It’s been a long time coming, but Edmonton/ Toronto/ Vancouver indie rock band Hot Panda are looking forward to 
returning to Lethbridge where they are capping off a 12 date Western United States and Canada tour at the Slice, Dec. 15.
“We’re pretty open minded about music. It’s artful, open minded pop music,” said vocalist/ guitarist Chris Connelly over the phone from somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego.
The band’s sound has been compared to everyone from the Talking Heads to Daniel Johnson, Robert Pollard and Roxy Music.
It has been a couple years since they were last in Lethbridge so things have changed.
“We have a couple new members who weren’t with us the last time we were there. And we’ve all become better musicians. We’re a lot more confident now and we’re definitely a lot different ,” he continued adding a lot has changed since their last visit, with a new CD “How Come I’m Dead,” which was just released Oct. 12 and two new members, bassist/ vocalist Catherine Hiltz, who joined a year ago and guitarist/keyboardist/ accordionist Heath Parsons, who joined shortly after the release of their last CD, ’Volcano … Bloody Volcano.’
“They’re working really well. It’s fun again. We lost the fun a while back. We’re a really energy dependent band, so if there isn’t good vibes, we suffer for it. Now, there’s a lot of creative energy,” Connelly continued adding audiences have really been responding well to the new CD.
“We’re already writing new songs. We really enjoy recording, so we’re looking forward to that,” Connelly continued, adding they are enjoying the tour.
“It’s our best tour so far and it’s only getting better,” said Connelly.
“It’s going great. It’s +27 today. It’s a Western united States jaunt , but we started it in Vancouver and Victoria,” he said adding the band is enjoying playing for enthusiastic American audiences.
“Americans get more excited. In Canada, people a re a lot more reserved. A lot of the time you can't tell if they are enjoying the show. But Afterwards they’ll come up and say how much they enjoyed it and buy a lot of merchandise. So that can be pretty great,” he said.
“It’s been a long time since we were in Lethbridge — about two years. I remember the pizza at the Slice. I think we even got a free pizza. And there was a big open park where we went and just sat in because it was such a nice day,” Connelly recalled.
