The blues-funk band Brickhouse - a staple on the Vancouver live music scene that, over the past few years, has closed the PCT Summer Sunday Concerts series in Port Moody - will play Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre on Saturday night, with Gary Comeau & the Voodoo Allstars in tow.
Last Friday, The Tri-City News posed 10 questions to Brickhouse lead singer, Rob Bracken, and got some surprising answers.
Tri-City News (TCN): If you weren't the lead singer of Brickhouse, what would you be doing?
Rob Bracken (RB): I think I would like to build boats. A little while ago, I picked up a job to renovate high-end bathrooms. I'm good with my hands but I also like the creative aspect of building custom wood stuff. There's a guy I went to high school with and I heard he moved to Salt Spring Island and he started building boats. I always thought, "You know, that's it. That's what I want to do. I would love that for a living."
TCN: Where did you grow up?
RB: Small-town Ontario, just north of Toronto, in a little village called King City.
TCN: What kind of music did you listen to then?
RB: Mostly soul. Aretha Franklin. I was in church four days a week. I travelled with my uncle's Pentecostal gospel band in the summers.
TCN: Who taught you to sing?
RB: We have a very musical family and if you sing off-key, you're made fun of at the dinner table. I don't remember not singing. They got me playing piano at seven years old. That's just what we did.
TCN: What's the best gig you've ever played with Brickhouse?
RB: That's a real tough one. We did some touring back in Ontario years ago and we played at a place called The Hideaway. That was really good. It was downtown Toronto. We packed it right to the walls. There was a line-up down the street. Just fantastic.
TCN: What makes a good audience?
RB: They participate. They listen. And they also have a good time. They get up and dance and be a part of the evening. We really encourage people to let loose.
TCN: When you're performing, what do you crave musically?
RB: Getting into the pocket and staying into the groove and making it transcendent and bringing it to another level of musicality. It's going past the point of describing the music and really starting to feel it.
TCN: Is there anybody that you admire today who does that?
RB: A band like Little Feat or like the Allman Brothers. They get into the pocket and they just groove and it's just so awesome. And anything that you do on top of that is just musical gravy. It's just lovely. If you can get that rhythm section into a pocket and the whole band is just chugging along, and then somebody decides to take the sax solo or an organ solo, it's just setting the stage - feathering the nest, as it were - for greater things.
TCN: How would you describe the live scene today in Vancouver?
RB: Well, it's not what it used to be, that's for sure. There are fewer live venues to play. The "Disco Duck" moved in and never moved out. The Yale dried up. If you went down to Gastown 20 years ago, you couldn't swing a cat before hitting someone going to or coming from a gig. There were just live venues everywhere. Now, you really have to hustle. Ergo, we travel a lot now. Half the time, we're out of town. We play 150 gigs a year now; we used to do 200 or 220. It's tough to make a living out there. So many guys - and I'm talking world-class players - are flipping burgers and working security jobs. There's no shame in that. You've got to pay the bills.
TCN: Why are you doing a theatre show in Coquitlam?
RB: Every once in a while, it's nice to do a theatre gig, concert style. It keeps you sharp and people are listening like crazy. They're not distracted with whose buying the next round, or is she going to dance me? or let's go out for a smoke. People are there to hear the music and it's a real challenge and it's good. At risk of sounding insecure, which every musician is to some degree, it's an opportunity to be taken seriously.
Tickets for Brickhouse and Gary Comeau & the Voodoo Allstars on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. are $35/$30/$15. The Studio Theatre will be set up like a cabaret, with room to dance. Call the Evergreen Cultural Centre (1205 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam) at 604-927-6555 or go online at evergreenculturalcentre.ca for details.
