Alienated in Vancouver: Of Dead Bob, Colin MacRae, Pigment Vehicle, and the Nomeansno/ Mudhoney Book Launch (plus an RIP for the Wildwood)

A moment in history from the Wildwood Pub in Powell River, back in the distant spring of 2021...

John Wright (Nomeansno, Hanson Brothers, Dead Bob) and Colin MacRae (Pigment Vehicle, Dead Bob) at the Wildwood Public House, Powell River, 2021. Photos by Allan MacInnis

I feel very fortunate that I got to go to the Wildwood Public House in Powell River. As far as I can ascertain, it never reopened after the winter closure, at the end of 2022, but in 2021, the pub was still functional, though not all that co-founder (and Nomeansno/ Dead Bob drummer) John Wright had hoped: his initial plan had been to run the Wildwood as a brew pub, selling his own beer, which ultimately did not come to pass, as Wright explains in the Absolute Underground interview he did this past December. When Erika and I visited three years ago, the (gorgeously designed, very new-feeling) pub was on the verge of its second (and I believe penultimate) summer, surviving the COVID lockdown with ample outdoor seating, "mostly local" beer from East Van breweries Bomber and Off the Rail, and a pizza oven they'd bought and brought into town from the old Incendios restaurant in Gastown. I forget which beer I had that afternoon (just that it wasn't John's own, which he was not licensed to sell), but for our pizza lunch, we had the Hanson -- essentially a meat lover's pizza, which I remember as being absolutely jampacked with animal; truth be told, I might have actually preferred one of the other pizzas on the menu, but when you're at John Wright's bar, how can you NOT order the pizza named for one of the bands he was in?

"That was the concept, have the pizza and do the craft beer," Wright had explained to me at the time. Wright's history with home brewing is somewhat of a legend in Vancouver punk circles and even the subject of an instructional video, distributed first on VHS and then as a bonus disc with a Hanson Brothers live CD. Talking on the patio of the establishment, Wright explained that "originally, we wanted to put in a small brewery in here and make it a brew-on-premise, which is what I would be doing, but we just ran out of money. And space, really – after all the renovations were done, it became apparent that there’s no room in this building for a brewery. Big building, but…"

Me outside the Wildwood, 2021, photo by Erika Lax

Bassist Colin MacRae, at that point, was one of John's four partners in the bar, the others being Darcy Webb of the Stag Reels -- who had come to Powell River as support for a DOA show that MacRae was promoting at a local bowling alley; Adam Ackerly, a bartender at Victoria fixture Logan's, which closed in 2020; and Isaac Tremblay, formerly of Quebec microbrewery Le Trou Du Diable, where the Hanson Brothers once performed (Nomeansno, meanwhile, played the Le Trou Du Diable brew pub, which Wright observed was not unlike the Wildwood in terms of ambience; Le Trou Du Diable also put out one of John's recipes as a beer!). MacRae, at that point, was also running two Powell River coffee shops called Base Camp (both also now shut down -- COVID was "the worst time for a small business," MacRae says via a Facebook messenger check-in).

As often happens when I'm talking to people from Vancouver Island, I discovered during that trip that my wife had history with one of the people I was interviewing: as is also the case with Supreme Echo's Jason Flower, she and MacRae had gone to high school together.

Colin MacRae and Erika Lax inside the Wildwood, 2021, photo by Allan MacInnis

Flash forward three years, and Colin MacRae is now a full-on member of Dead Bob. The whole band, whom I caught at their December 1st show at the Pearl -- the newest incarnation of the venue formerly known as The Venue -- proved remarkably cohesive and potent, and the show boasted many high points, like Byron leaping into the pit to mosh whilst soloing during the "Dead Bob" namesake song; Ford's goofy and ebullient interpretive dancing, gravity-defying leaps, and funky original, "Maybe It Came at the Wrong Time;" or Rong's Kristy-Lee giving a glowering, committed vocal lead on Nomeansno's "Dead Souls." Ford Pier had remarked, when I was shopping at Red Cat long before the live band had fully come together, that no matter who had contributed to the album, no matter how much the name of the band suggested a band and not a single artist, I should make no mistake: Life Like was a John Wright solo project. So I'd expected something akin to seeing a Show Business Giants show, which felt like more like seeing "Tom Holliston and friends" more than a, y'know, gestalt.

