Victoria based jazz/ quirky swing musician Dave Lang likes to busk, but he is also looking forward to coming to Lethbridge, June 13 to play the Owl Acoustic Lounge with the Twin Otters.
“ I’m playing the Victoria Harbour Festivals. So we’ve been playing in front of the legislature buildings, he said.
“It’s a great way to meet a lot of people. And because with tourists, they charge them for everything, so when you don’t charge them, they actually give more,” said Lang.
Lang, clarinetist Jeff Poynter and stand up bassist Alex Rempel attract a lot of attention busking.The festival works on seniority, so the ones who have been involved the longest get to choose their time slot first.
“ We met one guy who has been doing it for 35 years, so he gets to choose first. It’s very cool,” he chortled.They have been doing it for three years, so he is pleased with his 11 a.m.-1 p.m. slot.
“ You kind of have to have a group, because unless you are a really good guitar player, people don’t really notice,” he said.
“It’s different than a bar gig because people can just walk out. But we’ve been playing for 20-30 people just making themselves comfortable on the grass,” he enthused.
“ And we can play every day rather than waiting for a gig once a week. That way we don’t have to get a job doing anything else. And it helps that we play every day, so we keep getting better,” he said.
“We might not get Beatles famous doing this, but at least we’ll be good,” he said observing even the Beatles were a ‘crappy bar band’ before they went to Hamburg where they played every day and returned as a really good band.
He is excited abut returning to Lethbridge to play the Owl Acoustic Lounge.
“We’ll do our usual two sets,” he said.
“We don’t do set lists anymore, we watch the crowd and play what they want to hear,” he continued.
They just released a CD “The Devil Ain’t Lazy,” the fourth in a year, but are recording another CD which they will be bringing with them.
“ We don’t print off a lot of them. That way we’re not stuck with 300 or 400 copies of stuff we can’t stand anymore,” he said.
“This is stuff we’re really proud of. It best represents who we are now and we’ve been together for eight months.
“ And we’re usually playing for people who have never heard us before,” he said adding a few older songs stay in the set like ‘ I Said I’d Never Leave You ( I Hoped You’d Leave Me First).’
“ I wrote that one three years ago when I was living in Swift Current,” he said.
He noted their cover of the Fred Rose song “ The Devil Ain’t Lazy,” will likely stay around for a while.
They put their own modern twist on it though.
“We kept the chorus about the Devil, then added verses about politicians talking about austerity and then spending and corporate outsourcing and pesticides which kill off birds and bees, though we don’t mention Monsanto. But we keep the spirit of the originals,” he said.
“ We don’t want to hit people over the head with them. It’s important not to lose people, he said.
their show begins at 9 p.m., June 13. There is no cover charge.
