Whoa, Canada!! It was the great-sounding performance (without borders) that rock n’ roll needed, when rock n’ roll needed it.
By Bryan Ahearn
For those of us in the United States, if you keep driving north and just keep going and going, you’ll get to a with more land than people, more stars than street lights–enveloped in a patchwork of lakes, mountains, open fields and forests.
You’ll be in a place called Canada, a place that, for over 25 years, has housed arguably the greatest rock and roll band to have rarely set foot on U.S. soil, let alone been heard much on U.S. airwaves: Big Wreck.
Formed in the mid 90s, Big Wreck is a Canadian-American rock band—founded by singer/songwriter Ian Thornley and his friend, the late Brian Doherty in Boston, MA.
After a hiatus around the turn of the millennium, the band returned almost 10 years ago—with all the viscosity, fervor and rock grooves that have drawn Big Wreck favorable categorizations to rock icons such as Soundgarden and Led Zeppelin.
Ian Thornley’s stratospheric vocals and ear for layering well-crafted melodies across his thought-provokingly original brand of song structure is the stuff of legends.
On Thursday night, however, it was time to just sit back and enjoy the talent that is Ian Thornley, and the musicians that form Big Wreck. And for almost 60 minutes across 11 songs, that’s exactly what was made possible, thanks to a great-sounding live stream performance presented by Super Crawl as part of the Bridgeworks Livestream Series.
Shot in a gleaming black/white/silver imagery, and appearing brilliantly across a virtually flawless stream, Thornley (vocals/lead guitar), backed by Chirs Caddell (guitar), Dave McMillan (bass) and Sekou Lumumba (drums) delivered on a smoldering setlist spanning nearly 25 years.
Opening with the band’s latest single, “Middle of Nowhere” a down-home-sounding, road-trip worthy rock sing-a-long (the studio version features Chad Kroeger of Nickelback), Big Wreck went full-throttle with zero let-up.
With no in-between banter between songs, the full time was left for songs—and the songs alone—as Thornley performed fretboard wizardry throughout, as during the chugging, roller coaster outro found in “Too Far Gone,” and of course, the quintessential “That Song,” the band’s mainstay hit from their 1996 debut album, In Loving Memory.
Of course, we also got the groovy bass lines in “Ghosts”—complete with it’s “Another One Bites The Dust”-esque outro set amongst the whistles and squeals of Thornley’s surgical prowess across all six strings—which at times, somehow—sounding like he was playing more than six strings at once.
Throughout the livestream, Sekou Lumumba thundered his way across his drum kit, while stolen glances across the room revealed bassist Chris Caddell and bassist Dave McMillan starring in beguiled wonderment at the musical prowess of one Ian Thornley.
And who could help them.
The breezy and soaring “Albatross” served as a harmonic escapade across a melody that was at once both mournful and optimistic—likely by coincidence, but quite likely—all by design.
Ian Thornley is that good.
Big Wreck sounds that good.
The performance struck the perfect balance between live freestyle and studio-quality sound, allowing for 100% enjoyment of what each song could uniquely bring to the table when performed live.
It was the performance we needed, when we needed it–at a time when concerts are just coming back into the fray, yet cross-border travel remains in flux.
However uncertain, on the eve of the return to concerts, one thing was certain Thursday night: The livestream was a reminder of just how great Big Wreck still is, and will be when live shows return.
Fortunately, Big Wreck returns to the stage today and tomorrow for two Canadian shows. https://www.bigwreckmusic.com/#tour
Can’t wait? Can’t travel? Can’t forge (errr, obtain) a vaccination card? If you bought tickets to this stream prior to the broadcast, you can still rewatch the show for the next 24-48 hours. Check your ticket link for details.
Can travel? Well then, “Middle of Nowhere” just might be That Song, all over again.
No matter how far north you have to drive.
Performance score: 10/10
MavStar 