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Chixdiggit 20th Anniversary Canada Tour with Huevos Rancheros & Kepi Ghoulie Electric
Republik
Thursday, November 10 - Thursday, November 10

More in: Rock / Pop

Despite excellent efforts and even better intentions, very few, if any, Calgary rock ’n’ roll bands have had a worldwide impact like local institution Chixdiggit. The tongue-in-cheek pop-punk phenoms have toured the world countless times, released four albums (one of them twice) alongside various 7-inches and EPs and, most importantly, continued to thrive in a genre that hasn’t been in vogue for a very long time, if ever.

This year, Chixdiggit is celebrating 20 years as a band by embarking on a cross-Canada tour, the first half of which has already been completed in the eastern part of the country. For this trek, founding members K.J. Jansen and Mark O’Flaherty are joined by Tyler Pickering and Kepi Ghoulie of European punk greats the Groovie Ghoulies.

While a two-decade anniversary puts an ominous number above the tour, Jansen insists that the eastern Canadian portion was a positive experience in every way. “I think a career high point would be this last tour,” he says. “We’re totally blown away by the response. We were treated a little differently this time. We weren’t just a band, we were treated like old men. It was really great for us. I think it’s the first time people thought, ‘Wow they have been around a long time.’ But I don’t care how people see us as long as they’re having a good time.”

The band had a good time, too. O’Flaherty recalls an extra show they performed during the Halifax Pop Explosion. “We were kind of thinking the night was over and letting loose a little, watching different bands and drinking in different bars. We were walking back to our hotel and there was this house party. I kind of mulled around outside, but when I finally went in there the other guys had instruments around them and we played an impromptu gig. I certainly wouldn’t want to see it on YouTube but it was fun.”

They’re not playing an old-man reunion show on tour. Instead, 20 years in, Chixdiggit are as energetic as ever. “It’s the same thing as always, it’s just better,” says Jansen.

I SHOULD HAVE PLAYED FOOTBALL IN HIGH SCHOOL

Perhaps that’s because, since their inception in the early ’90s, Chixdiggit have been all about having as much fun as possible. Spending the last two decades ignoring trends and making each other laugh, their music has always been refreshingly unpretentious. Sticking to a timeless formula that was perfected by the Ramones, the group has survived multiple generations of uncomfortable takes on punk rock that include heart-wrenching nü-screamo and alt-rock leaning stadium rock. Relatively simple song structures and sardonic wit always have and always will characterize Chixdiggit.

In high school, Jansen recalls being attracted to the fun at local shows and wanting a piece of the action for himself. “In every scene, whether it be football or skateboarding or bands or politics or whatever, there are always people who kind of think they’re a little bit better than everybody else just based on the fact that they’ve been doing it a little longer or they might just be in their own heads. We wanted to poke fun at those guys.”

Naturally, that desire to push buttons ruffled some feathers in the local punk community. “We got shit for our name too, for sure,” Jansen recalls. A metal-esque interpretation of the phrase “Chicks Dig It,” the moniker began as a fictional band with real-life T-shirts in 1991. That was just part of the legend the members had built for themselves, to the point that there were actually fans at their first show in 1992.

QUIT YOUR JOB

By 1996, Chixdiggit had signed with venerable Seattle indie rock imprint Sub Pop Records, which released their self-titled debut album. Featuring instant classics like “Henry Rollins is No Fun,” “I Wanna Hump You” and “I Drove the Coquihalla,” the album was a perfect snapshot of these four Calgarians having a good time, all the time.

It was around then that the band started to view touring as a full-time endeavour. After all, as a young kid with a disposable job, it only made sense. “We got our booking agent, and he said ‘I can get you shows wherever you want,’” Jansen recalls. “We said ‘Why don’t we do this for a while instead of working shitty jobs all the time and see what happens.’”

Soon the band was touring all over the globe, developing a rabid international fan base that’s still in place to this day. “We always had little goals, like we wanted to tour all of the States or we wanted to play Europe,” Jansen says. “It was more like destination goals. It was always 100 per cent more about trying to play some place.”

The mid- to late-’90s were undoubtedly a fascinating time to be playing pop-punk, with bands like NOFX and Rancid achieving massive sales and artists like Green Day and Blink 182 dominating the mainstream. While Chixdiggit never reached those levels of stardom, they did watch as numerous rock ’n’ roll clichés manifested on the road.

“Definitely there was that stuff going on,” Jansen recalls about the fast-living debauchery he saw around him. “Not with our band, but we definitely played with bands where that was going on. That put things into perspective. Just like, ‘I don’t want to end up like that.’ I’m not going to say we didn’t have a good time, but I think we were pretty good at learning from other people’s mistakes.”

“I find it pretty hard partying sometimes, but that’s probably just my wussy perspective,” O’Flaherty admits with a laugh. “Those bands who party until there’s some kind of blowout, I think those are people who would do that on the weekend if they were accountants or worked for an oil company. We’re pretty even-keeled guys.”

In fact, the first era of Chixdiggit didn’t crash and burn in a cocaine-fuelled fist fight or hotel room disaster — it simply stopped being fun. “It can be something that you take for granted and you’re missing home more than you’re looking forward to seeing new places and meeting new people and having adventures,” O’Flaherty says.

“We took a break in 2001 or 2002, and I think at that point it had started to be like something we had to do as opposed to something we wanted to do,” Jansen recalls. “It started to be a job. We’re not one of those bands that can go up there and fake it. We have to be having fun or it doesn’t work.”

SWEATY AND HAIRLESS

Chixdiggit’s end didn’t last for long, as both Jansen and O’Flaherty grew restless without the constant adventures. Learning from their mistakes, they reprioritized their lives in order to bring Chixdiggit back in 2003. “We just kind of went back to what we started off as, just the four of us hanging out and having fun as opposed to having to be somewhere at sometime,” Jansen says.

Keeping things part-time, the band members have tried to balance family, work commitments and the group. With jobs and families to come home to, Chixdiggit tours are much shorter and, as a result, more fun. “There’s more energy around the shows, just because you haven’t played for a week straight and you’re looking forward to five more weeks of shows,” O’Flaherty explains. “You don’t need to pace yourself as much.”

They’ve also thrived in the studio, releasing their third album, Pink Razors, on Fat Wreck Chords in 2005 as well as the Safeways Here We Come EP which came out earlier this year. Both albums demonstrate that the group’s songwriting has only improved with age. Then there’s Chixdiggit II, a rerecording of their debut album that the band self-released in 2007 after a falling out with Sub Pop.

With a stronger work ethic than ever, Chixdiggit is planning tours all over North America, Asia and Australia as well as a series of brand new EPs to be released in the next year. While many punks hang up their guitars as they approach middle age, Jansen insists that he doesn’t feel out of place. “I’m kind of like a Star Wars nerd at a comic convention,” he says. “I’m 40, but the kid who’s 16 that’s into the same shit I am, I’m gonna have a conversation with him about it.”

“I think a lot of it too is we’re friends, and we go hang out for fun,” O’Flaherty adds. “I don’t think it’s ever been about making it or anything like that. It’s very much a weekend sort of thing. I’m sure the guys that go golfing every weekend don’t get bored of that either.”