Vancouver rock trio War Baby are returning to Lethbridge, June 25 to play the Slice as part of their Don’t Happy Be Worry tour.
“I think the last time we played Lethbridge was for Love and Records.We were touring with the Invasives. It was in September and we played the Slice too,” recalled Calgary born guitarist/vocalist Jon Redditt, who along with fellow Calgarian born bassist Brock Allen and Australian born drummer Kirby Fisher make up the band.
“ We’re all Vancouver transplants, but I’ve been living here 10 years, so this feels like home. I still have a lot of friends in Calgary,” he said.
“The last time we were there with members of the band Savk. We didn’t get to see them play though because they were playing at the same time as us, but it was still rad to see them,” he continued.
“I remember the last show was super fun. Everyone was dancing,” he said, adding he is excited to return to Lethbridge.
“We’ve only been there a handful of times. Another band got added to the show called Cope,” he said.
“We’ll be playing the new music and music from our first LP Jesus Horse and the latest album Death Sweats,” he said.
War Baby recorded three new tracks with Jesse Gander of Rain City Recorders after winning a contest called Shindig from the UBC radio station CiTR.
“We don’t know what we’ll do with them yet, probably a seven inch, but we’re pretty stoked about them,” he said.
“It was supposed to be a funny spoof of VHS board games in the ’80s and ’90s, which were board games you’d play with the VHS tape. There were pretty popular then, but a lot of people don’t remember them now. There was one called ‘Nightmare’ and that video is direct spoof of that game because we like doing weird stuff like that,” he chuckled.
The soundtrack to that game is spooky, almost electronica music, but Redditt said it isn’t indicative of their new music.
“It definitely isn’t. The new music is similar to the old music, but it features more of all three of us.Like me and Brock trade off leads in it,” he said adding they enjoyed working with Gander.
“It was a different experience. It was just a big, big studio and a big, big room. I think the mix is a little less raw and more produced,” he said, adding they recorded their previous records in another studio — the Noise Floor Studio on Gabriella Island.
They are also playing the Sled Island Music Festival in Calgary on this tour.
“We’re playing the Palomino on June 24 at like 6 p.m.then we’re in Lethbridge the next day at the Slice,” he said adding they don’t think they will be able to stick around for much of Sled Island or even Lethbridge.
“We have to be in Thunder Bay by the 28th, so we’ll try to do as much of that drive as we can,” he said.
War Baby and Cope play the Slice, June 25 at 10 p.m. There is a $10 cover for the show.
