GROOVIN’ TO A GRUNT
Singer belts out stoner rock
Al Yeti Bones might be a dad and tool-and-die guy by day, but onstage his inner Abominable Snowman takes over.
He fronts Gypsy Chief Goliath, a Windsor band that plays a heavy brand of music known as stoner rock — actually named more for the Stone Age-inspired hard-banging riffs than any reference to marijuana, he said.
Meanwhile, when Al Yeti Bones sings, he roars. He growls. He reaches deep down and sends out a hoarse, caveman-like call from the depths of his being. All to a good groove, too. “I try to embody a different soul than who I am offstage,” says Yeti, whose real name is Alex Petrovich, a 37-year-old husband and father of two young girls who still has a taste for performance. “It’s a nightand-day kind of thing, a Bruce Wayne meets Batman.
“I’m much more calm, much more composed in real life.”
Gypsy Chief Goliath rocks the band-filled sixth annual Fork and Cork Festival at the Riverfront Festival Plaza on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Trews headline the festival later the same night, while Finger Eleven takes the limelight Saturday night, and Dave Russell & The Precious Stones close off the event Sunday night.
Gypsy Chief Goliath even has a new beer out through Craftheads Brewing Co., called Black Samurai (IPA), named after their song of the same name.
Besides Al Yeti Bones on guitar and lead vocals, Gypsy Chief Goliath is comprised of John Serio, guitar; Dustin Black, guitar; Darren Brush, bass; Adam Saitti, drums; and Nick Angelini, keyboards.
All together they represent a sort of modern-day Black Sabbath, but with a better beat.
“It’s a heavy, emotional, bluesy type of music,” Yeti said.
Stoner rock often features a slow- or mid-tempo feel and distorted, groove-laden sounds.
Queens of the Stone Age, Monster Magnet and Clutch are some of the acts that fall into the rock sub-genre that emerged in the 1990s in California.
Al Yeti Bones got his stage name about 12 years ago while touring with Crowbar, when band member Steve Gibb, son of Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, used to say that Petrovich looked like a yeti onstage. The moniker stuck. Yeti has been playing in bands since 1999, and formed Gypsy Chief Goliath in 2009.
Life has a way of intervening, however, and the full-time gig eventually became a part-time one, since family comes first. Besides, you can only do the Yeti so much. “It was too hard for me to constantly be that same person all the time, and really live it,” he said.
“I firmly believe if you’re not living in the moment it comes off as contrived. So it was hard to do all the time. But when we do it now we live in the moment, we become the real deal. But at the same time I get to have a normal life.”
Yeti’s daily real deal is doing such things as planning birthday parties for his daughters, or other more routine fair, which makes him happy. Still, stoner rock is never far away. “Rock ’n’ roll is my religion,” he said. “It’s my church.”
Even as a father? Heck, yeah. Maybe even as a grandfather. “It’s just an art form I want to continue doing,” he said. “I always felt I’ll be 60 or 70 years old and still playing.”
The Fork and Cork Festival, a mix of food, drink and music, runs Friday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., at the Riverfront Festival Plaza. Tickets range from $10 to $30. For the entertainment lineup or more information, visit Forkandcork.ca.