Suburban lifers

>> The return of local hardcore legends Genetic Control

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Genetic Control was always the local band bookmark that was yanked out before we ever heard how the story ended. Put simply, the little band that should've, didn't. But now the day of (w)reckoning had finally come and I found myself, 13 years since their last show, with my ass parked on a beer keg beside the rest of the receding mohawks and unwilling natural skinheads.

Back in May of this year, Genetic Control reunited and played Foufounes' 15th anniversary. I was ecstatic. Their first show since 1986! It's enough to make this ol' punker get all misty-eyed, I tell ya. This was more than just a reunion show for myself and the other people lucky enough to be in the capacity crowd that night. This was like a phoenix rising from the desert, a coming-of-age story, a punk rock Big Chill, uhh... you get the picture.

"I really didn't know what to expect because it was 12 years since I had even been on a stage," recounts singer Mike Price, aka Zabbo. "Once I heard the roar from the crowd it was like being in a time machine or like we transcended time. It really felt like it had only been about two weeks since our last show."

The mystique surrounding the band has been building ever since they called it a day in '86. In 1993, a German company started bootlegging their 1984 single and included their song off the Montreal compilation Primitive Air Raid on one CD. "I think it's great that the music stands up so well today and, of course, I'm complimented that we're getting bootlegged," says Price. "The funny thing is that we wanted something to sell at the show at the Medley, so we're actually bootlegging the bootleg and we'll be selling that."

As Price talks to me from his Vancouver home, he intermittently excuses himself from the phone to explain to his daughter that he's doing an interview and that she'll have to wait until he's finished. Despite her excellent kid-style responses like, "Oh right, you're going to be a million trillion years," as well as her erasing of all of his pager numbers, Price remains patient with this little hellion and seems light years away from the man who penned the lines "Suburban life your kids think you're a jerk/ They laugh at your problems, nothing seems to work."

"I guess that song has come full circle now that I have a kid," says Price. "A lot has changed since the band originally broke up. I may be a parent now, but my ideals are still the same. The punk scene shaped me into who I am today. I think the people who came out of that scene still healthy were taught to be survivors and came out with a good set of fundamentals and principles to live by."

So now that the members of Genetic Control are closer to suburban life, you would think that this reunion would be a bit more of a lark than anything, right? "We'd all be happy if something came out of this, but we're not going to fool ourselves. At least that's what we're trying to tell ourselves, yet we've already started writing songs again, so who knows."

With the Misfits, Guy Smiley and local legends Fair Warning at the Medley, October 4, 8pm, $16 in advance, $20 at the door