The first time a lot of people heard of the Head & the Heart was when they appeared performing as an opening act in the pilot for the much-hyped, but quickly savaged, Showtime TV series co-created by Cameron “Almost Famous” Crowe, Roadies. They also turned up performing their song “Shake” on the TV show Hart of Dixie, a number they can be seen playing in the 2013 film Lucky Them, and several of their tracks have been heard in various films and TV episodes, most of them appearing in brief snippets (How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, Sons of Anarchy, etc.). Just as they were building up a million streams and a thousand blog nods, founding singer-guitarist Josiah Johnson was forced to drop out of 2016 touring plans for their third album, Signs of Light, due to health problems reportedly related to drug addiction. It seemed their fan base might be headed for premature evacuation, especially after neither the single for “All We Ever Know” nor “Rhythm & Blues” landed much airplay or attention.

However, 2017 found them hitting all the right notes for festival dates like Lollapalooza, Hinterland, and Coachella, and several of the larger tastemaker sites heaped praise on their recent cover of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” It appears expectations of their demise were unfounded, at least for now, as evidenced by the upcoming tour that brings them to SDSU’s Open Air Theatre, for a bill that includes Grouplove and Mt. Joy.