‘In Loving Memory Of’
Big Wreck celebrates 20 years with new album
“In Loving Memory of ” is a rather odd title for a debut rock album by an unknown band. But 20 years ago, it seemed to do just fine for Big Wreck.
The album, released in late 1997 garnered the band three Top 10 singles — “The Oaf,” “That Song” and “Blown Wide Open” — in the United States and scored double platinum status in Canada with sales in the hundreds of thousands.
Twenty years and four albums later, Big Wreck can still dine out on the success of that debut album.
So it only makes sense that the band is now in the midst of a 35-date North American tour dedicated to the memory of “In Loving Memory of.” Ticket sales for the Feb. 10 date at Hamilton’s FirstOntario Concert Hall have stretched well into the theatre’s second balcony.
In a 20th anniversary tribute, the band is playing all 13 tracks from the album at every show, plus a some tracks off more recent albums like “Albatross,” “Ghosts” and the most recent “Grace Street,” released a year ago.
Big Wreck lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Ian Thornley is on the phone from his home in Toronto. He’s having some trouble with the opening question: “What made you call the band’s first album ‘In Loving Memory of ’?”
“At the time, it was probably because a lot of the songs were about one relationship in particular,” Thornley says. So it was a breakup album? “Oh yeah, all of those records were, most of my music tends to be,” Thornley says. “There’s always some sort of heartbreak somewhere in there.”
He talks about how the album title was both “wistful” and “bittersweet.” Finally, Thornley gets to the nub of the problem.
“I’ve never been one for titles, I’m terrible at it,” he declares. “Look at the band name, Big Wreck. It’s probably one of the worst band names around.”
Still, he admits that rehearsing the old songs has brought back a lot of fond memories.
Many of the songs, Thornley says, had their genesis during a summer in Portland, Maine. The band had come together at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where he and original members Brian Doherty (guitar), Forrest Williams (drums) and Dave Henning (bass) were attending school.
At one point Doherty left the band, frustrated with the lack of success, and Thornley, Wiliams and Henning ended up in the seaside city of Portland, looking for work as a rock trio during the tourist season.
“We were living in a motel and there was a bar that would let us play whenever there was an open spot during the week,” Thornley recalls. “I was writing a lot. The songs just started to come, thick and fast and easily. It was a real exciting time.”
When the band started getting invited to record label showcases, Doherty rejoined the group and Big Wreck found itself signed to Atlantic.
Although tracks like “The Oaf” have continued as part of the repertoire for both Big Wreck and Thornley’s solo efforts, some of the songs on “In Loving Memory of” had never been performed live until this tour.
“A song like ‘By the Way’ was technically challenging, there’s acoustics and then there’s a little drum loop and guitar feedback that carries the whole way through the song,” Thornley says. “I’ve always adored the song but could never wrap my head around how to do it.”
Thornley says the band — which now features co-founder Doherty with Hamilton’s Dave McMillan on bass and Chuck Keeping on drums — now has “amassed enough gear” to be able to perform songs like ‘By the Way’ live.
“We’re not going to do them in the same order as the record,” Thornley says. “But we will be doing every song on there.
“We’ve built the record into a set. And then we’ll take a little break and we’ll come back for a ‘longcore’ as we call it.”