TOAST: The Best of Bread books Hoyt Sherman Place for Feb. 22

The soft-rock tribute that recreates Bread and David Gates's solo songs plays Des Moines' century-old Sherman Hill theater on a Monday in February.

Some songs were made for a February Monday in Iowa: warm, unhurried, a little wistful. Bread wrote a lot of them, and next winter a band devoted to those songs is bringing them to one of the prettiest rooms in Des Moines.

TOAST: The Best of Bread plays Hoyt Sherman Place on Monday, Feb. 22, 2027, at 7 p.m. The show was announced Oct. 30. Tickets run $34.80–$62.30 through Ticketmaster, and the theater seats 1,252.

TOAST describes its mission simply: to faithfully re-create the hits of Bread, along with the solo work of the band's founding members, David Gates among them. The lineup is Jeff Clark on lead vocals, guitar and keys; Brett Hart on drums and vocals; Rich Bischoff on lead guitar; Ken Shumway on bass and vocals; and Troy Jolley on keyboards, percussion and vocals, with John Hanson running sound and adding guitar. Promoters say audiences regularly describe the sound as "spot on" to the records, which is the whole point with a catalog this gentle — there is nowhere for a sloppy note to hide.

The band has been working steadily, with dates this fall in Escondido, California, an overseas stop at The Helix in Dublin, and a New Year's run at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah. Des Moines lands in the thick of the winter leg.

The room is a big part of the draw. Hoyt Sherman Place began as the family home Hoyt Sherman completed in 1877 in what is now Sherman Hill. After his death it sat empty until 1907, when the Des Moines Women's Club leased it from the city for $1 a year. Fundraising for a theater began in 1917, stalled when the United States entered World War I, and resumed after the war; the auditorium opened in January 1923 with about 1,400 seats. A $4.7 million restoration finished in 2004 brought the spaces back to their original look, and the theater marked its centennial in 2023 — a celebration that came with a Grant Wood discovery of its own.

A catalog this gentle leaves nowhere for a sloppy note to hide.

That history matters for a show like this. Bread's songs are about intimacy and craft, and a 1923 theater with real plaster and real acoustics is the right place to hear them played carefully, from seats close enough to watch the harmonies happen.

Practical notes: a Monday 7 p.m. curtain makes this an easy weeknight. Sherman Hill parking fills up for bigger shows, so leave a few extra minutes. And if you are buying for someone who wore out a Bread record, this is a very good gift idea for the winter ahead.

Come February, the best part may be the quiet — 1,252 people in an old theater, all singing the same soft chorus.

Sources: From Bread to Toast: How a Tribute Band Revived '70s Soft Rock Online (Main Street Crossing) (mainstreetcrossing.com); Toast: The Best of Bread (Rams Head On Stage) (ramsheadonstage.com); Toast: The Best of Bread (KPBS) (kpbs.org); Toast 2026 (The Helix) (thehelix.ie); TOAST the Best of BREAD (Park City Shows) (parkcityshows.com); Hoyt Sherman Place (Wikipedia) (en.wikipedia.org); How Hoyt Sherman Place Became a Landmark of Downtown DSM (Downtown DSM) (dsmpartnership.com); Hoyt Sherman Place looks back at 100 years of entertainment (Yahoo/Des Moines Register) (yahoo.com); Theater's 100th celebration unveils a Grant Wood discovery (Axios Des Moines) (axios.com); TOAST tickets, Hoyt Sherman Place (Ticketmaster) (ticketmaster.evyy.net)