Wild-eyed B-Lines singer Ryan Dyck whips up a captive crowd to a frothy mess at last year’s Sled Island.
Four Vancouver punk acts descend on Calgary Edmonton
Vancouver must have decided that it was time for an Alberta weekend. Count ’em — not one not two but three of Vancouver’s finest punk bands will be taking to the Prairies this weekend playing a pair of shows in Calgary with an Edmonton date sandwiched in between. White Lung Nu Sensae and B-Lines are all making the trek with Calgary’s Grown-Ups rounding out the bill for one hell of a weekend tour. All four bands are exciting in their own right though more has been written about Nu Sensae’s cavernous “voodoo punk” and White Lung’s critically acclaimed LP It’s the Evil than for B-Lines a band with an incendiary live show and a sound that reminds this writer of why he got into punk rock in the first place — without a hint of nostalgia or trite revivalism. These four bands will be performing at Broken City on Friday March 11 and once again with an all-ages show on Sunday March 13 at Tubby Dog. In addition B-Lines will (hopefully) have its brand new self-titled 12-inch in tow.
(Video courtesy of Devin Friesen)
“It’s nine songs and it’s going to be a 12-inch at 45 RPM — pretty much two 7-inches on one LP. It’s short and fast” explains B-Lines vocalist Ryan Dyck. “We just got the test presses yesterday though so it’s kind of tight — but hopefully it can happen and we’ll have new records for the shows.”
B-Lines has played Calgary a handful of times including a crowded house show during last year’s Sled Island festival. So what ties a B-Lines performance in a living room bar or a gourmet hot dog establishment together? For one Dyck spends more time in the audience than onstage — while soft-spoken and polite Dyck becomes an utter madman on stage a natural punk rock frontman if there ever was one. Musically B-Lines’ blend of hooky immediate punk rock aims simultaneously for the jugular and the funny bone — there’s no filler or pointless gimmicks to be found just solid one- to two-minute tracks of sneerinzg pop-laced aggression.
The self-titled 12-inch which follows up a six-song 7-inch released in 2009 plows through nine songs without ever breaking the two-minute mark. Produced by the band’s bassist Adam Fothergill the release includes songs such as “Wealthy Barber” “Psychedelic High School” and “Houseplants” (whose hook is “I’m talking to my houseplants”) showcasing both the humour and energy of B-Lines in spades.
“Hopefully we can do more recording this summer too” says Dyck. “It’s just with a large gap between the 7-inch and the new record. We want to follow up the 12-inch with another release right away.”
The friendship between all four bands is readily apparent (Dyck also operates Hockey Dad Records which released the first White Lung 7-inch in 2007) not to mention the label-mate status between the three Vancouver acts (Deranged releases White Lung Nominal releases Nu Sensae and the new B-Lines 12-inch is a co-release between both Deranged and Nominal). Call it nepotism if you wish but it’s the friendship between the bands that spurred this tour in the first place.
“Grown-Ups had asked us to play in Alberta in March with them. We did a few shows with them last year that were really fun so we wanted to do that again. This time White Lung wanted to come along too so it’s three Vancouver bands going out there. It’ll be quite the caravan” Dyck laughs. “[Grown-Ups] always show us a good time in Alberta. It’s fun to be out there.”
