Montreal punk band The Boids are excited to stop by Lethbridge, Nov. 1 on their “coast to coast to coast to coast tour in support of their sophomore album.
“This is definitely the longest tour we’ve been on,” said the Boids’ Patrizio McLelland, noting the band drove out to B.C. to join GOB on their tour out east, then out east to Cape Breton on their own and back towards Lethbridge after that, followed by a few dates in the Northeastern United States.
Their new CD, Superbafrango, which was released on Oct. 16, is called “Superbafrango” or “I break the proud,” translated from Latin into English.
“ I hope people will look that up,” he said.
McLelland is excited about opening for GOB.
“ It’s been great. It’s been great fun for me especially because I’m a total fanboy for them,” he said.
“ They’re a great band and solid dudes. So it's so exciting to go on the road with them as a swing act,” he said.
“It’s our job to get the party started and warm up the crowd for Gob. So it lights a fire under our asses. And if we play well, it lights a fire under theirs,” he said.
It isn’t the first time they opened for a big name punk act.
They were last in Lethbridge supporting the Real McKenzies a couple of years ago and they have also toured with the Brains.
“We set ourselves a challenge to write, record and have the artwork done for an album in four months. So we’d only played the songs once before at a show in Montreal for some of our friends and we started recording them the next day,” he said.
“It’s like they are a snapshot of where we were at the time rather than letting them stagnate in the setlist for three years before recording them,” he said.
“We’re a punk band and we’re pissed off about things so this is an opportunity to let people know about them,” he continued.
He said punk fans of all stripes will enjoy the new album.
“We’re a pop punk band, but we‘re also a hardcore band, so everyone should find something to love on the album. There's a lot of variety,” he said.
Lyrically they explore the things around them from life in the smart phone era, over-exuberant subway police and macho jerks.
“The new album is most of the set,” he said adding some of the songs have already started resonating with audiences.
“ People seem to like ‘Fuck Your Macho Bullshit,” he said.
“It’s exactly what it says it is. There seems to be a lot of that today,” he continued, adding “ Mole People” is another popular number for audiences.
“It’s about the police, well Montreal subway police — creepy jerks living underground roughing up kids,” he said.
One of the more fun songs on the album is one of several immediate crowd favourites “ Bless This Mess.”
“It’s about touring around in a van for an extended period of time and embracing that about ourselves. We not be feeling our best and we may look dirty and rough around the edges, but we sound all right,” he said.
The band has only been to Lethbridge once, but are excited to return.
“ It was a full house last time. We met a lot of great people and through networking, we hope they will come out again,” he said.
“You’ll have to come and judge for yourselves,” he continued.
The Boids and Jesse Stewart play Inferno, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance, $12 at the door
