FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Van Allen Belt
Another Roadside Attraction
Saturday, July 19Progressive rock. For music fans those two words are synonymous with the image of socially-inept, academic over-achievers (usually young males) immersed in a headphone fantasy world of dinosaur bogs, wizards and Elton John on stilts. Thankfully, for most people, the phase passes after sitting in damp suburban basements smoking weed and listening to Hawkwind's Space Ritual until it loses it's charm. For most people that is.
"I'd say I still do that, all of the above. It never ended," laughs Shawn Savoie before adding excitedly, "Is that the (Hawkwind) album with the eight-panel gatefold?"
Savoie, one third (bass) of Kingston's Van Allen Belt, falls into that special category of rock fan (there are only really two, see): he likes Rush (hell, he even likes Primus). This is important only in explaining his band's rather bold decision to release a concept album, The Brown Bomber, as their sophomore effort. The storyline roughly revolves around a "faith-healing confidence man," but also includes a triple-tittyed woman and a burlesque dancer. An interesting cast of characters, to be sure, but why delve into one of the most scorned genres of music? (The last good one being Sgt. Pepper - the Bee Gees / Peter Frampton version, of course.)
"After practice we like to sit around and talk about whatever song we're working on and we have bets to see whoever can do something dumber than the last person," explains Savoie. "So one day we challenged Jay (Joly), our vocalist, to write a concept album."
The result: well, despite the danger of being repetitive, it's kind of like Primus trying to be Rush with obligatory '90s hip hop stylings. All of which, by the way, can be heard this summer as the VAB3 (three being drummer Mark Fraser) head out with the Tragically Hip's Another Roadside Attraction tour.
The group's intricate time changes and literary pretensions are appropriate considering the cosmic origins of their tag; the Van Allen Belt is a band of radiation surrounding the Earth - the last terrestrial barrier before deep space. At least that's what most people think.
"See that's the common definition, but that's a misconception. There is another definition I discovered in my travels in southern, rural Ontario," clarifies Savoie. "There's a belt that connects the engine of a manure spreader that shoots the manure into the field. I'm sure from when I was young - my memory is kind of spotty - that that's called a Van Allen Belt."
"So is that a metaphor?" I ask.
"For the Brown Bomber?" offers Shawn.
"No, your music."
"Well... you're on the right track," he replies.
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