Mitchell still rockin’ classic hits to the Max
Songwriter’s live shows ‘all about customer service’
He’s a wild party. He’s also a founding member of one of the great Canadian rock bands of the ’70s, and a songwriter who has given us CanCon staples like Patio Lanterns, Go For Soda and All We Are.
He’s Kim Mitchell, and he’s coming to Vancouver with his band (bassist Peter Fredette, drummer Dave Langguth and keyboardist Ray Coburn) to play songs from his solo career as well as his time with Max Webster.
We talked to the 64-year-old rocker about his hearing loss, his days as a drive-time classic rock radio DJ, and digging into his back catalogue. Q: How’s your hearing? A: Not bad. I have a ringing in my ear constantly, so I guess I have tinnitus. It’s 24/7. You know what, though? I look at this way. If I go completely deaf, no one’s going to be telling me anything I need to hear anyway (laughs). It’s just some frequencies are down quite a bit, just because of rock ’n’ roll. It’s not the guitar, actually. It’s the cymbals from the drums — that’s the killer onstage.
Do you miss doing radio? How long did you do it for?
I was a radio announcer for 11 years. Do I miss it? No, not at all. It was fun, it was a nice challenge, it was creative, I was treated well, I was let go with class. For about a month, I walked around with my tail between my legs going, “Oh, I was just fired.” But then one day, I was walking my dog, and I saw three or four guys all in their suits going to work. And I’m like, I’m just going to walk my dog, go home and play guitar. This is all right.
It looks like you play a couple of shows a month. Is that your schedule?
It was this year, because I had a heart attack in January. When I was in radio, it afforded me the option to go, “No, I don’t want to play Wednesday in a bar in this town, we’ll fly out and do this outdoor festival, we’ll do this Corn Fest, or whatever kind of fest.” I don’t need to take some of the riff-raff gigs. There’s no point. I’m not saying those are bad (gigs) — just give them to developing bands.
Is your set list pretty much set in stone, or are you changing it up?
I’m actually leaning into Max Webster a little more. It’s just something different to play. I mean, I’m all about customer service in rock ’n’ roll. I like playing what the people came to hear. I’ll play Patio Lanterns, and Go for Soda, and Rock N’ Roll Duty, and I’m not sick of it. We throw ourselves right into it. At the same time, there’s all the other stuff where you say, “Let’s shake it up here a bit.” Gravity, a song off (1977 Max Webster album) High Class in Borrowed Shoes, is one. When we recorded it, I didn’t really like it. Yet it got airplay over the years. So we tried it in rehearsal and it started sounding really good. We played it at a couple of gigs and now people are like, “Yeah, this is kind of cool.”