Long standing Vancouver based punk band the Rebel Spell’s brand new album “Last Run” does anything but spell the end for the band who will continue to tour and record. They return to Lethbridge to play the Moose Hall on a Monday night, Nov. 17.
“When I wrote the the song ‘Last Run’ I was thinking of wolf culls in B.C. and Alberta had this beautiful image in my mind of wolves running from helicopters. Wolves have been scapegoated for the loss of caribou when it is actually due to deforestation and big projects like oil sands,”’ observed lead singer Todd Serious.
“ And plus this is probably actually the last run for our bus. I’ve lived in that thing for five years. So it is definitely the last run for the bus but not for us,” Serious said, hiding out in Peterborough and getting ready to head to Oshawa — “Peterborough’s evil twin” the next day.
They are enjoying what seems like an endless tour. Which brought them to Lethbridge in April for the first time in several years as well as all the way out to Halifax, and now on their way back.
“ It’s really going well. We just had to play Halifax and we’re playing Montreal twice, which we don’t usually do, but Montreal has such a diverse little scene. And now we’re doing the good stuff like Toronto and Hamilton,” he summarized.
He is pleasantly surprised with how well ‘Last Run’ is going over with fans.
It has The Rebel Spell's usual high energy blend of high energy, cerebral, politically inspired punk drawing from the ’70s to the ’90s as well as some interesting departures, like this historical folk ballad “The Tsilhqot’in War” which features fiddle and piano in the introduction.
“ I’ve always wanted to do a historical ballad. I grew up in Williams Lake where that took place and I always wanted to do a project with (Vancouver dark folk musician ) Jeff Andrew, who is really interested in historical songs,” he said.
“So I’m glad I got to do that,” he said.
He noted “Ten Thousand Years” is about police brutality.
“As long as there has been history there has been police and people who have power over other people. So this is about trying to change that system,” he said.
He is pleased with audience response to the CD, which the band just released on Sept. 30. He said it took them a long time to record it.
“ It was getting a little frustrating listening to it. But it was a surprise Response has been fantastic, so i guess we got it right,” he said.
The band has had a pretty consistent line up through the years.
“I’ve been playing with guitarist Wretched Erin for 11 years and our drummer Travis is our former drummer's husband. She had a child, who’s seven now and she didn’t want to tour. But we kept it in the family. She actually sings a song on the new album. We do a duet,” he said.
“Our fans appreciate that and Elliot has been playing bass with us for five years. People seem to like the cohesion,” he said.
He noted the punk scene in Vancouver is starting to take off again in spite of the shortage of live music venues.
“There has been a problem of venues closing. But people are making do. People who go to punk shows have aged so it isn’t as cliquey as it used to be. People are a lot more willing to work together,” he said.
He is looking forward to coming back to Lethbridge for the second time in eight months.
“We came through to play to fund this album. And Alex (Currie, concert organizer) called me and asked us to play again so we decided to come again on the way back,” he said.
“Before that we hadn’t played there for years because all of the people we knew there had moved away,” he said.
“But for people who haven’t seen us, we are influenced by a lot of ’70s, ’80s and ’90s punk. So expect to see cerebral, high energy music,” he said.
“ And we hope to meet a lot of people we haven’t met before.”
The show also features the Motherfuckers and Lethbridge punks the Scallywags. Doors open at 8 .m. at the Moose Hall. There is a $10 cover for the show.
