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Street Sounds by Aubrey McInnis Thursday, September 21 - Wednesday, September 27 Meet Chris Hample, former bassist and frontman for local love-is-unkind, electric rock outfit 66 Breakout. Between two other occupations, he’s an HMV record slinger by day, who will gladly introduce you to AC/DC’s first five albums, the Stooges, The MC5, Tricky Woo and the Hellacopters. But when the night comes, Chris and his gang slip into midnight black Blues Brothers suits complete with crisp white shirts and skinny black ties. That’s the outfit indicating that all hell is gonna break loose on stage, and God help you if you are in the front row. "I haven’t put that much thought into it, I just get up there and sort of explode," smiles Chris. "I think it’s said that love is unkind, but beer is your best friend. (The Blues Brothers were) the main influence on the suits ’cause we didn’t want to get up there in jeans and shirts. The way I look at it, my suit is my working clothes. It’s like an Ozzy Osbourne thing – I put on the suit, I put on the sunglasses and all hell breaks loose." To help him unleash the wild, salivating animal that’s their brand of rock ’n’ roll, are the other boys in the band: Mike Djordjevic (guitar), Geoff Hample (Angus inspired guitar), Jason Thomas (bass, backing vox), Greg Cannon (drums). They all grew up in Innisfail and Red Deer, where they had their own gigs, but came to Calgary to combine forces and remember every bad trait they ever saw on stage in Smalltown, Alberta. "I remember seeing bands and it was just like, ‘You’re boring me, like, the song isn’t bad, but you’re boring the hell out of me.’ It should be a show. Personally, I couldn’t see us having pyrotechnics, but rock and roll is about blood, sweat and beer. After a gig, I hurt the next day, physically hurt, my legs and my arms – and that’s good, I enjoy that and that’s the point. I go up there and I bleed a little. And if you’re not gonna go up there and give it all you got, what’s the point?" Their new rip-roaring EP, Get Down, is a bang-up indication of the thrills, chills and ripples of excitement that the five-piece has made in the local scene during the last year. While their longest song clocks in at three-and-a-half minutes, Chris will often indulge in a rant during a live show. He’ll take full advantage of being the only member of 66 Breakout without an instrument, walk into the audience (á la djewel davidson) and rat on boys for being loveless dogs. Loyally standing by the saying that you have to know the past to know the present and the future of music, 66 Breakout are doing a remarkably entertaining job at living it. The boys are wrapping their loving arms around every rock nuance. "Music styles change, but there’s always that pretty basic rock and roll, you know? We use more than three chords, I think we have about five or six, but it’s always pretty basic," laughs Mike. "There’s something to be said for plugging a good guitar into a Marshall and hitting any chord, but the E-chord especially. Just go bam. It kinda hits you, there’s a vibration that hits you right in the gut."

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