Brendan B. Brown still has two tickets to Iron Maiden, baby.
Not only is the guitarist and vocalist behind one of the 2000s greatest anthems Teenage Dirtbag — Brown and his band Wheatus will be in Lethbridge at The Owl Acoustic Lounge Apr. 17 for a sold-out show.
Back in the late nineties, Brown lived in Queens, New York and at the time, basic cable added Much Music to its TV channel lineup.
“For the first time, I saw the Matthew Good Band, The Tragically Hip, and tons of other Canadian artists I hadn’t been exposed to and just began buying those records. Of course, as a Rush fan, that was much more of an international band than strictly Canadian. When it came to the strictly Canadian bands, that’s when it was a big difference for me, finding all that stuff,” says Brown. “What I discovered at the end of the nineties was the Canadian music scene.”
Brown then started buying Canadian records and learned how to play the songs. “It was amazing. There’s so much music there that Americans aren’t exposed to.”
And when visiting Canada, Brown adds, he was always excited to experience the places The Tragically Hip sang about. “I think Gord (Downie), as a lyricist, was maybe the greatest of all time for our generation or shortly after. I never stop looking for his poetry in your country — the places and scenes because he’s so good at painting physical scapes.”
Brown says the band is lucky to be able to tour the world and have people still care about Wheatus and the band’s music.
“A lot of the music from our graduating class of 1999 and 2000, isn’t so much remembered. There’s a lot of records that came and went, and great records. For whatever reason, we keep getting to do this. Now, I’m in my 50s. I didn’t think it would go this far or be this possible anymore. We just keep bouncing around the world, and it’s crazy. The people who care and show up and know the lyrics and do the requests because we do an all-request set. It’s the most important thing in the world to us. There’s nothing cooler than having this sustained without the record label, without big pop singles and all that stuff, and continue the way it has,” Brown explains.
With a live Wheatus show, fans can expect to hear what they want, Brown notes. “You say it, we play it. We’re constantly trying to expand our repertoire. We had to condense the repertoire a little bit because prior to that we had about 63 songs ready to go out of the entire album history, plus a few covers. We’re still on that all-request tip. There’s a Rush cover. There’s a Hip cover in the barrel. You can shout out that stuff, as well.”
According to Brown, the band doesn’t like doing setlists, as they’re “super boring.”
“Before we start, I’ll just approach the audience up front and say, ‘What’s the first song? What do you want to hear? Give me some songs. That’s how the show begins with that little bit of back-and-forth.”
Aside from touring, Brown says Wheatus is making three records this year — a covers record, an acoustic record and a new original full-length album.
In the meantime, Brown adds the band still has a lot of touring to do. “I think we might be trying to take June and July off, so we can get these records done.”
And there’s a movie coming out, “eventually.”
“A documentary about us called You Might Die. From the darkest days of our touring when things weren’t looking so good. Even though we’re having a moment here, we went through some darker moments back in the day. I want to try and give people a snapshot of that,” Brown shares. “Where things were rough.”
After that, it’s going to be touring, making more records and playing more shows.
“Trying to get out there and get better at what we do and learn more of the repertoire, so it’s easier for us to just play everything because we’re getting close to that right now,” Brown notes.
For more information about the upcoming Lethbridge show, visit online at owlacousticlounge.ca.
