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Rolling thunder >> The Hellacopters swoop out of Sweden by JOHNSON CUMMINS
Of course, you must've seen the Clash's ode to the roadie in the incredibly boring movie Rude Boy. But do you remember the movie Roadie, starring Blondie's Deborah Harry and Meatloaf? What a piece of cinematic genius that was. Meatloaf plays a roadie who sticks it out on the sidelines but eventually ends up sharing the limelight with Ms. Harry. The movie tag was "The band makes it rock but it's the roadies that make it roll." Sweden's Hellacopters are kind of like three Meatloafs with chief Hellacopter Nicke Anderson in Debbie Harry's role. It seems that when Anderson's previous band Entombed was stuck in label limbo, he gathered the Entombed road crew and started his dream band, which ended up becoming the Hellacopters. Explains bassist Kenny Hellacopter: "I was a drum tech, but I didn't really know what the hell I was doing. I've known Nicke since kindergarten, so I just more or less came along to drink their beer. Robert (Hellacopters' drummer) was a better roadie than I was. I still don't really know anything technical at all." While many in the press are describing Stockholm as the "new Seattle," it might actually be more akin to the Ann Arbor of the late '60s, back when MC5 and the Stooges shared hypodermic needles together and the Grande Ballroom in Detroit was filled with suburban kids high on cleaning solvent fumes and dime-store revolution. "Stockholm is really thriving musically now," says Kenny. "We share our rehearsal space with Entombed and Backyard Babies, so we're obviously friends with them. But all the bands seem to know each other and shows are more like parties. Although I still find it strange that people now get excited about bands when they find out their from Sweden." Swedish bands aren't the only bands that the Hellacopters have made friends with: they just finished playing parts of Scandinavia with arena rock gods Kiss. "We had to follow strict regulations when we were around them, but Gene threw a towel at Nicke and said, 'Don't forget to make a lot of money.' And Nicke got a stud off of his costume that fell off." Although this Montreal date marks their first tour of North America, the Hellacopters have been playing showcase shows and just recently became the biggest buzz band of the 1998 CMJ festival in New York. When I ask if we can expect a fresh inked deal soon, Kenny does his best buzz band shuffle. "We haven't signed with anybody yet but we did manage to get one label to put us up in a first class hotel during CMJ. Which was amazing, because we had been staying at this Cockroach Haven on the Bowery. "This label guy just said give me a call and he set the whole thing up. We were laughing the whole time. I still can't believe that people are getting excited about us because, y'know, we're just a rock band." With New Bomb Turks and Quadra Jets at Foufounes Électriques on Sunday, December 6, 8pm, $15
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Always the bridesmaid and never the bride. 'Tis the fate of the roadie.