Wednesday, 27 September at 6pm

Shaw Conference Centre

 

 

I don't know why, but I did it.

    It's funny to see how quickly humans can agree to the most unreal things, and man, am I ever an example to use. Speaking with Scruffy Wallace of the Dropkick Murphys is one thing: promising him I'd give a shout out to his brother in Lord Strathcona's Horse and Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry is another.

    "Godspeed on the next tour in Afghanistan," he says.

    For a guy who's served with the Canadian Forces himself, and who comes from a family deeply rooted in military life, this was a simple request to honour, and perhaps it wasn't so far-fetched. Wallace, the bagpiper for the Boston-based Celtic rockers, professes just what it is that he and his bandmates stand for, and in relation to that, my task at hand was simple.

    "We support the blue collar and we support our troops, as everyone should," Wallace says. "Just because we support the troops doesn't mean we support the fucking government that's putting them over there at war. I think that comes out in our music."

    The Dropkick Murphys are currently co-headlining a Canadian tour with punk brethren Bad Religion. The two bands bring their own unique style to the stage, and contrast one another in what's bound to create a resounding harmony.

    "We sing a lot about the working class, because that's what we all are," says Wallace in regards to the different messages he feels the two bands express. "We're more tongue-in-the-cheek when we have to talk about politics, which we try not to."

    Jay Bentley, bassist from Bad Religion and one of its founding members, feels more strongly about the So-Cal sextet's views on the political climate of America. Since 1980, Bad Religion has been noted for their thought-provoking lyrics on society's landscape.

    "Historically, people call us a political band, but I don't see us as that," Bentley says. "I see us as a socio-political band with ideas, but not necessarily [ with specific] viewpoints that we're trying to espouce. That's politics. This is the first time historically that I can remember where we just came out and went on tour and said, "This is wrong, and we disagree with this current Administration.""

    Bentley, however, remains humble about his band's prolific status. Despite having first plugged in their guitars in 1980, shuffling a number of members to find their current sound and even owning their own record label (Epitaph, managed by guitarist Brett Gurewitz), Bentley quips that Bad Religion is "right at about 6'1". Very average."

    Despite both bands' more humble and serious motifs, though, they still make it a point to have a good time on tour.

    "We do a lot of things to have fun," says Bentley, who promises a "jazz-fusion explosion" on the new tour. "If you get caught up in yourself and start thinking that somehow or another, you're some important political cog in the machine and it's important that you get out there. Eventually, you can't bear the weight of yourself, and you fall apart."

    Tell that to the fans, who have flocked en masse to three Warped Tours and witnessed countless live shows, singing along to favorites like "Epiphany" and "21st Century Digital Boy." And Bentley promises that the show isn't coming to its final act for some time yet.

    "As long as we're waking up in the morning, there's something to write about," Bentley says.