The Furies Help Keep Vancouver Punk Renaissance Going

Fans of vintage Vancouver punk are gearing up for a Saturday performance by old-school punk act The Furies, who haven't played together in close to 30 years.

The evening, also featuring D.O.A., is guaranteed to be a wild one. This show continues a string of classic local punk reunions in recent weeks that has included The Modernettes and The Pointed Sticks. D.O.A. frontman and Sudden Death Records owner Joe "Shithead" Keithley recently reflected on the resurgence of classic local punk.

"The Furies were Vancouver's first punk band," says Keithley. "I remember walking around Vancouver when I was a kid, and I saw these posters that said, 'Punk rock, you won't believe it, you'll throw up!,' or something like that.

"And I was like, 'Wow, that sounds great!' And soon after I started my first band called The Skulls and actually played with The Furies at the Japanese Hall in a forgotten part of town way back when."

If The Furies revival goes as well as that of The Pointed Sticks, all will be good in punkland, according to Keithley, who reissued their two albums on Sudden Death.

"The Pointed Sticks reissues of Waiting For The Real Thing and Perfect Youth have been selling really well. Perfect Youth has sold slightly more thus far I think. For a band that's been dead for 25 years, it was a lot of units.

"Nick [Jones], the singer, is the head merchandiser for The Rolling Stones, and his schedule is pretty packed, so they only had a few days to tour. But I think that if someone offers them a good show, they'll play it. They actually just confirmed two upcoming shows: March 30 at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto and March 31 in Brooklyn at a place called Southpaw at a mini pop-punk festival."

With all the recent reunions, one has to wonder why everyone is getting back together at the same time. Keithley offers some insight.

"I think a lot of this reunion stuff was spurred on by the re-release of the Vancouver Complication album and the food bank benefit show we did last year that featured all these various band members from back in the day."

Said evening was in celebration of the anniversary of a classic record that featured a wide array of vintage Vancouver acts. The album was originally released in 1980 and produced by a young Bob Rock, and it effectively captured the Vancouver scene at the time. Amazingly, more than 25 years after the release, many of the musicians showed up last year to perform, drink beer and basically capture the same magic that they collectively shared when they were all 16 years old.

"That evening was just such a good time, and because of that show it spurred everyone to sort of get organized and get their bands back together," says Keithley.

The question now is whether any other classic local acts will get back together in the coming months.

"Well, Sudden Death is going to be putting out reissues of the Young Canadians' No Escape," Keithley offers.

But what about an actual reunion? Legendary Young Canadians frontman Art Bergmann hasn't been seen in these parts in a good number of years.

"I told him that if he ever wanted to do another solo album, we'd put it out," says Keithley. "As far as an actual [Young Canadians] reunion, I don't know. If it's in the cards, that's right on. If not, so it goes."

Another band in dire need of getting back together are The Dishrags. The band put on a great performance at the Complication show and then disappeared into obscurity once again.

"They actually re-released their album a few years back on some little label out of Toronto," says Keithley of Other People's Music's 1997 release of Love/Hate. "They were almost going to do this show, but they figured they weren't quite ready."

As far as D.O.A. go, credit should be tossed their way as being the one local act who never broke up (in fact, odds are I'll be going on weekend trips from my retirement home to see them perform in 2052). Keithley confirms that the band are still as busy as ever.

"Most recently, I've been working on putting together a compilation of our singles. We're going to put out a comprehensive collection of all our original seven-inch singles, many of which haven't seen the light of day in years."

D.O.A. have four British Columbia shows scheduled over the next six weeks and are looking to confirm some east coast dates for April.

"Hopefully we'll go to Newfoundland, too, as we haven't been there in 24 years," says Keithley. "Maybe a promoter will read this and offer us a good show there."

Here are D.O.A.'s upcoming dates:

Feb. 18 Whistler, BC @ Garfinkels
March 3 Kelowna, BC @ Habitat
March 22 Nanaimo, BC @ The Queens
March 23 Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar