Fame hasn’t changed them a bit — Bend Sinister headline the CBC Radio 3 Tour with B.A. Johnston and locals Azeda Booth
DETAILS
Broken City
Thursday, October 11 - Thursday, October 11
More in: Rock / Pop
In the summer of 2005, Bend Sinister burst onto the Canadian music scene. An ambitious group of Vancouver-based prog rockers, their style mixed equal parts Supertramp and Mars Volta to the awe and delight of fans nationwide. Their debut LP, Through the Broken City, featured well-constructed keyboard-driven songs, frequently enhanced by vocal flourishes and virtuoso guitar solos. Onstage, this translated spectacularly. Then, after a couple trips through town with no sign of new recorded material, the band that once seemed destined for greatness went off the radar.
“We’ve always been a good luck-hard luck band,” explains lead guitarist Naben Ruthnum. “(At that point) we were so frustrated with the industry that we would've recorded new material on our own, but the money just wasn't there. We aren't the kind of band that can just set up some mics and jam it out. We love the stacked vocals and I love being able to take my time with guitar solos. We really need studio time to do these songs justice.”
Fortunately for the band and fans alike, recent events indicate that Bend Sinister’s luck has returned. After releasing an EP of five original songs this September, they kicked off a CBC Radio 3-sponsored tour that will be wrapping up in Calgary next week, after making stops in over 20 other towns across the country. To make matters even better, lead singer Dan Moxon and the rest of the band were given the chance to curate their own tour by tracking down their own supporting acts.
“Dan approached a lot of the bands based on having heard them through the Radio 3 podcast,” recalls Ruthnum. “He also sent mass mail-outs on Myspace to a lot of our band friends asking whether people were interested. Which bands got chosen had a lot to do with the quality of their stuff. The idea of the tour is to showcase a local band in every city, which is practical for everyone involved — the local band gets to play their music and get a foot in the door with Radio 3, and we get to play to an excited audience for a popular local group.”
Although the first two dates were cancelled due to “plague germs,” Bend Sinister seem to have yet again hit their stride. Shows have been going well and the band is excited to be returning to Calgary.
“I can say this completely honestly — Calgary's just always been good to us,” says Ruthnum. “We've had the most bizarrely great shows there, without much promotion and before we were remotely well-known. I think it has to do with knowing the guys from Veritas and The Cape May.”
Not surprisingly, next week’s show at Broken City will feature Chris Reimer, an alumnus of the now-defunct Veritas, and his new band, Azeda Booth. As an added bonus, one of Azeda Booth’s tracks, along with songs by many of the other showcase bands from the tour, have been released by Radio 3 in the form of a compilation album.
The sampler also features Bend Sinister’s take on “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” but the band is more interested in promoting their new EP. “Our main aim on the EP was to write songs first, then decide how much we wanted to play our instruments, whereas on the first LP we would overplay and indulge ourselves in long sections that maybe didn't need to be as long as they were,” says Ruthnum. “Basically, we’ve cut out some of the wanking.”
After hitting a bit of a rough patch, a run of good opportunities has put the members of Bend Sinister back on their feet. By applying their newfound wisdom, they should be able to gain more than enough momentum to carry them through recording their second LP in the months to come. Even bands with bad luck tend to catch a break now and then.