Which would have been fine with me -- I enjoyed the hell out of the Show Business Giants show I saw -- but Dead Bob was not like that; what impressed me most overall that night at the Pearl was how well the diverse elements and personalities melded to make what felt like an honest-to-god BAND, a thing unto itself -- fronted and guided by John, of course, but also its own singular entity.

Kristy-Lee Audette by Bob Hanham, Dec. 1 2023, not to be reused without permission

That was the overall takeaway, but if I had to pick a singular musical high point from that night, it was seeing MacRae and Wright do a stripped-down, Mama-style duet on Nomeansno's spare, regret-hued "Long Days," which features one of Rob Wright's hookiest, most mantralike, veritably trance-inducing basslines. Rob, now retired from live performance, will always be, in my estimate, one of the greatest bassists in punk history, and I no doubt have seen him play this very bassline live myself, but in a weird way, it was more impressive to see Colin replicate it, in his own slightly spikier style. I mean, sure, Rob can play it, he WROTE it, but SOMEONE ELSE can do it, too? This WELL? Whoa...

And I had never seen MacRae play before. I was spellbound...

Colin MacRae with Dead Bob. Vancouver, Dec. 1st, by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission

Of course, MacRae had been a member of Nomeansno-influenced Victoria band Pigment Vehicle, one of the bands (like Invasives) that I think of as existing in the "Nomeansno penumbra," clearly worshipping and even emulating aspects of the band while having no overlapping members. Pigment Vehicle had more respect than popularity back in the 1990s, with an obsessive cult following who still reveres them: MacRae recalls hearing tell of a rare Pigment Vehicle CD selling (probably in Germany) for some 200 Euros, and there was even a guy at the Vancouver Dead Bob show in a Pigment Vehicle shirt that must have been 30 years old, shredded to the point where each attempt to launder it must surely have been terrifying...

Talking at the Wildwood, back in 2021, MacRae explained that after Pigment Vehicle folded, around the turn of the 20th century, he'd gotten more into art, design, and metalwork, moved from Victoria to find affordable shop space, and with John's help, first set to building Base Camp by hand, then the Wildwood (the interior at the Wildwood, and some of the art, were MacRae's design).

But why did Pigment Vehicle fold?

"We were the band that got stuck in Victoria and played ourselves into a corner and ended up hating each other," MacRae said with a laugh. They put out a few releases over their span, including one, 1996's Independent Women Are So Damned Good, on the NMN imprint Wrong Records (a few copies of which are for sale on Discogs) and supported Nomeansno on tour in the 'States. "The last foray we had, Sudden Death Records put it out" -- 1998's Murder's Only Foreplay When You're Hot for Revenge -- "and Joey would take us out on tour" with DOA.

But they never played Europe, though given Germany's love for Nomeansno, they doubtlessly would have been huge. "I think if I'd stayed in it another year, we would have gone to Europe. We did go out with a couple of other bands on jaunts, like with the Dayglo Abortions, but we were way more jazz-oriented and technical, even more than Nomeansno, and we'd go out and play these punk shows, and we'd go, deedeedeedlydeeBUMBUMBUMBUM..."

John Wright had rejoined the conversation at that point and quipped, in an advertiser's deadpan, "Confusing audiences all across Canada!"

MacRae chuckled, shrugging: "It worked when we were younger, because we weren't that good as players. But we went through this brutal and technical phase..." (Appropriately enough, MacRae notes later, US-based math rock artists Don Caballero played a show in the Pigment Vehicle practice space in Victoria, circa 1992-1993).

...all of which explains his chops the night of the Dead Bob show, though back in 2021, it was Invasives bassist Adam Slack (brother to Dead Bob guitarist/ co-vocalist/ relief drummer Byron Slack, involved from the outset) that had been under discussion to fill Rob's big bass shoes.

But "Colin was in fairly early on," John Wright explains via Messenger. "I started rehearsing with him in May/ June last year. I had mused about Adam, and he would be awesome, but he is a new dad, and Colin lives by me, so regular rehearsing was way easier. At least as a rhythm section!"

