ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 3, 1991
By Steve Newton
Yours truly doesn’t frequent a lot of top-40 clubs these days, but I did brave the radio-rock recesses of the Rock Cellar last week.
Abandoned Youth, the local hard-rock outfit that represented B.C. in the recent Guitar Warz competition, was playing, and I wanted to see just how hot its prize-winning young hot-shots really were.
As soon as the band finished its second set of the night I walked up and introduced myself to guitarist Burke Ehmig, but our greeting was quickly interrupted by a half-tanked kid from Seattle who was bent on putting a request in for Skid Row’s “18 and Life”.
“We already played it,” replied Ehmig patiently, but the Yank wanted to hear it again. Ehmig said he’d see what he could do, and the guy staggered away.
A top-40 club moment, frozen in time.
Once the four members of Abandoned Youth were corralled in their bottle-strewn band-room, I shot them the question: isn’t it tough for a band with ambition to play a club where no one wants to hear their original tunes?
“Well, we don’t do this regularly,” said Ehmig. “We’ve only played two cover gigs in the past year. We do these once in awhile because we get a lotta money for ’em, and then we put all the money we make back into the band. But we’d never go back out on the top-40 circuit.”
Ehmig, 26, had his fill of the cover scene while playing in the Chrissie Steele band, and the other members of Abandoned Youth have also gone through the ranks of various B.C. and Alberta club acts. Since its initial formation in February of ’89, Abandoned Youth has made good headway in its quest for success.
The band was granted a New Talent Demo Award from Factor (the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Record), and received some airplay for one of its demoed tunes, “Pushin’ for Time”, on CFOX’s Monday Midnight Metal Shop.
After playing a number of hard-rock showcases organized by Timeless Productions, the group created a groundswell of support from Vancouver’s metal fans, culminating in it taking the B.C. finals in the aforementioned Band Warz.
The hometown favourites were beaten out by Ontario’s Doug Varty band in the nationals, but still won about $2,000 in gear and cash. Then of course there’s the crucial exposure that such a competition gives its entrants.
But what makes Abandoned Youth so special that it can come close to being proclaimed Canada’s best unsigned band?
“We have a lot of groove,” figured bassist Dean Amos, “and we do have harmonies. But the other thing is that we have a lot of fun at what we do. We get along very well.”
One criticism that this scribbler had heard about Abandoned Youth was that they were a little too slick. Ehmig questioned that idea.
“Everybody has their opinion of the band,” he said. “But I don’t think there’s a band like us in Canada that’s been signed. I think our music’s very marketable, and the band’s very marketable. And if Canada doesn’t do it, then the States will do it.”
Whether or not the young dudes in Abandoned Youth have what it takes to make it big time is anyone’s guess, but their Band Warz showing bodes well for the band. And if you ask any of the kids at Cariboo Hills Secondary School—where the group played a Food Bank benefit last week—most would give the thumbs up.
“That was quite a buzz,” said drummer Danny (Tricks) Sapriken. “It’s such a relief from playin’ the clubs, ’cause when you play Club Soda or something you get like a wall of musicians standing there with their arms crossed going ‘Oh yeah, I can do that.’ Whereas these kids in the school just look up like, ‘Man, this is great, we’ve got a rock band in our school!’ ”
To read over 100 of my interviews with local Vancouver musicians since 1983, go here.
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