Threadbare Productions is bringing a few familiar faces back to Prince Albert.
Montreal’s Ripcordz return to Prince Albert on Sunday with Prince Albert’s TV Casualties and Saskatoon’s Broken Idols at Studio Q.
Paul Gott of the Ripcordz said it just seems like the band is on tour all of the time.
“I think it may be an illusion that we’re always on the road,” he said. “I mean, in the summer, we kind of are always on the road because we do our Midwestern tour and then we’re heading out east afterwards. But most of the year we are weekend warriors.”
He said that when the band does Southern Ontario and Quebec shows it is on Friday and Saturday and then they are back at home.
“We all have full-time jobs too it’s a big balancing act,” Gott explained. “We don’t have a lot of spare time between working and banding. We’re pretty much full time all the time.”
The group’s Facebook page updates fans on their movements and also features tips for touring bands. Gott said he sometimes goes to the store and gets asked why he is there because they thought the band was on the road.
“In the summer that’s true. The rest of your, I guess it’s just a social media thing. It just looks like we’re on the road all the time. It kind of feels that way too.”
Gott said some fans remembered when the Ripcordz would play anywhere for $200. At the time, they weren’t complaining.
“I mean, we just wanted to play,” Gott said. “We’d arrange things, we’d get enough money for gas, and then whatever money we’d, quote unquote, make, would be off merch. We just liked playing.”
This is the third consecutive year that Ripcordz have played in Prince Albert in the summer. Gott said in part it is because they are always looking for new places to play.
“We’ve played more than 100 different spots in Canada,” he explained. “After Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, things start getting a lot smaller after the first top six. But we love playing small towns. We discovered that early on in the tour.”
He said that they try to find places to play and Clay Cottingham of Threadbare contacted the band about a show in Prince Albert.
“(He said) ‘hey you could come up here’ and it was like, ‘oh I didn’t even know they were doing shows there so that’s really cool.’ (We came up there the first time and it was just like, wow, this is such a cool little place.”
Their first show in 2024 was at the Spice Trail.
“That was really cool,” he remembered. “I met the owner (Sheena Rai). She was really great. She was just like, so not punk rock, but so punk rock in the attitude: ‘of, come and play come and play and have fun’ and we did. It was just an awesome time.”
Playing with bands like TV Casualties and Broken Idols is also special for Gott.
“That’s the nice thing about doing these shows. You discover that there are bands in every city and we kind of talk about it on stage in my overly lengthy stage banter in all my shows. I’m always talking about all the bands.
“You get to meet these bands and some are pretty freaking amazing,” he added. “The only reason they’re not huge is because they have a small fan base to begin with. They have to fight a little harder, but that also makes them a little better.”
Gott has been Ripcordz’s most consistent member. The current rhythm section of Ian Hoss and Elliott Filion has only been together for just over a year.
“That’s a new lineup to everybody, but we’ve already played almost a hundred shows together,” Gott said.
“It just feels great. They’re enjoying, meeting everybody and seeing the country and it’s still so much fun.”
Gott has been a touring musician since 1992 and says he still enjoys it.
“We always get into town early and wander around and try and figure out where the cool places are,” he explained. “We can hang out and just wander around town and experience Canada that way. That’s what we’re always trying to do.”
Threadbare Productions presents Ripcordz with Broken Idols and TV Casualties at the Studio Q on July 26, doors at 5 p.m. and bands at 6 p.m., advances tickers at Skin Junkies are $10 and $15 at the door (cash only).
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
