L.A. Beat

If you like classic rock in Lethbridge, chances are you know the Chevelles.
 The long standing band have been familiar faces on the Lethbridge music scene since 2000 when they solidified their line up when bassist Dave Chomiak joined frontman/ guitarist Tim Carter; keyboardist / guitarist/ vocalist Scott Kanashiro and drummer Don Plettell, who had been playing together before that as the Beaumonts and back in the ’90s as the Peace Dogs.

“It’s a labour of love,” said Carter.
“The fact we’ve been together for 16 years with the same line up proves how much we really like each other as friends and how much we really like the music,” he said, noting another important contribution to the band’s popularity  is the fact they tour. A lot.
“We still travel all over B.C, Saskatchewan and Alberta every weekend,” he said.

 They have become the go to band for big curling tournaments like the Brier and the Scotties, though they aren’t playing the Brier this year, which is in Ottawa.

“They have lots of bands there and we have to play for a couple of days to make it worth our while to go,” Carter said.
They are playing the Scotties in Grande Prairie on Feb. 26 and 27. This year they played the Women’s World Curling Championships on March 18 and 19 in Swift Current.

They also play a lot of weddings.
 We do a lot of weddings. I can’t even remember our first. It was probably for a friend though,” Carter said.

“We wanted to play them so we diversified our set so it would cater to all ages,” he said.

 “We don’t want to drive off grandma and grandpa, so we start off lighter. We play our ’60s songs at the beginning and get louder by the end. We save our heavier rock songs until the end and by then, grandma and grandpa are boogieing like everyone else,” Carter quipped.
“We love playing weddings. We’re playing for lots of happy people and we can send couples off to loveland,” he said, noting usually wedding season begins in July.

“They are really fun. We have a lot of people watching the first couple dance, so we need to be good,” he said.
“We’ve had some moments where all the bridesmaids were dancing on a table and it collapsed,” he laughed, noting his favourite wedding memory was playing the Bow River guest ranch in  B.C..

“That location was absolutely gorgeous. It was a good place for a party,” he said.
 The band plays regular fundraiser at Average Joes — lately for minor hockey teams.
“Rob (Mereska, Average Joes’ owner) likes to do those. And we love playing those shows because we’re playing for hockey parents and all they do is hockey, so these parents need to  get out and go dancing. We also love playing fundraisers for cancer, but those  are so sad. At hockey fundraisers, the kids are so excited as are the parents ,” he said.

 They  just played Average Joes on Feb. 12 and will be back on April 22. 

In the meantime, they played the Kinsmen Corvette giveaway in Milk River, March 26, Whiskey Creek on April 2 and numerous private gigs in between.

“It’s always worthwhile to play music. Life would be pretty dull without music. We all have jobs and families, so it’s a juggling act, but music is always worth making time for. Music is the driving force in my life other than my family,” he said

“ You’ll always have us to look forward to,” he said.