Yesteryear's quest for beers
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That '70s Band have just two words for you
by JOHNSON CUMMINS
I'm talking with That '70s Band leader bassist/singer Eric Forrest, also of Voivod, and no matter what you ask him, when it comes to this cover-band side project, he will inevitably mention the words "beer" or "party" in his answer. In fact, throughout our 10-minute conversation, he mentions "party" four times and "beer" a whopping 10 times. For those of you who aren't good at math, that's putting beer in a sentence once a minute. I guess Forrest could be described as a man who is easy to shop for at Christmas.
That '70s Band is a group made up of good friends who like to hammer out cover tunes of Black Sabbath, the Ramones, Sex Pistols and Judas Priest. Filling out the band are members of local metal bands Entropy and Homicide and with this heavy arsenal, Forrest promises anything but the usual lacklustre delivery of your garden variety cover bands. "It's not a metal mayhem or anything--given the background of the band, we definitely play the songs pretty heavy, but people should just take it for what it is, which is a beer-drinking party."
That '70s Band seem to be having a laugh with friends for the most part, but with a dozen shows throughout Quebec under their belts, it can hardly be called a lark or just another "fuck band." They have even been talking to agents lately and getting great crowds. C'mon, for people who live in far-removed places like Chicoutimi, a band playing "Iron Man" or a hepped-up version of Priest's "Green Manalishi" is the tits.
"When I moved here from Toronto in '94, I used to go to this bar Backstreets to check out the babes and have a couple of beers," says Forrest. "Now there aren't many places like that and this band is trying to get back to that kind of party."
The one time Forrest doesn't mention "party" or "beer" is when I ask him about his main band Voivod. Forrest has provided the bass and vocals for Voivod for the past seven years and was a major contributor to their new direction in a more crunching metal delivery. "That '70s Band was started during Voivod downtime about a year ago. Now Voivod has taken an undetermined hiatus to concentrate more on our own projects. So I don't know when we will be getting back together. I went out with [Voivod guitarist] Piggy after the Sepultura show and it was friendly." And what did he do with Piggy? "We went out for a couple of beers."
So now that Voivod is on ice for a while, Forrest plans to continue writing what he describes as a Ministry/Voivod/Slayer project with some members of That '70s Band. As far as the aspirations of his cover band, he says, "Well, there is this biker bash happening in June that we are trying to play. That would be a real party." The smart money is that you could get some beer drinking in there too.
With Better Than That at Jailhouse Rock on Friday, April 27, 9pm, $5
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