Preview
SLOW FRESH OIL
With Hot Little Rocket, The Burnettes and Falconhawk
Saturday, July 19
The Night Gallery
‘Tis a sad sight indeed – once-youthful bands who grow old enough to choke down a taste of their own swagger-filled words. May as well hand knife and fork to Lyle Bell, guitarist for Edmonton’s Slow Fresh Oil, a band that was so popular in Calgary at the start of the decade that they nearly had their own parking spot on First Street between the Night Gallery and The Castle.
"Lyle was always the one who said reunions are gay, especially after the Sex Pistols reunion or The Clash reunion that was supposed to happen, (or) the Beatles three piece reunion from a few years ago. They are all stupid," says the band’s bassist, Brent Oliver, over the phone.
Slow Fresh Oil’s last show was at the Night Gallery about three years ago, and the reasons for the end of their era seemed clear and irrefutable then.
"The problem was that we all kinda hated each other at the time," says Oliver. "We’d been doing a lot of touring and a lot of shows and a lot of recording. We just put out a CD that was 40 songs. Gravy (Boat), our drummer, was in a crappy relationship. I had a shitty job at the time, so did Lyle. Lyle and his girlfriend were in the process of breaking up. In turn we just all took it out on each other."
And while Bell and Boat formed Whitey Houston and kept pounding out rock, Oliver turned his energy to the country sounds of The Shady Pines. He also continued to work at Edmonton’s vinyl haven, Free Cloud, and began to put together a new venue, The Starlite Room, where the Rev had once been. It was the actual closing of the Rev seven months ago, combined with the healing hands of time, which made it possible for the members of Slow Fresh Oil to be in the same room again – and even enjoy it. The band ended up reuniting to play six songs for the Rev’s closing weekend.
"We’d talked about since were all friends again, why don’t we get together and do some playing, so that was the impetus to get together. It was like two years never went by – we started playing and writing again," Oliver continues. "Then we said, hey, why don’t we play a show. The obvious thing was to play at the Night Gallery again, where we had finished in a hail of bullets."
The tensions that tore the band apart should no longer stalk them. Oliver is getting married in August, and the other two band members have live-in girlfriends. As well, all three of them have jobs they like. And the focus this time is on fun, Oliver says. The band is even returning to the studio with a fistful of new tunes.
The bassist promises some surprises during the Calgary gig, possibly reminiscent of the time the band played for Edmonton’s A-Channel and set their drums on fire, then had friends throw pies and puffed wheat at them in a rock version of tar and feathering.
"Not that we’re up on theatrics – we leave that to the Calgary bands. They’re all about shtick and theatrics," Oliver says, throwing down an obvious gauntlet before adding, "There’s nobody right now in Calgary I feel like dissing. There’s a lot of bands in Edmonton I feel like dissing because there’s so much shit right now, but the Calgary bands like Lorrie’s band (Lorrie Matheson and the Yorkton Spokes) and Reverie Sound Revue are great." |
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