Keep an eye on those Watchmen
By MIKE ROSS -- Edmonton Sun
Toronto may be the Big Crabapple of the
Canadian music scene, but the musical legacy of
Winnipeg stretches far across the globe - even to
Australia.
The Watchmen, playing with Big Wreck tomorrow
in the Shaw Conference Centre, found that out
during a recent promotional tour Down Under.
The band played an anti-uranium mine benefit
concert in some punk-rock club. Guitarist Joey
Serlin recalls: "All these Australians came
backstage afterwards. The town drunk was there;
we told him we were from Winnipeg and he said
he's the biggest Guess Who fan. He just kept
insisting that we sing American Woman with him.
So by the end of it, we've got 15 Australians going
'da da dadadadada dada!' and then half the people
started singing the lead. They sure know how to
drink out there."
That's not all. Maestro Fresh Wes raps over These
Eyes, Big Sugar covers BTO's Let It Ride - is there
anyone immune to the Randy Bachman effect? The
Watchmen's concerts don't generally include any of
his songs, but the band really ought to give a nod to
their home city, the so-called "Wheatfield Soul"
capital of Canada. Serlin says he might consider it.
"You figure we should be doing some Guess Who?
We could. There's lots of great songs. We did
American Woman with Randy Bachman at the
Kumbaya Festival one year. That was cool. Why
not? We'll do it."
Now all he has to do is convince the rest of the
band, especially singer Daniel Greaves, who said
earlier this year, "There's no way when we're
writing or playing or jamming that we're thinking
about Randy Bachman - much as I love the guy."
In any case, Winnipeg is a terrific place to develop
a band, Serlin says. There's no rival city within
Manitoba, unless you count Brandon and nobody
does. Being so isolated, Winnipeg bands aren't
tainted by the industry like Toronto's. And most
importantly, there's little for starving musicians to do
except work on music, especially during Winnipeg's
legendary winters (Bachman wrote a song about it
on one of his recent solo records: "Portage and
Main, 15 below" is the line that says it all).
"People establish their identity on their own here,"
Serlin says. "All we did was play, every single day
for years. Being outside during the winter wasn't an
option."
The Watchmen developed a strong grassroots
following during the late '80s - that's another thing
about Winnipeg: music fans tend to be fiercely loyal
to their own - before landing a major record
contract in 1992. The album McLaren Furnace
Room followed, the title referring to the basement
of the McLaren Hotel that served as the band's
rehearsal studio. Comparisons were futile,
especially with Greaves' unique and powerful voice.
Three records later, and the latest release Silent
Radar going strong, there's still no pinning down the
Watchmen's sound. "Hard rock with soul" is the
best I can come up with.
Big Wreck's Ian Thornley agrees: The Watchmen is
a "great f---ing band," he says. "And Danny sounds
like nobody. Danny opens his mouth and sings the
way it comes out. He doesn't affect it, he doesn't
try to make it sound like Eddie Vedder. Nobody
sounds like Danny."
There's a mutual admiration club here - the
Watchmen are huge Big Wreck fans.