March 9, 2010 Fringe Arts

Time trials

Our Lady Peace can hold a note, says band’s drummer

by Adam Kovac

“We’re playing the record as it feels to us, and hopefully we’re not dating ourselves,” says Our Lady Peace drummer Jeremy Taggart.

Musicians die young. Not necessarily in the physical, shuffle-off-this-mortal-coil sense. No, the life of a rock and roll star is short, in that being around for even 10 years makes one a respected elder. Such is the case with Our Lady Peace, a band that has outlived almost all of their contemporaries from the ‘90s, and yet, according to drummer Jeremy Taggart, still has as much enthusiasm today as when Taggart joined the band in 1993.

“I’ve been in this band half my life. My teenage years to adulthood were spent in this band, so the beginning seems like a long time ago. It’s been 17 years!” Taggart reminisced. “The fact that we’ve sold so many records so many times is amazing, but the biggest thing is that we still love to play music, and I love to play my instrument.”

When a band has been around as long as OLP, a few things are guaranteed to happen. The band is bound to amass a large back catalogue—they’re currently up to seven studio albums—and fans are going to start complaining when their favourite obscure songs are bumped off set lists to make room for new material. Taggart said OLP figured out a way around this on their newest tour by dividing their shows into two sets. On any given night the first set is their albums Clumsy (1997) or Spiritual Machines (2000) played in their entirety, while the second set is a hodgepodge of tracks from the rest of their albums.

“You don’t get an opportunity to hear a lot of those tracks live. It’s an opportunity for fans of those songs to hear them in a smaller theatre environment,” explained Taggart. “We picked [those albums] off the bat, but there’s no reason we couldn’t do other records in the future.”
Critics might accuse the band of cashing in on nostalgia, or say that by focusing on older material the band is admitting the newer stuff isn’t as strong. Taggart acknowledges there is nostalgia involved, but claims that these shows are a thank you to long-time fans for sticking with the band.

“We understand the impact of these records, and to play those songs from beginning to end is going to be nostalgic, of course,” he said. “We’re playing the record as it feels to us, and hopefully we’re not dating ourselves.”

While the current OLP tour is a celebration of their past, Taggart asserted that everything to follow will be anything but a rehash.

“It’s 2010 now. In 1993, being in a band and making music was just different, for better or worse,” he said. “It’s a different time now, so while the sound has changed, we’re still making music based on the same ideals.”

Our Lady Peace plays two shows at L’Olympia (1004 Ste-Catherine St. E.) March 9 and 10 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $49.50.