Written by Brendan Kane
Photography by Alicia Hoogveld
If it seems like the Fast Romantics have been taking it kind of slow with you lately, expect them to make a big sexy move this Saturday when they release their debut album at the Warehouse. With the better half of last year spent touring, recording and playing only select Calgary dates such as Night to Fight and Markapalooza, the band is more excited than a well played third date to throw this mega party with fellow album releasers, Secret Broadcast.
“Out of all the exciting things ever, in the history of exciting things – this would be like the ‘#2’ exciting thing,” said singer Matt Angus adding that man walking on the moon takes first place.
“Yeah, but that wasn’t real,” quipped guitarist Matthew Kliewer.
“No it wasn’t - it was staged and this is not staged. We’re gonna be on the stage.”
The evening is one of the more incentive laden local events you’ll attend this summer, seeing that $20 gets you entry plus a copy of both albums – or if you hate recorded music, you can squeeze in for a ten spot.
The Fast Romantics self-titled hardly sounds like a debuting piece; instead the sprawling, rise and fall song structure of hopscotch keys and strings gives off an intricate Euro pop joviality. The album range of musicianship is best seen on Spooning the Gorilla and Stop Me, the stomping breakdowns show off the band’s hypnotic dance style while the dark, introspective Casablanca has standout lyricism from Angus.
Anyone who’s been around the recording process knows of the desperation and tribulations that seems to come with it. Angus himself pulled a strenuous 32 hour session in the band’s studio, band members changed, and Kliewer was even in an automotive accident.
“I got t-boned by a semi-truck on my way home one night. It was after we recorded the song Casablanca,” said Kliewer. “It wasn’t detected on the first x-ray, but I hurt my fibula; it had a crack down the middle of the bone, so I was bed-ridden for about a month.”
Saturday’s festivities should not only rectify the bothersome bits of their struggle, it to will act as a send-off for their second cross-Canada tour which gets underway in September. The traditional four-piece that also includes bassist, Jeffrey Lewis and drummer, Alan Reain, has now added a lady keyboardist/backing vocalist to the mix with Laurna Germscheid.
“We wanted a lady and we got a lady,” said Angus with a smirk. “She is fitting in quite nice.”
“Her vocals are very accommodating to Matt’s. Some of the harmonies he would do with a really high falsetto, she’s able to hit those naturally whereas with a guy it’s a tough stretch,” said Kliewer.
The 16 date tour will see the band pepper Ontario and extend through Quebec as somewhat of a radio darling. Angus says that even though they have never been to the province, Quebecois stations are spinning the Romantics faster than the rest of the nation and this makes dates in Montreal and the capital stand out on the road map. Secret Broadcast will make up the other half of Calgary throughout the tour which will be their first of this magnitude – so you should expect a hilarious video blog.
“We know that it’s a party non-stop, so we’ve learned some lessons and I think we’ll share those lessons with Secret Broadcast,” said Kliewer.
“In the friendliest possible way, we’d like to see them self-destruct before Winnipeg,” joked Angus.
After about a year of honing in on their live show antics, these Fast Romantics say this is a paramount event and record for them as a band.
“We know who we are, what we’re trying to do and we want see if we can get people off at the same time – which most people aren’t lucky enough to be able to do that,” said Angus. “Rock and roll shows are a lot like really good sex…”
“We want people to walk out and be like: (wondrous sigh)… that was fantastic!” interjected Kliewer with googly eyes.
“We want everyone to come at the same time,” said Angus.
*The Warehouse opens at 8pm on Saturday with the Shagbots kicking off the night.*
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