shadows was the twenty-fifth anniversary reunion tour of the comedy group the Firesign Theatre, performed at twenty cities across the United States in 1993. A live video CD recording of three performances was released as the group's nineteenth album in 1994 by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.
The performance material was loosely adapted and updated from four albums originally issued by Columbia Records: Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him (1968); How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All (1969); Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers (1970); and I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus (1971). The concert's title comes from lyrics "Back From the Shadows Again" that the group wrote as a parody of Gene Autry's signature song "Back in the Saddle Again" for I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus. The final scene, "Toad Away", is a parody hymn the group wrote to the tune of The First Noel in 1970 for their Dear Friends radio program, which appeared on the 1972 album of the same name.
Performance venues The reunion concert opened in Seattle, Washington on April 24, 1993. The audience numbered 2,900 and included comic actor Harry Anderson. The tour continued through October, at US cities and venues including: Holbrook, Arizona ( Austin, Back From the Shadows liner notes) Denver, Colorado Auditorium Theatre Omaha, Nebraska Chicago, Illinois -- McCormick Place Erie, Pennsylvania Bennington, Vermont Rockland, Maine Springfield, Massachusetts -- University of Massachusetts Amherst Boston, Massachusetts -- Orpheum New York City -- Beacon Theatre Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- Keswick Theatre Washington DC -- Warner Theatre New York City -- Paramount Theatre Somerset, Pennsylvania Galesburg, Illinois North Platte, Nebraska Salt Lake City, Utah Reno, Nevada Tiburon, California Los Angeles, California -- Wiltern Theatre
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