ASIDE FROM A post-ECMA visit to The Seahorse Tavern and a couple of quick hit-and-run dates on Canada Day and at the Riverfront Jubilee, Nova Scotia’s native sons of rock, the Trews, haven’t been seen much in these parts over the past year.
There was no lack of performing in 2011. The band was busy sticking pins in fresh spots on its global tour map by making two trips to Australia, a jaunt to Britain and, in the final months of the year, a march through the Southern United States.
Tonight’s show with Poor Young Things at Halifax’s Rebecca Cohn Auditorium comes after a tear through the Midwest and Northeast U.S. that saw the Trews play shows in new towns and get back to longtime favourites, spreading news of the most recent release Hope and Ruin far and wide.
"We toured here twice with No Time for Later, and then we had that sojourn into the acoustic world, Friends and Total Strangers, and we didn’t come down here for three years with that or Highway of Heroes," says guitarist John-Angus MacDonald, just after finishing a Boston breakfast.
"Neither of those got released Stateside, so we didn’t bother to play any shows aside from places like Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit, which are great cities for us, and we just felt like we were only playing in Canada.
"We do really well in those cities and always keep them in the loop, but we hadn’t ventured out west or down south in a really long time, so we had some catching up to do. We’re pleasantly surprised that people haven’t completely forgotten about us."
MacDonald doesn’t mind using the word "campaign" to describe the Trews’ touring patterns over the past year, and there was a certain strategic advantage to cutting a swath through Dixie like General Sherman’s march to the sea.
He says it was a breeze compared to criss-crossing Canada in November and December, enjoying warm weather where cities are closer together, and taking the time to build up a new fan base in a relatively short period of time.
"We were in a residency situation, where we’d play the same days over a few weeks in the same cities," he explains.
"So we were in Nashville, Louisville, Atlanta, Birmingham, and then did Friday nights in different places like Knoxville, Montgomery and a few other places in between.
"It was awesome, playing an area of the States we didn’t get to enough and picking up the pieces of the work we had done down there to get some things happening. By the end of it we were doing really well; some shows were selling out.
"They were small clubs, but that’s what we’re playing down here, in great music towns where you want to have great shows and keep going back because they’re part of the musical firmament of the world."
MacDonald also found southern audiences to be more ardent fans of straight-up rock and roll without being so stuck on trends or indie cred.
All that matters is chops, and considering this is the home of everyone from Elvis Presley to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Nashville Pussy, the Trews felt their brash cache of tunes was a relatively easy sell.
"Going all the way back to the late ’90s when we started, we were never a scene band," he says.
"It comes from growing up in a town like Antigonish and being in our own heads all of the time. . . . That’s like the people who are coming to these shows, whether they like the Dead Kennedys, the Who or Def Leppard, they just want to come out and have a good time."
The Trews’ current dates go by the name of Big Night Out, after a song on the four-song EP A Trew Holiday Gift, which came out before Christmas, but MacDonald says they still consider themselves to be touring on the strength of Hope and Ruin, with a number of U.K. dates in February and an extended B.C.-to-Ontario run in March.
Once the dust settles in the spring, it’s time to hunker down and start work on writing for the next studio record, which MacDonald hopes will come together before winter rolls around again.
"There’s no plan; we’ll go into the studio when we have the material. Otherwise you’re just wasting time and money and all that kind of stuff. We’ll see how it goes, and if all goes well, we’ll have something to record before the end of the year."
The Trews’ Big Night Out at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium is currently sold out, but in the event of last-minute tickets becoming available, contact the Dal Arts Centre box office, or call 494-3820.
With the shaky state of live performance venues in Halifax these days, news of any new space that wants to set up a mike and turn on the lights is welcome. In this case it’s the downtown cafe The Daily Grind, which moved into a new space last year, going around the corner from Spring Garden Road to Birmingham Street.
Without the newsstand of its previous location to draw in hot beverage drinkers, The Daily Grind is giving music a go by featuring performers on Friday nights for intimate early evening shows. Tomorrow at 7 p.m. the cafe hosts singer-songwriter Richard MacDonald, who recently showcased his personal, and often humorous, brand of blues-rock with his band Somebody’s Kids on the CD Shake a Leg.
On Friday, MacDonald is accompanied by Somebody’s Kids guitarist Norman (Mister) Jones, but he says we can expect a full band show in the coming months at Bearly’s.
Speaking of Barrington Street’s esteemed House of Blues and Ribs, it’s a three-night stand for Mannie and the Swingin’ Hipshakers with guitarist Buck Tingley, starting tonight with special guest Little Barry. On Saturday, the matinee with Dan Doiron starts at 4:30 p.m.
