Indie Spotlight - Be Bad - Vision Correction

Musicians in Halifax talk about certain golden periods in its history. The Sloan/Thrush Hermit years. The Burnt Black/Dependent Music era that brought us bands like Wintersleep and eventually Holy Fuck. The North of America/The Plan/Equation of State math rock years. Everyone has a time they get nostalgic for. Their own golden years. They talk about bands they miss, venues they miss and how everything is different. I'm no different than them.

I miss Be Bad.

I was lucky enough to see them four times at various stages in their short lifespan but it was enough to take in the whole of Be Bad before they broke up. I was at Reflections when they did this. I was at the Seahorse for one of their last shows at Halifax Pop Explosion. I saw one of their early shows at the One World Cafe. Every time I went, it was for two reasons. To see a great band and to see if maybe tonight is the night Will Erving finally explodes while he is playing drums. I'm not kidding, I was convinced that could actually happen.

Will played with more energy than only the best and most focused drummers can even dare to muster. Somehow he managed to look like he was having a migraine, hit the drums as hard as possible and still have perfect time and play cool shit. He played drums like he was trudging through a musical swamp, except instead of the usual frogs and salamanders he is encountering those deep Sea monster fish with huge teeth and glowing eyes.

His tom work is awesome (especially on Dead Head and Primer Grey Erection), they sound great and he has a real guttural way of playing them. He also plays lots of cymbals ( I mean style wise, I don't know how many he owns), but tonally they really change the dynamic, It's not a huge mess. Erving knows what he wants to sound like, he is a master at organized chaos. I find that he seems to have more of a relationship with the guitar than the bass, and it gives the record a spastic, jarring quality. Along with sounding fantastic (thanks to engineer J Lapointe) Will's drums always sound interesting, they never regress into punk rock/psych conventions.

It was a short career but god damnit, it was awesome.

Audio/Visual Evidence : Primer Grey Erection, Battledick