The Town Pants have turned a corner. The godfathers of “West Coast Celtic” are returning to VanCity hometown heroes after touring for four months in Europe and our neighbours to the south; with the titles of their recent album Shore Leave on their tongues and fresh air in their lungs as a result.
Founding member Aaron Chapman attributes this to the redemption felt by proving they can be just as tight in the studio as they have become known for on the stage.
“We were taking more chances, trying new things,” he says. “It’s nice to have the show translated so well onto an album”.
The sudden studio success and airplay has bolstered the band, not to mention the success abroad. Town Pants played to festival crowds of 10,000 people in upstate New York and generous and enthusiastic crowds in Denver and Texas
They also shared the stage with impromptu bar patrons in Sweden. Not just any bar patrons, but Iron Maiden themselves. The band stopped in as Town Pants were playing their set and were amused by a banjo interlude of The Number of the Beast and joined Pants on stage for an Irish number. The event stuck in the head of the band who then produced a Pants-y version of Run to the Hills on Shore Leave; a cover that is confidently theirs and widely embraced by the live audiences who have heard it.
This move highlights the easy going decision-making and effortless charm that wins over not only peers but crowds everywhere who see this band in action. There will be no better arena to celebrate this than the Commodore Ballroom for the continued St. Patrick’s Day/week celebrations (or as Chapman calls it “Irish Chanukah”) on Friday March 18th.
This will sum up a great run on the road and will also jump start work on their new album which they intend to turn their attentions to at the end of this tour. The direction of the new album: forward. Refreshed by the success of their recent studio effort, the band looks forward to taking further steps forward in the studio this time around.
“There are a lot of bad bands…in the folk/rock community who don’t take enough chances”, says Chapman. “We’ve always tried to push the walls”. If the crowd reaction to their tour is any indication, the audience will be more than interested in helping them do that.
