The guitars might need some tuning, and the drums are probably a bit dusty. The voices will still croon like they used to, though.
On Saturday, the Grapes of Wrath will play a show at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino in Calgary. It’s the only concert the band has scheduled for 2016, and it’s their first since they played the Shell Theatre in Fort Saskatchewan in September of last year. The fact that they’re still playing is a minor miracle, yet one wonders what could have been.
In Canada in 1991, The Grapes of Wrath was no longer just the name of a John Steinbeck novel. No, it was the name of an alternative rock band from Kelowna, B.C. The band had just recorded their fourth full-length album, These Days, and two of the record’s singles charted higher than any song the band had previously had. They were signed to a major label and had sold out Toronto’s Massey Hall. The next year, the band split up. The original members wouldn’t record another album until 2013.
Vocalist Kevin Kane, and brothers Tom (vocals/guitar) and Chris Hooper (drums) were spent. “I think in general terms, we’d just been going, going, going and the band was getting more and more successful,” says Kane over the phone from Toronto. “But, people kind of prey on that.”
“That was a good year for us, 91-92, everything just kept getting better for us,” agrees Chris Hooper. “More radio play, kept playing bigger places, did a lot of touring, toured Europe again. But it was sort of falling apart at that time too, it was just too many tensions and I think it was definitely inevitable.”
The official story is that Kane left the band and the brothers Hooper added other members and continued recording material as Ginger. While Kane disputes that story – “we’ll leave that as the official story, but things are more complicated than that.” Kane himself went on to record two solo albums and recorded an album with Tom Hooper in 2000. However those albums didn’t come close to achieving the peaks that These Days registered.
Neither did 2013’s High Road, the record that marked the band’s reunion. “It was sort of awkward at the start, just sort of initiating it,” says Chris Hooper when asked about the process of getting back together. “We got an offer to do a show and they wanted the whole band back. We booked a rehearsal space and we all just went in and just started playing the songs and they weren’t any different than when we stopped. It was exactly the same actually.”
The sound may remain the same, but the fandom isn’t. Radio host Terry David Mulligan, who was producing MuchMusic West in 1991 remembers the peak of the Grapes’ success well. “Oh god, yeah, they were huge,” says Mulligan. “They were perfect for MuchMusic and for video, because they were good looking boys. One of the best videos ever done was ‘All the Things I Wasn’t.’”
Mulligan also remembers when the band broke up: “It was a severe disappointment. They had earned the respect of the business and they literally pissed it away.”
While the band is content with their current lives, it’s clear that they would welcome a return to the era of These Days.
“I’d go back and just enjoy the moment more,” says Hooper. “I think part of our problem is that we got so wrapped up with the business of the band.”
Kane would also do things a bit differently: “I’d be way more chill and I would have quit drinking way sooner.”