You might not know Vancouver based funk/rock/ soul band The Matchstick Skeletons, but you may remember drummer Matty Carolei and frontman Neu Mannas from their previous band Head of the Herd, who played Lethbridge with The Glorious Sons and Finger 11 a few years ago.
 Thee Matchstick Skeletons return to Lethbridge to headline Canada Day in Henderson Lake park.
“I put a bullet in Head of the Herd after the  Finger 11 tour,” observed Neu Mannas, who took some time  to regroup as the Matchstick Skeletons with drummer Matty Carolei and multi-instrumentalists  Ryan Stead and Colin Friesen.
“They play a lot of different instruments and I’ll play some bass. but it’s very cool that if I  think a song needs a particular instrument, then they‘ll be able to play it,” he enthused.
 The spent a successful two month tour with the Headstones and released their debut Ep “ The Know How” on Feb. 7.
 “We road tested the songs for two months with the Headstones, and the audiences were singing along after the second verse and they had never heard the songs before, so we knew they were special to us and those were the ones we put on the EP,” said Mannas, noting the blues  based rock of Head of the Herd took a backseat to the more funk and soul he and Carolei enjoyed as kids.
“This is really the band we’ve wanted to form since we were teenagers,” Mannas said.
“This is more about the funk and soul that we love,” he said, adding there is still a blues influence.

“Though the blues is still there. This is different. The blues is more in the lyrics, and not as much in the music,” he said.
“It is music you can shake your ass to or bang your head to,” he continued, adding he is looking forward to laying Canada Day in Alberta.
“This is really special. I live in Vancouver now, but I grew up in Calgary. I’m from Alberta originally so it feels really good to play Canada Day in my home province,” he said.

“It just feels right. But we waited until it felt like the right time to do this band,” he said, noting they are in the studio recording the EP.
“But we‘ll wait until it feels right to release it,” he said.
 He is excited about the new band, and noted the show will primarily focus on the new music.
“ We do like one Head  of the Herd song if there’s a demand for it,. But it’s rare that we do it,” he said.
They share an eclectic bill with up and coming country musician Christ Strei, plus local country and pop band Alyssa McQuaid and Coyote Junction at 7:40 p.m. , the Hibikaya drummers , the Desert Wind Belly Dancers at 7:10 and local blues band The Steve Keenan Band at 5 p.m.
The Canada Day Schedule is:
11 a.m. Lethbridge Community Band
12:00-12:45 The Good Timers
12:40: Mexicanos Sin Fronteras
1 p.m. Coda Blues
1:40 .m. Thai Culture Group
2 p.m. Lawless Murphy
2:40 p.m. ChampionTae Kwon Do
 3 p.m. Kavanagh and Hepher
3:40 P.m. Troyanda Ukrainian Dancers
4:30 p.m. LCI Dance Academy
6 p.m.  Chris Strei (Country) Catch Chris Strei's original mix of inspiration from Chris Stapleton, Johnny Cash, and High Valley in Alberta this month!

 

 
7:40 Alyssa McQuaid and Coyote Junction (country/pop) 


8:30 p.m. Lethbridge Swing Dancers 

 9 p.m. Hibikaya drummers
9:30 p.m. Matchstick Skeletons