Dead Bob in Victoria, Capital Ballroom, Nov. 26th, by Bob Hanham; not to be reused without permission

MacRae had actually been the more optimistic of the two men about the fortunes of the Wildwood, back in 2021, so losing both his coffee shops and the pub must have been pretty disappointing, but MacRae notes now that the "silver lining" of the Wildwood closure is that "if the pub was successful, we wouldn't be doing Dead Bob!" (He also lets readers know that "the next album is ready to go and it's awesome," and that there may even be some Pigment Vehicle re-releases in the works. Vinyl, perchance, Colin?).

And Dead Bob has a new whack of tour dates across the Prairies (more on which below), after which they will no doubt continue East. There is no date for a Vancouver return as of this writing; the closest show will be March 1st in Cumberland (updated since initial post).

John Wright at the Pearl, Vancouver, Dec. 1 2023, by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission

However, Vancouverites should take heed: there will be, this Wednesday, February 7th, a chance to chat with John Wright at a Neptoon Records book signing for the newly-published, lavishly-illustrated "oral history" of Nomeansno, Nomeansno: From Obscurity to Oblivion, with a Q&A moderated by Grant Lawrence and guests John Wright, Nomeansno band biographer Jason Lamb, and Steve Turner of Mudhoney (co-promoting his memoir Mud Ride: A Messy Trip Through the Grunge Explosion -- and note, Mudhoney fans, that my big 2018 interview with Steve Turner can be read here). A Neptoon event of this magnitude will probably fill up, so I would recommend arriving early, ideally with cash in hand; lining up at 5 would not be at all unreasonable...

...which brings us to the funniest story from the Dead Bob evening. If you scroll back up to the clip of Byron leaping into the pit during "Dead Bob," you will see two members of the audience put their hands on Byron's ass to help boost him back onto the Pearl's stage (go to about the two minute mark, if you're impatient). One of those two men (the one with no hair) is me. With Byron safely onstage, the other man whose hand had been on Byron's bum turned to me and asked if I was Allan MacInnis.

Byron Slack at stage's edge, by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission

This fellow ass-pusher proved to have been Jason Lamb himself, who, to date, is the only man I have met by virtue of having my hand on another man's buttocks (I am sure there are social circles where such things are fairly normal, but I do not move in them). I promptly turned to photographer Cat Ashbee, who was standing beside us, and begged her to take a photo. The copy of the book in Lamb's hands was, in fact, the Polish translation, but it is now in print in English -- the cover is the same -- and will be available at the Neptoon signing (and in fact was on the shelves already, alongside the Steve Turner bio, when I poked in a few days ago).

Jason Lamb and myself, by Cat Ashbee, with the Polish edition of Lamb's Nomeansno book, in the pit at the Pearl, December 1st, 2023

There is actually a bit more to the story than that. Mike Jung of legendary American band Alice Donut had flown in from New York to see the show, and Jason promptly introduced me; photos of Lamb and Jung also exist, as do photos of both of them being joined by Rob Wright for festivities earlier that night (it's nice to see Rob smiling, sipping expensive single malt, and enjoying his retirement: Randy Newman has observed that no one ever retires from rock'n'roll, but Rob always was the exception to the rule).

But I'm going to leave it there for the time being... Colin MacRae tells me he will NOT be on hand for the signing -- but I'm hoping Ford, Kristy-Lee, and Byron will. Presumably there will also be copies of Dead Bob's debut vinyl, Life Like, and other merch on hand. The Alternative Tentacles reissue of Wrong is still a month away, if I understand correctly, but can be pre-ordered now, if you're of a mind. And of course, Life Like does pop up fairly often at Red Cat Records, if you can't snag it at Neptoon... Perchance there will be other merch?

Ford Pier learned trombone (and had to learn to play keyboards the John Wright way) for the Dead Bob shows; photo by Bob Hanham, not to be reused without permission

So we'll see you at Neptoon, or perhaps at another Dead Bob gig in the not-too-distant future. Check the Dead Bob bandcamp here, and note that Selina Martin, who sings co-lead with John on the cover of "Life Like" on that album, will be coming back to Vancouver in March, appearing on a bill with Tony Bardach's new band, the Smoke (more on that to come; there will be a third band on the bill but that is in flux at present).

Nomeansno remains permanently retired, and the Wildwood too is now officially gone; but... long live Dead Bob!