Preview
NIKOLA TESLA
Saturday, May 7
Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Centre
Nikola Tesla was a crazy dude. He was the kind of guy who invented top-secret lightning-makers in top-secret labs.
That may be why the Calgary scream-core band of the same name instructed me to meet them in a central location – a coffee shop in the city’s south, far enough for me to not find out where they create their rock ’n’ roll magic, but close enough the band will only be 10 minutes late for their bi-weekly rehearsal. Perhaps Nikola Tesla (the band) was afraid I would get my hands on their latest experiment, a CD Mend our Broken.
It’s plausible they were afraid of an Internet leak of catastrophic Radiohead proportions. Little did they know my operatives had already procured a copy of the seven-song EP. When that was revealed, singer Todd McDonald had no choice but to describe what Mend our Broken is about.
"It kinds of runs through the different things we experience as people," he says. "We kind of address issues saying there’s a way to fix it. It’s mending our broken, fixing our faults."
Guitarist Curtis Fagan goes even deeper. "We all came to a conclusion as a band that we’re broken from our intended state and altered. And the only way to overcome that is love, you know, and shit like that."
Shit like that could mean breaking up with a girl, the government being dicks or struggling to come up with gas money to run a Ford Econoline across the country (which Nikola Tesla will be attempting this summer). Even though they are a young group, born in 2001, they have the humbling, realistic view of an older, wiser band.
"When you’re an independent band playing in front of 20 kids, you might not get paid," says guitar wizard John Gerrard.
"We just hope for the best and take it how it comes," adds Fagan.
Nevertheless, the band will drive out to Ontario (and hope to "hit up the scene" in Montreal) before screaming their way to Victoria Island and back home again.
Nikola Tesla has only recently felt like they could branch off and explore other scenes. While some might chalk it up to success of mainstream screamo bands like Alexisonfire or the confidence of their improved musicianship, it is, in fact, neither. It’s the strength of the local scene that has inspired them.
"Heavy music has become so mainstream over the last two or three years – even the local scene," says Fagan. "Bands that play metal and hardcore are just as popular as a SoCal skate-punk band three years ago
"This scene is able to grow and bring new people in. That’s really positive. And it’s constructive – kids come and beat the hell out of each other a little while, go home and feel like a million bucks, and then go for tea with their friends. It’s the best thing in the world."
The enthusiasm of the all-ages scene in Calgary isn’t wasted on Fagan, either. When you consider that many of the band’s fans don’t have access to a car, the lengths they go to for a live show become that much more impressive.
"Kids that are willing to take 18 buses just to see a local band – those kids make my life worth living," says Fagan. |
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