CHIXDIGGIT with BOIDS, SCHOOL DAMAGE and THE LORD ALMIGHTYS on Friday (September 23), and with THE PENSKE FILE, PLAN 37 and SERENITY NOW! on Saturday (September 24), at the Bovine Sex Club (542 Queen West), doors 9 pm. $15. ticketfly.com. See listing.
You wouldn’t know it by their youthful complexions and lithe onstage moves, but Canada’s greatest pop-punk band, Chixdiggit, are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. To commemorate the occasion, the Calgary quartet are playing select dates across Canada and releasing a new record, 2012, their first in five years. Frontman KJ Jansen recalls some notable moments from the band’s history.
The single most important event
I think the most important was English class in Grade 10 when I met [bassist] Mike Eggermont. [Guitarist] Mark O’Flaherty and I were already friends and up to stuff, and when Mike came along he didn’t really speak English and he dressed funny. We didn’t know it at the time but he was just what we needed for our little friend group. I don’t even know how he got into [our class] with his English because he was from Holland and could barely talk at the time.
The biggest bummer
There were a couple of tours where we had drivers or tour managers who wouldn’t stop when we needed to piss. That’s the first thing that popped into my mind, so it must be the worst. That’s why when we tour now, we drive ourselves, because if we’ve gotta piss or there is a castle we want to see, we stop.
The most awesome moment
There are too many to count, really, but I think it was when we first played a song together. That was when we thought, “Hey, we could play a show,” even though it was only one song. It was a song that never got released, and I can’t even remember the name of it, but it was bad. I’m sure there is a recording of it somewhere.
The funniest thing
Again, there are too many. A couple of stories came up at the 25th anniversary [show in Calgary], but then trying to tell them, I just sounded like my mom telling a story where at the end we say, ‘And we just laughed!’ You just had to be there kind of thing. There have always been funny guys in the band, which makes it easier. If you’re gonna sit in a van with somebody with stinky socks for six weeks, you don’t want it to be some dude who’s good at guitar but a total prick.
The worst embarrassment
I’ve fallen off the stage a couple of times and didn’t get hurt, which is worse. One time I did one of those things where I walked along a ledge with a microphone showing off and I fell on my balls. That was sort of early on, and I was really stung by that. I think I’m tempting fate by talking about this, so knock on wood.
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