Winnipeg band returns to where it all started

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This article was published 02/12/2010 (5739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For some bands that have achieved a degree of success, returning to the clubs where they started is viewed as a sign of declining fortunes, or worse yet, failure.

That’s not the case for the Watchmen.

When the Winnipeg-founded quartet plays the Pyramid Cabaret this weekend, it will serve as nothing short of a homecoming party for the band that cut its teeth at the venue every weekend in the early 1990s, when it was the Spectrum Cabaret.

“We used to rehearse at the McLaren Hotel and play the Spectrum on the weekends. At first it was our friends, then our friends and some fans, then more fans and less friends then it was fans and no friends,” recalls drummer Sammy Kohn over the phone from Toronto, where he is the national account manager for Toronto Life magazine and a real estate agent.

The rest of the band members — vocalist Danny Greaves, guitarist Joey Serlin and bassist Ken Tizzard — also call Toronto home these days, but will hook up together in Winnipeg for two sold-out shows at the Pyramid Friday and Saturday.

The gigs are officially billed as a release party for a new DVD documentary, The Watchmen: All Uncovered, directed by Reil Munro, although Kohn admits they won’t have enough to meet the demand, since they have fewer than 100 to sell.

For him, it’s not about pushing a product, though, but about hooking up with the band and playing the venue where they cut their teeth as a live unit, moving from sets featuring 75 per cent covers to nights of all original material that launched them on their way to becoming one of Canada’s most successful rock bands of the 1990s, with five albums to their credit, enough singles to fill a greatest-hits album and tours that took them around the globe.

“Ultimately, we still have about 25 really great songs that feel great to play — and I honestly think in the past three years we’ve played some of the best shows we ever played, because we aren’t living in each others faces for 10 months at a time,” Kohn says.

“We are great friends, but the shows suffered as a result on occasion. Now we get together when we want to and play shows that are interesting to us and there isn’t a distorted clutter in our minds. We can get out there and fire on all cylinders.”

The stress Kohn refers to led to his departure from the Watchmen in 2001, two years before they called it quits for good with two shows at the Pyramid. They got back together in 2008 for a small string of dates and have played together sporadically since then.

And instead of making this a strictly nostalgic trip, they recorded two new songs, Trampoline and Miss Monday Morning, available free at the band’s website, the-watchmen.com.

Prior to the band’s two-night stand at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern in 2008, filmmaker Munro asked to shoot the show for a possible movie. Kohn offered up more than 100 hours of Super 8 archival footage and 1,000 still photos, and it became a full-fledged documentary, which received its official release at this year’s North by Northeast festival in Toronto.

“I was moved by it. It reminded me of good times and some frustrating times, too. There’s no question we had some ups and down times, but he focused on the music,” Kohn says. “I think we’re all really proud of the records we made together and proud of songs, some that are still played on the radio.”

Fans will get to hear all those songs, but Kohn promises a few surprises for the hometown crowd. Tizzard will open the show with an acoustic set showcasing songs off his new solo album, Between the Lines. Local pop-rock group AM Glory is also on the bill.

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Speaking of veteran local artists, Mike Koop has been in a multitude of bands over the years, with stints in groups such as the Bonaduces, Kicker and Buick 6, to name just a few. On Friday, Koop will release a new album, Music is Worthless, with his latest project, the roots-based Mike Koop’s Multitude of Sins.

The release party takes place at the Exchange Church, 200-75 Albert St., beginning at 8 p.m. with a set by Alana Levandoski. Admission is $10.

Of course, that’s not the only local CD release party this weekend.

Tonight, country singer-songwriter David St. Germain, whose father is the legendary Ray St. Germain, releases his debut self-titled album at Rockbar with an all-star band behind him, including Murray Pulver, Joey Landreth, Meg Dolovich and Chris Sutherland.

Admission is $10.

On Friday at Ozzy’s, modern rock band Ashland Court is celebrating the release of their new album, Control, and the inclusion of their song Hell’s Sweet Hands on the Rock Band network’s download site, so music/video-game fans can download the tune and shred it up at home on their own plastic guitars.

The release party will feature a Rock Band competition at 9 p.m. and opening act Jeff Driedger. Admission is $10.

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca