L.A. Beat

Moncton, New Brunswick based rockers the Motorleague return to Lethbridge in support of their hot new CD “Holding Patterns,” Oct. 27 at Average Joes.
Modern radio has embraced the first three singles off the CD —“The Boards,” “All The Words.=” and their latest single “A Little Too Obvious.”
“It’s came all by surprise,” observed frontman Dan Lavendier from 45 minutes outside of a tour stop in Kelowna, where the perpetually touring band is spending a lot of time in western Canada.
“ The latest single is number nine of the contemporary rock charts,” he said.

“ We’ve morphed from a band of punk rockers to  radio friendly rock band. So that has been nice to get a little notice,” he continued, adding the band tours non stop for most of the year.
“We want to get people to react,” he said.

“ We wanted to go a little deeper with lyrics  and not so abstract and less vague,” he said.

Working with producers Eric Ratz (Billy Talent, Big Wreck, Monster Truck) and  Brian Jones also helped make the music more accessible.
 The band, who has been playing for over a decade, formed out of the ashes from a number of Moncton bands including the Monoxides, who had a hit in the mid-’90s with “I’ve Got an Idea.”
 “Their bassist PJ Dunphy played with us for four years. He got us  in a lot of great shows in Toronto at the Horseshoe and opening for the Sword and White Cowbell Oklahoma and C’Mon,” he said, adding he left due to the rigourous tour schedule.
“We always wanted to be a band that tours a lot. So we burn out a lot of members. It’s very demanding,” he said.
They keep busy during downtime on the road with a variety of projects.

“‘ Two or three years ago, we designed a video game. You are the Motorleague and you had to travel around collecting vinyl from bands. And you’ve have to battle them. We just  really wanted to support some of our favourite bands,” he said.
“We‘re always doing little projects like that to shake things up. When we arrive at 5 and the show isn’t until 10, that’s a lot of down time,” he said.

 They are not thinking  about writing new music.
“ We haven’t talked about it yet. Usually we stay home and write in December, January and February, because winter is brutal in New Brunswick, so we don’t want to tour then,” he said.

 

He said touring the east coast is similar to touring Western Canada.

“ You have to drive 15 hours to get anywhere. It’s not like touring around southern Ontario, where you get to your next gig in a couple hours,” he observed.
 They always enjoy touring Alberta, especially Lethbridge.

“I remember we played the Slice and we were opening for Gordie Johnson’s band Grady,” he recalled.
“This time we’re touring with High Kicks. They’re an amazing drums and bass band.

 They just finished a tour with Australia’s The Lazys.
“That was just fun. They’re road dogs like us. They like to tour a lot. They’re a tight band,” he said.
The High Kicks open the show at 8:30 p.m., Oct 27 with the Motorleague to follow. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 on the day of the show.