GREAT CANADIAN BASH
Where: Starlight Stadium, 1089 Langford Parkway, Langford
When: Saturday, June 28, 3:30 p.m.
Tickets: $30.45-$58.30 from tickemaster.ca
Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar does not need advice on how to navigate a Canada-themed concert, having taken the stage on Canada Day dozens of times during his 35-year career as a performer.
That level of experience has the singer-guitarist well-equipped for Big Sugar’s concert Saturday at the Great Canadian Bash in Langford’s Starlight Stadium. Even though it falls three days short of Canada’s July 1 birthday, the much-anticipated event — with a co-headlining performance by Vancouver classic rockers Trooper, and an opening set by Victoria’s Nautical Disaster, a tribute to the Tragically Hip — is awash in national pride.
At a point in history when U.S.-Canada relations are at their most fractured, the Winnipeg-born Johnson, who now lives in Texas, is more patriotic than ever. “It’s always a very big part of the band’s identity,” he said of his Canadian citizenship. “I’m a Manitoba boy, still. You can’t shake that off.”
Big Sugar headlined the City of Victoria’s Canada Day party in 2002, performing on the lawns of the B.C. Legislature before an estimated 30,000 fans. Johnson has performed in Victoria a dozen times or more since then, but he remembers the performance being a raucous one. “I remember I could see from the stage what semed like hundreds and hundreds of boats in the Harbour. I didn’t think they could hear us — well, I was pretty sure they could hear the guitar, but I didn’t think they could hear everything I was saying — so I gave them a shout out. The entire harbour hit us back with their [foghorns]. It was defeaning. They were louder than we were for a minute.”
Big Sugar, which features bassist Anders Drerup and drummer Root Valach, are rolling into Langford with some significant momentum on their side, thanks to a recent reissue campaign for Five Hundred Pounds, the band’s 1993 masterpiece. It’s the most bluesy recording by the band, and one with some high-placed fans: Jack White of the White Stripes, who last re-released Five Hundred Pounds through his record label, Third Man Records, called the album “the best blues-based record ever to come out of Canada.”
White took to playing the album-opening salvo, Ride Like Hell, during his globe-spanning No Name tour, the final dates of which went down last month at Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom. Johnson himself was eventually brought into the fold in several capacities, to his utter surprise. “I got a text message from someone who was watching him perform in Toronto, and I was in Texas completely unaware they were playing Ride Like Hell that minute. He did it throughout the entire tour and since then, it’s turned into a pretty chummy friendship.”
It was another day in the always-eventful life of Johnson, who has done his share of work with acknowledged guitar gods over the years — from a live performance of his Big Sugar song, Groundhog Day, on Austin City Limits alongside guitarists Charlie Sexton, Jonny Lang, Denny Freeman, and the rhythm section of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble, to working as the producer on records by Gov’t Mule and Wide Mouth Mason.
But make no mistake, he still gets juiced up by some of his peer-to-peer relationships. “Every now and then, my phone will ring and it will Billy Gibbons [of ZZ Top] calling to tell me I did something right. Billy Gibbons is like my guardian angel. I get a little tap on the shoulder every once in a while — not when you ask for it, but when you need it. And the phone rings, and it’s him.”
Johnson is known among aficionados as a Gibson guitar hero and endorsee, and his collection includes some very special instruments — including six double-neck Gibson SG guitars, which seems like an excessive amount to practically everyone but Johnson. “How many sets of golf club do you think Tiger Woods has?” he said with a laugh. “It’s the tools I use to do my job. If I had one double-neck I would be irresponsible.”
Johnson is pictured on the cover of Big Sugar’s fifth album, 2001’s Brothers and Sisters, Are You Ready?, holding in rock repose one of his six double-necks. That same album closes with a cover of O Canada, which had been a staple of the band’s live set long before Johnson decided to record the song for posterity [adding to the band’s O Canada history, Johnson often flips the guitar over mid-solo during the song, showing a Canadian flag emblazoned on the back].
The Big Sugar bandleader spoke about the fondness he has for playing concerts in around July 1, when national pride is at its highest. And for the Great Canadian Bash, he expects it will running at a fever clip.
“The summer shows, when you’re outside in Canada, is a very specific thing. Canadians get such a short season to be outside and bask in the glory of a Canadian summer, so we all feel it. But I’ve never felt obligated to play O Canada. It’s not a cheap card trick you pull out, because you always know you’re going to get a reaction for it. But we genuinely all have this feeling of [national pride]. It could be August and freezing cold or May and scorching hot, so you feel like having that big victory lap in the show.”
